Si 



stability depended on production being strengthened. They must 

 economize in one direction and increase production in the other. 

 He thanked the members of the Conference for attending. 



Mr. De Castella's motion was put to the meeting, and carried 

 unanimously. 



Dr. Mueller read the following paper " On the Necessity of 

 greater Uniformity in the Alcoholic Strength of our Wines, and 

 of the greatest possible reduction of the latter": — 



Mr Chairman and Gentlemen. 



I claim no authoritativeness for the few short remarks I am 

 about to submit to you. You must take them for what they are 

 "worth, though I may be pardoned in saying that they are the 

 result of more than 30 years of active connexion with our industry. 

 You will all agree with me that next to producing good and 

 wholesome wines we must aim at making these wines the popular 

 beverage of the Australian people, and by adapting them to the 

 tastes of European wine drinkers, which tastes have been formed 

 by European wines ; we must gradually build up an export trade 

 to Europe and to other countries where European wines are 

 drunk. Whilst these propositions will have your concurrence, I 

 am not quite so sure of your agreeing with me when I say that the 

 principal obstacle in the way of our attaining these objects is the 

 want of uniformity in our wines, and their unnecessary alcoholie 

 strength. There are of course exceptions, but throughout 

 Victoria north of the Dividing Eange as well as New South Wales 

 ^nd South Australia the so-called light wines contain far too 

 much alcohol, and this is one of the principal reasons why they are 

 not more generally consumed. A man who wants to quench his 

 thirst on a hot summer day or raise his drooping spirits with a 

 pint of wine, than which he could not drink anything more 

 effective and wholesome if of the right sort, will not venture on a 

 second pint, if after the first he experienced dulness and heavi- 

 ness in the head, and finally an irresistible desire for a nap under 

 the first shady gum tree. This, I feel sure, would be the 

 effect of that first pint in nine cases out of ten, whereas of a wina 

 such as our people want a man ought to be able to take a bottle 

 and go on his wuy rejoicing. Alcohol, always an evil when 

 taken in excess, becomes doubly so in a hot climate, and we should 

 therefore as a matter of conscience offer as little of it as we can in 

 the light wines intended for ordinary daily use as an article of diet, 

 and even in our liqueur wines — our sherries and ports — dispense 

 it as sparingly as we can. In doing this we not only benefit our- 

 selves by increasing the consumption of our wines in Australia, 



