LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
THE GOTHENBURG LICENSING SYSTEM. [To THE EDITOR OF THE " EVECTATOR,"] SIR,—I see, in the Spectator of December 31st, a letter from Mr. Reginald Lucas directing attention to what he considers a discrepancy between the figures which appear in my report on the results of this system and those in the report issued by the Foreign Office in 1890. The former, Mr. Lucas admits, he has not seen, and I should take it as a favour if you would be so good as to direct and post the enclosed copy to him.
My figures were obtained from the highest official sources in Gothenburg, and Mr. Lucas will find, on comparison, that there is no material discrepancy whatever. Where I differ from the Foreign Office report is, as I have pointed out in my report, that the former is misleading in that it is not made clear that the figures of consumption relate exclusively to the spirits sold on the premises of the Licensing Company, and thus form no criterion of the total consumption.
As to whether the police have or have not become more strict in the performance of their duties is a question of fact. I was quite unable to obtain any evidence that they had altered in this respect, and Sir F. Plunkett's remark is apparently nothing more than a mere suggestion.
With regard to Sir F. Plunkett's deductions from the figures given, I should like to point out—(1), that any diminu- tion in the figures relating to consumption per head of the population only shows a falling-off in the Company's business, as will be gathered from my explanation above ; (2), that, in reference to the number of convictions for drunkenness, a cal- culation, based on the statistics up to 1891 and part of 1892, must convince any one that there is not a diminution under this head, but an increase ; (3), that the number of reported -occurrences of delirium tremens, no doubt, has been reduced. To this fact, however, I attach little importance, as informa- tion on the subject must, for obvious reasons, be unreliable.— 6 Victoria Street, Westminster, January 3rd.
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