Difficulty of Securing Reliable Data (Extract from Mr. H. G. Edwardes' Report from Washington, November 4th, 1889).^*

"I should have been glad had I been able to report more directly on the practical working of the Liquor Laws in this country, that being the point to which much importance is evidently attached in His Lordship's despatch; but Her Majesty's consular officers have been, with a very few exceptions, unable to supply me with reliable data which might show the results, successful or otherwise, of the several kinds of legislation adopted with the view to the promotion of temperance, such data being almost entirely unobtainable. Any opinion on this point must be arrived at from hearsay and an appreciation of surrounding circumstances."