Morning journal and courier., 1882-03-30
A RIG DRINK RILJ.


 Mr. Thomas Hoyle has done much to set clearly before the English people the inn mense cost of the intoxicating liquors used in the United Kingdom. Re has just sent to the London Times his annual analysis of England's drink bill It contains some start | ling figures For instance, the total amount | spent for rum, etc, in 1881 was SG35, 372, = 300, a sum apparently larger by S23, ,975, 925 than the outlay of the preceding year. The consumption of beer was 97O, 788, 56+ gal Ions, an apparent increase of 73 per cent. over 1880, at a cost of $364, ,O45, ,71O. There was very small increase, less than one per cent, of Britisk spirits consumed, while the l decrease in foreign spirits and wine was l somewhat larger than this. It appears then, 1 that whatever increase there has been was in | the consumption of beer. But it is pointed out that as to malt liquors Mir. Hoyle's fig ures are misleading Owing to a change in 1 the method of taxation the apparent amount I of malt liquors brewed is increased, the diff ference being put by Mir. ;Ioyle. whose ob- ] ject always is to reprove the people for their extravaganza in the consumption of liquor, at fully one-eleventh of the whole. Making the correction rendered necessary by these facts it appears that the increased cost of drink in 1881, still wholly in beer, was only four -fifths of one per cent.
 Mir. Hoyle says that during the last ten years the British liquor expenditure has been $7, 18O, 1000, 900, or nearly twice the amount of the national debt of Great Britain. This statement dOas not includa the indiract IOSSaS and costs growing out of drinking habits, which are necessarily large Considering the amount actually paid out for liquors in the United Kingdom each year, it is found to exceed the gross rental of all the houses and of all the agricultural land. These revenues of houses and land combined reach the esti- mated sum of $675, 1000, 900, or SC, 800, GOO less than the drink bill for the same twelve months. Mir. Hoyle suggests that while the cry is Reduce rents and bring in prosperity, it would be well also to think of reducing the enormous expenditure for liquors. He furnishes statistics which show the develop ment in pauperism, insanity and convictions for crime in the United Kingdom. Twenty years ago the convictions averaged 259, OH yearly. and for the three years ending in 1880 the average was more than double that number, being 52O, ,G28. Twice tie number of lunatics and twice the number of vagrants are reported for the same period ending in 18So as compared with the three years ending ia 1861. The largest sums ever paid in the kingdom for poor rates and po- lice rates were those expended in the year 1880.
 Mir. Hoyle finds crumb of comfort in the fact that the increase of trade and the en- larged prosperity of the past year has not been followed by great increase in the con sumption of liquors. Steadier and more lib eral wages, and as result freer drinking, has been the experience repeated in communities and in the kingdom at large. This was not the case during the past twelve months, though one hundred and eighty thousand public houses, duly licensed, were open in Great Britain.