HC Deb 10 April 1905 vol 144 cc1051-3

The fact seems to be that we are witnessing a change in the habits of the people of which we shall have to take account in any consideration of our financial system. I do not refer merely to the growth of a public opinion throughout all classes of the community which condemns drunkenness as disgraceful and disgusting. The prosperity of the trade and the revenue derived from it never have depended, and never will depend, upon the drunkard. But I think that the mass of our people are beginning to find other ways of expending some portion of the time and money which used previously to be spent in the public-house. No change has been more remarkable in the habits of the people than the growing attendances in the last fifteen years at outdoor games and sports and at places of public entertainment, like the theatres and the music-halls, which, though not conducted on strictly temperance lines, yet do not lend themselves to the consumption of drink, or offer that as their chief attraction. Again, the extension of cheap railway fares and the enormous growth of cheap excursions, which are so marked a feature in the holidays of the present time, absorb a further portion of the money that used formerly to be expended on drink. I am inclined to believe that the progress of temperance owes more to the operation of these causes than to any measures, however desirable in themselves, which this House has seen fit to take. I think it will interest the Committee to hear some extracts from a report on this subject which I have received from an Inland Revenue supervisor of experience stationed at Leeds. He says— There are seventy-one brewers in this district, and at least sixty of these are publicans or beer retailers. It is the general opinion that a wave of sobriety is passing over the country, and the working and middle classes, instead of spending their holidays in the public-house, take advantage of the cheap excursion trains and cheap tramway fares, while in the evening they visit the music-halls or other places of amusement. Many publicans attribute their falling receipts entirely to the latter cause, and to the extension of the custom of giving two nightly performances. To verify certain statements, I visited several public houses on the August Bank Holiday, and I found them practically empty. I visited the railway station and found that every excursion train was packed, and that the departing trains with their heavy loads appeared to have no visible effect on the crowds on the platform, owing to the steady influx of holiday makers. There was no indication of the want of money so long as it was required for pleasure or amusement.

He goes on to say that on the August Bank Holiday one of the largest publicans in the district went holiday-making to a seaside resort, and called upon a friend in the same trade. They went for a walk on the promenade, and the visitor, struck by the enormous crowds, suggested to his friend that trade must be very brisk. The local publican denied it, and, pointing to the people on the beach and their packets of provisions, said: "Look at them! they bring their nosebags with them. They spend nothing here except for admission to the pier or tower; all their money has gone in railway fares." The supervisor from whom I am quoting states that similar reports reach him from other places, and adds— I am convinced that the revenue from beer and spirits has reached the high-water mark and is falling, and will continue to do so. Any increase of wages in the future will be expended in pleasure and amusement, and not on drink.

That conclusion is expressed in terms more absolute than I should be inclined to adopt. I do not doubt that with reviving prosperity our revenue from this source may regain some measure of its old elasticity; but I do not think that we can count upon it in future to bear so large a proportion of our expenditure as it has borne in the past. That is a factor with which we shall have to count. It is a change which may bring unmixed satisfaction to nearly every Member of the House except the Chancellor of the Exchequer, but it leaves a gap in our financial system which we shall have to find other means of filling.