The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-01-17
Britain Is Drinking More Tea Than Ever
And More Beer and Wines but a Good Deal Less Spirits
 Than of Old
PUBLIC -USES DECREASE
With Tea Drinking-Plight of the Brewers.

London, Jan.N S.-Tea drinking, Great Britair's national virtue or vice, ac- cording to how one views sthe practice, is increasing in these lands in spite of the fact that the price of tea is higher than it has been in more than a, decade.
 In the calendar year just ended duty was paid on 2s6, ,oOO, 900 pounds of tea. Statistics for the last four years show a steady increase in it's consumption.
 In 1908 the average yearly consump- ton a person in the entire popula ion was SIS pounds. This average was increased to 6.2S in 1909 and 6.S1 in 1910 while in 1911 it jumped to 6.53. Nine million more pounds of tea were inn ported into England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales in 1911 than in 1910, while the importations for 1911 exceeded and those of 1908 by about twenty-one million pounds The importations of 1911 established a high record level.
 The price Of tea in the British is1- the consumption. Indian teas were sold last year at an average wholesale price of nearly IS cents a pound. an in crease of one and one-tenth cents over 1910. Half a dozen years ago the av- craze wholesale price of Ceylon. teas was about IA 6-10 cents Ceylon teas in 1911 averaged IT 3-4 cents whole sale, the highest in IS years, an in. crease over the previous year of near ly one and four-tenths cents.
 Increased demand was not entirely responsible for the increased price. The strike of dock workers last summer had something to do with it. So had 8 shortage in the shipments from northern India in the first part of 1911. A drought in Ceylon and southern In dia added to the shortage of imports.
 A cause for the increase of tea inn portations is suggested in the fact that for several years there has been a de-
 
 in England and Wales and a decrease in the convictions for drunkenness Twenty-two years ago there were 10S,- 341. public houses licensed to sell li- Wales, an average of 8. .94 in 10000 of population. A new act, placed on the statute books in 1904, imposed strict CT red eS,llations for the granting of H. censes and established system of li- censes for selling liquors to be drunk away from the places where sold. This law was Followed by a decrease in the number of public houses. In 1910 the number Of houses for selling liquor on the premises (on licenses) had fallen to 92, ASA or 25.S4 in 10000 of population, ton off the premises (off lfcenses) were held by 24,438 p aces, or 6.S3 in 10000 of population, making an average of 2.67 in 10000 for both on licenses and off licens4s.
 Since 1903 the number of on licenses had decreased every year, amounting to 1,56I in 1910. For the ten years preceding the license act of 1904 the average annual on lcerse decrease was 3s6, while since 1904 the average de- crease to the beginning Of 1911 was about 1880. Off licenses have decreas- ed steadily from 124 in 1906 to 229 in 191o the figures representing the loss in those years. the total number of off licenses having been 25.2s1 in 1906 and 24,438 in 1910. There has been a still greater decrease since then.
 Since licensed clubs came in vogue under. a system of registration estab- lished in 1903. the number has increas- ed from 6,3T1 iTr 1904 to 7,536 in 1910. Clubs, while increasing are not in creasing in proportion to the decrease in the number of public houses.
 Tss average price paid for license in 1910 was $1,330. The, number of persons convicted of violating the li- uuor laws was S19, of these convictions f29 were for permitting drunkenness on the premises and selling liquor to drunken persons. The good resulting from rigid enforcement of the law is shown In the fact that in 1903 the convictions for permitting drunken ness on the premises and selling liquor to drunken persons numbered 1900. There has been decrease in every succeeding year since then, due to bet ter observance of the law.
 Tn 1910 there were 161, ,992 convictions in the courts for drunkenness, a de