Morning journal and courier., 1889-08-05
DRINKING IN AUsTRALIA.
Some Curious Facts shown by Recon
Statistics on This subject.

Statistics on This Subject.
[Frora the Contemporary Reviewl
~sFor some time after landed I had the
impression that, as beer is the national drink
Of England, whiskey of Scotland and wine
of France, tea was the national drink of
Australia. Tea made Its appearance at the
most unexpected times-at lunch and dinner
as well as at breakfast. In the stories which
people told me about their travels through
the bush, the chilly" in which they boiled
their water for tea had conspicuous place.
And the government returns show that the
consumption of tea per head In the Austria
ian colonies ia much larger than in England.
But the number of persons annually fined
for drunkenness In the colonies is much
higher than in England. In England the
proportion for 1854 Is said to have been
~ in every thousand, and it had sunk In
1885 to 67 in the thousand. In Victoria
which claims to be the soberest of the Colo
nies, though the claim IL contested by New
South Wales-the average proportion of per-
SONS eummarily convicted for this offence
during the ten years to 1866 was 8.6 in
the Thousand.
The arrests for drunkenness in 1885, ac-
cording to Mr.. Coghlan, were twerty-seven
in the thousand in New South Wales as
against only 11.6 in the thousand in Victo
ria. Bat too much Importance must not be
attached to these figures. 1t is probable
that tie administration of the law differs in
different colonies as 1t differs in different
English municipalities. In one town a po-
liceman will put g drunken man into a cab
| or walk home with him, and in another will
| take him straight to the lookup. Where
| the temperance party is strong they may in
sia that fba Law shall ha rfofG1u Cd otpio
| tered, and there will be large number of
| arrests; where they are weak the administra-
| tion of the law may be more lax and the ar
rests will be comparatively few. Nor is the
| quantity of alcoholic liquor consumed here
| per head a safe indication of the amount OF
drunkenness in community; liquors of the
| same alcoholic strength differ greatly In theil
intoxicating power And the Australian au-
thorities do not seem to have succeeded in
finding satisfactory common equivalent for
the different kinds of alcoholic drinks.
| Mr.. Hayter calculates that, while in the
United Kingdom the average annual con-
| sumption per head il equivalent to 37.11
gallons of beer, the average annual con-
| sumption in New South Wales is equivalent
to 50. so gallons per head, and in Victoria to
| only Sass gallons. Mr.. Coghlan reverses
| the positions of the two rival colonies, and
credits the people of Victoria with drinking
l on the average what is equivalent to $50
| gallons of alcohol (proef. while the people
| of New South Wales drink only 3.23 gallons.
! The two ssatistieians differ, even as to the
| average annual consumption per head Of
beer, wine and spirits in the two colonies.
From what heard came to the conclusion
that larger proportion of persons are total
abstainsrs in Australia than In England;
| that, if people drink at ali, moderate drink
| ing is rather more difficult in the Australian
| climate than in ours that the laborers living
in towns are in the habit of drinking freely
| that large number of men living up coun-
| try usually drink tea, but that when they
come into the towns many of them drink
very heavily.