A Smoking Nation.

Auckland Star, Volume XXI, Issue 288, 6 December 1890, Page 4 (Supplement)

A Smoking Nation.

Nearly everybody, in Erance smokes, says the London correspondent of 'The Daily Telegraph.' Even ladies are nob averse to a daintily-perfumed cigarette. On every side the consumption of the weed ia increasing, notwithstanding the vile stuff palmed off upon the public by the Government Monopoly as the soothing balm of Havana and Virginia. During the past seventy-six years the State has profited by the sale o p tobacco to the extent of an average of something over £5,000,000 sterling per annum but during the last decade of this period the consumption much exceeded the previous years," and has steadily grown until now the revenue derived from tobacco reaches the very respectable total of nearly £16,000,000 ior the twelve months. It is reckoned that each head of the popu? lation consumes two pounds weight of tobacco per annum, and pays to the State for indulging in this luxury the sum of 6l 6d in what is called indirect taxation. The North smokes much more than the South. The Department of the Nord is credited with an average of per head, while the inhabitants of the" Lozere only Bm ° k " about Jib each. It is in cigarettes tha* the great increase has taken place. Cigar* and carottes, or twist tobacco, keep pretty «teady, cigarettes advance by leaps and bounds. On the obher hand, the caW of snuff is rapidly on th« decline.