"This patriotic action of Dr. Walsh has had a decided effect upon the celebration of St. Patrick's day," continued Mr. Wigham, "and it is now more of a religious festival than an occasion for carousing. Several other bishops have taken the same stand with similar results. "The labor party has also taken an advanced position in favor of temperance legislation," continued Mr. Wigham. "At the annual meeting of the labor unions last year a resolution was adopted in favor of local option. The resolutions declare that 'the liquor traffic is a frightful source of poverty, crime, and lunacy,' and demand a law 'giving the inhabitants of every locality the right to veto any applications for either the renewal of existing licenses or the granting of new ones, seeing that public houses are generally situated in thickly populated working class districts.' "The vote on the adoption of this resolution was 666,000 against 103,000. "The local option bill now pending before parliament applies to England only," continued Mr. Wigham. "It does not affect Ireland, but we expect to see the passage of a law prohibiting liquor to be taken from the premises on which it is sold and also forbidding a man to use the wages of his wife and children or to pawn the property of his family for drink." "What is the drink bill of Ireland?" I asked, and in reply Mr. Wigham gave me the following table showing the total expenditure and the _per capita_ expenditure of the people of Ireland for liquor annually for the last six years: Total. Per capita. 1902 £14,257,751 £3 4s 5d 1903 14,311,034 3 4s 10d 1904 13,816,318 3 2s 10d 1905 13,340,472 3 0s 10d 1906 13,787,970 3 2s 10d 1907 13,991,314 3 3s 10d The consumption of liquors in Ireland last year was as follows: Distilled spirits (gallons) 2,391,595 Beer (barrels) 4,574,263 Wine (gallons) 92,465 Other liquors (gallons) 25,000 --------- Total 7,083,323 Average gallons per capita 1,614 "The people of Ireland are drinking less spirits," continued Mr. Wigham, "and more beer. Ten years ago, for example, they consumed 4,713,178 gallons of spirits, which has been reduced to 2,391,595. During the same time the consumption of beer has increased from 2,903,915 barrels to 4,574,263 barrels.