The Akaroa Mail TUESDAY, MARCH 22, 1904 SUPPRESSION OF SMOKING.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume LIV, Issue 2858, 22 March 1904, Page 2

The Akaroa Mail TUESDAY, MARCH 22, 1904 SUPPRESSION OF SMOKING.

There was quite an outcry when it was proposed during last session to pass an Act preventing youths, under a certain age, indulging in smoking. Several opposers of the idea said that Parliament was taking parents' authority out of their hands altogether; that such a matter was one which should be regulated by youths' parents and guardians only. It was hinted that such an Act was an attack on the citizen's freedom. In spite of opposition the Act was passed, and it appears to us to be very reasonable in its demands. Tho limit of age is only fifteen, and if youths undor fifteen are in the habit of smoking, certainly it is time for the Govemmoiifc to sjt«?i!, jiji and put a stop to the practice. Presumably tlie 'intention of tbe Act is to take the place of such parents and guardians who would not attempt to prevent youths under fifteen smoking as much as they desired, whether it impaired their health or not. Those most jealous of interference with citizens' liberty cannot but admit that in our towns, especially the larger ones, it has been a very common thing to see groups of boys, all of them much below fifteen years of age, smoking round the street corners. Intemperance in drink is one of the momentous questions of the present day, and we fail to see why Government supervision of and interference of intemperance in smoking should be looked upon as a greater infringement of the public liberty. This " Juvenile Smoking Act," as it is called, is certainly moderate in its terms. A certificate from a medical practitioner enables a boy under fifteen to smoke as much as he needs, should smoking be beneficial to his health. It is often the case that boys, who are outgrowing thenstrength, are much benefitted by the use of a little tobacco, which helps to retard their growth. The youthful offender, who smokes while under age, is liable to a fine not exceeding 5s for every offence after the first conviction is recorded against him; but anyone found selling cigarettes, cigars or tobacco in any other form to a boy under fifteen is liable to a fine not exceeding .£lO. The burden, then, of the Act falls upon the unfortunate vendor who sells any smoking materials to youths under the prescribed age. This is done with the object of aiming at the root of the trouble by making tobacconists careful as to the sale of tobacco to children, and it is quite time that some obstacle was put in the way of young boys anxious to obtain cigarettes, for untold harm must have been caused in the past by the consumption of bad tobacco. It has been frequently pointed out that it is not the pure spirit that harms drinkers so much ; but the chemical rubbish which is sold them as spirit. The same is the case with smoking. Bad cigars and cigarettes are sold in numbers to boys under fifteen and causes them a great deal of injury. The unfortunate thing is that young boys are much more likely to content themselves with rubbish of this kind than their elders who would be les3 harmed by smoking bad tobact o. The Act forbids the imprisonment of any youth for a breach of this regulation, so that as the fine does not exceed ss, the punishment is a very light one s to the offending vendor of tcbacco, the Act does not specify whether he is liable to imprisonment or not. It is evident that this Act, mild as its terms are, is not to be a dead letter one, because one conviction has already been made in Christchurch. and it is sincerely to be hoped that the result will be ' that groups of boys under fifteen may | no longer be seen at the street corners \ smoking very indifferent cigarettes.