Evening journal., 1889-07-09
Drinhlng in Australia.

For some time after landed had the
impression that as beer is the national
drink OF England, whisky of Scotland,
and VINE OF France, tea was the national
drink OF Australia. Tea made its appear
ance at the most unexpected times-at
lunch and dinner as we'll as at breakfast.
In the stories which people told me about
their travels through the bush, the
'oilly IN which they boiled their water
Tor tea had conspicuous place. And the
government returns show that the con
} sumption OF tea PEI head in the Aus
tralian colonies is 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 1874 is
said to have been ~ in every thousand
and 1t had sunk in 1885 to 6.7 in the
thousand. In Victoria-which claims to
be the soberest of the colonies, though
the claim is contested by New South
Wales-the average proportion of persons
summarily convicted for this offense dur
ing the ten years TO 1856 was $50 in
the thousand. The arrests for drunken
ness in 1885, according to Mr.. Coghlan
were % in the thousand in New South
| Wales as against only 11.6 in the thou
sand in Victoria. But too much import
ance must not be attached to these
figures. 1t is probable that the admins
| tration of the law differs in different colo
MES as it differs in different English mu-
| inequalities. In one town a policeman
will put drunken man into a cab or
walk home with him, and in another will
take him straight to the lock up. Where
| the temperance party is strong they may
insist that the law shall be rigidly ad
ministered and there will be a large
number Of arrests; where they are weak
the administration of the law NAV be
more lax and the arrests will be compare.
lively few. Nor is the quantity of alco-
holic liquor consumed per head safe in.
dication of the amount of drunkenness in
a community; liquors of the same alco.
holic strength differ greatly in their in.
toxicating power. And the Australian
authorities do not seem to have succeeded
in finding a satisfactory common equiva.
lent for the different kinds of alcoholic
drinks. Mr. Hayter calculates that,
while in the United Kingdom the average
annual consumption per head is equiva.
lent to 81. IL gallons of beer, the average
annual consumption in New South Wales
is equivalent to $500 gallons per head,
and in Victoria to only 80 SO gallons. Mr..
Coghlan reverses the positions of the two
rival colonies, and credits the people OF
Victoria with drinking on the average
what is equivalent to 80 gallons of alco.
hol proof, while the people of New
South Wales drink only 1923 gallons
The two statisticians 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 conclu
sion that larger proportion Of persons
are total abstainers in Australia than il
England; that, If people drink at all
moderate drinking is rather more difficult
in the Australian climate than in ours
that the laborers living in towns are il
the habit of drinking freely; that larg,
number of men living up country usual,
drink tea, but that when they come int
the towns many of them drink yer,
heavily. The Contemporary Review.