A DRINK CENSUS

Inangahua Times, Volume VII, Issue 1095, 2 June 1882, Page 2

A DRINK CENSUS

A very striking census has been published by the Western Daily Press showing the number of persons who entered all the public-houses in Bristol on a recent Saturday evening between 7 and 11. The number was 104,000, and comprised 54,000 men, 36,000 women, and 19,000 children. A Sunday evening worship census, taken by the same* journal a few weeks ago, showed that about 60,000 persons were present in the churches andohapels of thit place. Theseare very suggestive facts. They are certainly not creditable ones. Whatever may be said for taking a regulated amount of alcohol, it is certain, that a publichouse is the worst place in which to take it There is absolute unanimity amongst medical men in thinking that spirits, beer, or wine should not be taken except with food, and that the money spent on alcohol put into any empty stomach would be better thrown into the nearest river. There are two other reflections that occur to us. One is the appalling number of women and children involved. The other is the amount of substantial food which might have been purchased by the money spent by the 104,000 persons in publichouscs. We leave the moral aspects of the drink census to the ministers and the public of Bristol.