The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1881-05-28
PACIFIC
National Drink Bills.

Great Britain, that a much closer estimate Of the
annual consumption of intoxicating liquors can
be obtained there than is possible in most coun-
tries. Although the past few years have been
unurospsrous and people have had economy
forced upon them, the drink bill OF the
United Kingdom for 1880 reached the enormou
total Of EI22, 279 ,275, or say S6ll 400, 900.
This is the expenditure under pressure of bad
times in 1876 when things were still prosperous
it was 1925 600, 900 more. The correspondent
who furnishes these figures to the Times accom-
panies them by a very ingenious comparison,
calculated to arrest the attention of all readers.
The object of his letter was to illustrate the vast
importance of the subject he wrote about. He
points to the absorption of the time of the British
Parliament, and the attention Of the public, in
connection with the Irish Land question, and the
neglect Of the =. drink question, and endeayors
to show that the latter il really of greater magni-
tude than the other.
. Let Us look, he says, at one feature of
the land question and the liquor question. In
Great Britain according to Mr.. Card the average
rent Of agricultural land is estimated at 30s. per
acre. In Ireland from returns which are issued
BY the II appears TO be about lbs.
per acre. In Great Britain there are 30, 101, 900
~ ~ aANNA AAAAT AAN a. W
givcs S4S, 1921 63 in Ireland Il, 357 $50 acres,
which ut I5s. gives IL ,5lS, 392 giving a total of
E59,G7I 25j. Comparing these figures with the
total Of the drink bill II Will be seen that even
with the reductions which have taken place
during the last three or four years in our drink
bill. il vet more than doubled the entire rental
Of all the agricultural land in the United King
IDm. In Ireland which Is almost wholly agri-
cultural, and where so much deplorable destitu-
ton exists, the rental Of the land amounts TO
Gil .jIS, 1872 but during the ten years ending
1879 the people Of Ireland spent on an average
10. S23, lO2 each year in intoxicating liquors, or
e. O7. 30 lsay ST., 536, 05O,) more than the
entire land rental of the country. This takes no
cDgnizance of the indirect lossess resulting from
drinking. 1t will need no superior intellect 10
see that If a reduction of the rent burden would
prove 80 highly beneficial, even greater would
be the benefits which would result from the
abolition of the drink burden, and il shows too
how contrary to reason 1t is that the House of
Commons should devote so much time to the
lesser question, and none to that which is so
very much greater
Without criticising the logic of the final
conclusion arrived ut by this writer we are
bound to say that the illustration of one of the
evils Of our drinking customs is as ingenious and
startling as it is novel.
1t is nst easy to arrive with any exactitude at
the amount of the Hawaiian " drink bill" The
values ueCldTcu u nc llnlc VI III I'LL pOEldllOu OF
wines, beer, and spirits, ETC.. brought into this
port in 1880, amount to S13l PIG. This includes
an average proportion of what appears as ''charges
on invoices in the Customs Returns. If we
add to this the amount of duties paid, $3.50, ITO,
we find the wholesale value of imported liquors
duty paid to be S287 1889. The goods taken out
of bond during the year, and those imported
were not exactly identical, but these figures
must approximate closely to the truth. There
were also some importations at Kahului and
Hilo, bat the returns for these ports do not
distinguish between liquors and other goods.
We may, however, venture to estimate the
imports there at an amount sufficient to bring up
the total drink bill to $500 900 for 1880. We
have not the means of comparing this with the
annual rent of land IN the Kingdom. But certain
figures are available which are verify of consi-
deration. Last year the Finance Minister esti-
mated the revenue to be obtained from the land
tax for the biennial period lSS0-82 at Sl25 900.
As this tax is levied at the rate of of one per
cent. per annum, such an estimate presupposes a
valuation of the real estate of the Kingdom at
IS. 333, 300. We have nothing to assist US to
seuarate the agricultural land from this, so as
TO estimate IIOm ~ 5iOSS hdANC Ia lS duuudl
rental may probably be. But comparing this
gross assessed value with our estimate Of the
- drink BILL we find that the latter amounts TO
RI per cent. on the whole value of the landed
estate of the Kingdom And this in a country
in which the major portion Of the population are
forbidden to drink at all
The Times concludes the article in which it
discusses the letter we have quoted from, with
some iorcible, and only too truthful remarks,
which are as applicable to other countries as to
that IN which they were written-to our OWL
amono the rest. We cannot more suitably
conclude this article than by quoting them.
With regard to the main question, the national
drink bill. and the prevalence of excessive and
avtrnyagant drinking, unnecessary If not worse,
eysry Englishman must feel sore and anxious
oL,Tt II. Drinking battles us, confounds us,
thames rs. and mOcks us at every point. It out
wits alike the teacher, the man of business, the
r,triot. and the legislator. Every other institu-
,i,rs founders in hopeless difficulties; the pub
iicLouse holds its triumphant course. The adj
illustrators of public and private charity are
told that aims and oblations go with rates, doles,
and pensions to the all-absorbing bar of the
publichouse. But the worst remains. Not a
-a,r masses in either town or village without
some unexpected and hideous scandal, the out
rnme OF habitual indulgence, often small and
innocent III its origin. Some poor creature,
long and deservedly high in the respect, perhaps
reverence. of the nelghborhOod, makes a sudden
sbinwreck of character. Under the accumu-
Iafino influence of alcohol, aggravated, perhaps,
bv other still more powerful. still more treacher-
c,s AGENCIES. the honest man turns knave, the
respectable man suddenly loses principle and
seIf-respect. the wise man IS utterly foolish, the
rioidlv moral man forgets his mask and his code
and takes q plunge into hbertinlsm. 1t then
turns out. what possibly some have suspected,
that drink is at the bottom OF 1t, and that some
moor wife or other friend has long been doing
the best that could be done to check, to cure
and At all events to hide, till the truth would be
mt OF course. on such occasions, rivals and
competitors in the race OF life are not to be
denied their paltry triumph. 1t would be much
more to the purpose to take the warning, and do
something towards staying the huge mischief
which, in one way or another, confounds US all,
and may, for we cannot be sure crush, and ruin
any one of US,
The p. c. Advertiser office has just nm
ished the printing of 500 copies of Bible
stories for the Gilbert Archipelago Mission.
The work is gotten up by the Hawaiian
Board of Missions, and translated into the
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