TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 



637 



There is no better method of raising revenue tlian from the consumption of alco- 

 holic drinks. It is, however, true that much alcohol is used for most proper purposes, 

 as, for instance, in various manufactures, and even in consumption, wherever it is 

 beneficially used as a food or as a medicine. There is too great a tendency to mix 

 up v?ith this the temperance question ; and consequent discussion is usually far too 

 intemperate in character. There is no doubt that the calm scientific view tells us 

 a nation may consume much alcohol, and at the same time enjoy the highest moral 

 and material prosperity. It is not the use, but the abuse, of alcohol which destroys 

 both these phases of national prosperity. 



In these islands we spend 120,000,000/. sterling in the year on alcoholic drinks, 

 but no less than one quarter of this is a contribution to the general revenue. 



This source of revenue, however, is failing year by year (see table appended). 

 Mr. Gladstone tells us the only balance he can discover is that people are drinking 

 a little more tea and increasing greatly their habit of putting by savings. I wish 

 to put forward two further explanations ; (1) the great growth latterlj' in substitutes 

 for duty-paying drinks- — as of chicory for cofl'ee, starch for cocoa, and so forth; 

 (2) the enormous increa.se in recent years in the consumption of ' bottled waters.' 

 If we tax foods at all we should tax more especially those which are luxuries. 



In future years we shall probably continue to derive a considerable income from 

 the taxation of alcohol, but it will not be so large as that we now obtain. It does 

 not seem probable that this less income will be balanced by any absolutely eqiuva- 

 lent decrease in the crime and pauperism that become charges on the general revenue. 

 ^Ve shall have in some other way to obtain at all events some increase from other 

 sources to balance the larger part of this falling oil". 



2. On the Taxation of Alcohol. By Stephen Bourne, F.S.S. 



The large share which the taxes on alcohol have in producing the public 

 revenue— more than 30,000,000/. out of 86,000,000/., or thirty-tive" per cent.— 

 renders the subject attractive to the economist, the statesman, and the statistician. 

 At the present moment two circumstances combine to deepen this interest. The 

 one is the necessity for increased taxation to meet the expenditure upon warlike 

 operations, the other the change which is taking place in public opinion on the 

 subject of temperance and abstinence. The recent addition to the Income Tax for 

 the first purpose in the form of '3d. extra being deducted from the ensuing quarterly 

 or half-yearly payments, or l|f/. on the whole year's income — levied and spent 



