928 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION G. 
preservatives, and bring into a sort of drinkable condition wines in 
various stages of decay) search the cellars just prior to vintage, 
when the owners are at their wits’ end for cask and cellar accom- 
modation, and buy at ridiculously low rates. Buyers for export 
compete with the large wine- distributing houses for good wine, 
but as the demand within the Colony exceeds the supply of good 
wines, wine merchants offer better prices than an export firm can 
afford. The Corowa district has, of late, benefited in particular 
from the increased demand for wines, so valuable for blending, 
and old stocks have been entirely cleared. 
EDUCATING THE PUBLIC TASTE. 
The use of the wines of the Colony as a beverage has increased 
of late years, chiefly by the leading houses supplying reliable 
qualities. The ‘“ baby” bottle and the city restaurant. have 
educated a taste for the consumption of wines of the claret type 
at meals, and the palate has learnt to appreciate the natural and 
indispensible acidity which not only promotes digestion but slakes . 
the thirst. A habit once formed continues, and he who takes 
wine at lunch in the city introduces it into his home in the 
suburbs, and thus it comes to pass that a sure but steady growth 
characterises the local distributing trade. The conversion of the 
whole of our population into wine drinkers is, however, a problem 
not likely to be realised. Colonial beer has too strong a hold 
amongst the lower sections of society to be ousted by wine, 
although there can be no comparison between wine in which fer- 
mentation has run its course and an unstable beer which too 
frequently is in a rapid state of decay. <A beer retailed at 2s. 
per gallon (3d. per pint), and containing 8 per cent. of proof 
spirit, compares with a light wine of 16 per cent. proof sold at 
6d. per pint, but the Saxon has an inherited taste for beer, just 
as the Latin has for wine. The entry of Sydney-made lager bier 
will, doubtless, chiefly affect the imported beers, and possibly 
check the rapid increase of the consumption of Australian wines 
at restaurants, but it is not likely to seriously interfere with the 
established wine-drinkers. If anything, the competition of 
Sydney lager bier will serve to keep up the qualities of the wines 
placed on the local market. The taste for the wines of the 
Colony has grown in spite of the doctored rubbish and cheap stuff 
that has all along been forced down the throats of the public. 
Tt is the merits of good wines that have extended the local trade, 
and were it possible to impress upon the palate of the public a 
standard for quality, the appreciation of the good wines of N. 
S. Wales would still further increase. The Great Exhibition 
in London of 1851 established the reputation of Burton bitter 
beer, hitherto scarcely known, as the standard beverage of the 
