ON COLONIAL WINES. 281 
in 1862, to £64,766 in 1871, is clearly to bo traced to 
the manufacture of wines forced upon us by the exten- 
sion of our vineyards, and to a change in the drinking 
habits and tastes of our people. Our import of wines 
of all kinds in 1871 was 188,150 gallons, against 
G29,219 gallonsof colonial manufacture, which increased 
to 713,589 gallons in 1872." The italics are mine, and 
I am delighted at seeing these statistics. They are all 
in favour of health and sobriety. What is now to be 
desiderated is the utter expulsion of bad brandy and 
worse "square gin," and one or two other "evil spirits" 
—which, let us hope, time will soon effect, and substi- 
tute in their place both a taste for, and the needful 
supply of, wine brandy. Wine brandy does not ordi- 
narily create any craving for it, but all this raw 
manufactured stuff does. 
In an essay read before the Koyal Society of Victoria 
in 1867, I said Experience has long ago convinced 
me that pledges and resolutions to abstain from ardent 
spirits are but < poor safeguards of unstable virtue ; ' 
and that, to effect a lasting cure, the natural instincts 
must be not violently assaulted with resolves, but 
steadily and gently turned towards sources of reason- 
able and healthy gratification, while the danger of 
excess is effectually removed." 
Am I wrong in thinking now that our pure native 
wines are doing their share in effecting a change in the 
drinking habits and tastes of our people f 
The following is a list of a portion of the Victorian 
wines, sent to the Exhibition just closed in Melbourne, 
and left with me for further study and report, which 
have been already distilled, and their spirit strength, 
according to Sykes's tables, determined by me. They 
