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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 74

No Profit in Revenue from Liquor

No Profit in Revenue from Liquor.

Rev E. Walker, speaking some time since at Oamaru about local revenue in the event of Prohibition being carried said, the Drink Bill of the Colony was at the rate of £3 per head of the population, and, taking Oamaru as a fair average place, that [unclear: ant] £18,000 a year for its population of 6,000 so that to" get £450 in license fees, the locality impoverished itself to the [unclear: tent] of £18,000, much of which went out of the district to distant, spirit merchants, browers, &c, It would pay better to stop the waste of £18,000 and let that amount go into the useful trades and industries of the district, and then pay the £450 out of the increased local prosperity. It was dear financing to throw away £18,000 because someone offered you £450 to do it. Then as to national revenue if national Prohibition were carried, a high political authority had told him that he estimated that the increased demand for other dutiable goods would at once make up a, half of the loss, leaving at the outset only £220,000 to be made up. A ½d. a pound on sugar last year realised over £128,000. so that Id on sugar alone would yield £36,000 in excess of the amount required to make up the loss, and the increased prosperity that would follow upon saving £2,000,000 from Drink would put into everybody's pocket a good deal more than the extra penny to pay it with, and sugar would still be cheap. Of course he did not say it should be put on sugar, but that it should not; it could easily be spread thinly over a number of mere luxuries; this was only an Illustration to allow that the loss of revenue created no real practical difficulty. Again, it was bad financing to waste two millions of money because somebody offered you something less than a quarter of a million to do it. Under an Income tax from which salaries of £200 were exempt he supposed most of them would rather have a salary of £210 and pay 30s. Income Tax than have only £200 and pay no tax. The Drink waste saved would boom their local trade and Industries and improve wages by increasing the demand for labour

Oamaru Mail,