THE FRAGRANT WEED.

Auckland Star, Volume LII, Issue 279, 23 November 1921, Page 9

THE FRAGRANT WEED.

'To the Editor.) Sir, —All smokers possessed of only an average- income will heartily concur with the Hon. T. M. Gilford in describing the increased tobacco tax a= "outrageous."' I suppose that most of the Lfbera's in the House have condemned it, and that the remarks of the Labourite* on the subject aTe unprintable. Kver since the close of the war a big reduction in the price has been expected by lovers of the weed, but their wonderful patience has at last been rewarded by a further increase, which is the last straw. The tobacco trust has ■several times been allowed on one pretext another to advance the price, and now the tax, outrageously high as it was before the war. has been callously! raised instead of being reduced or abolished. The charge was cunningly increased step by step. Prior to 1014 the impost yielded a .sum not far short of ■the total land tax revenue. As the increase in land values amounted to £10,000.000 per annum (now something like £15,000,000), surely much moTe revenue should equitably have been derivea , from this ever-expanding source and a corresponding reduction made in the iniquitous tobacco tax. To tax the poor mac's tobacco is, I submit, a more heinous offence than taxing his beer. The only remedy in sight is for us to grow our own tobacco. Can any of your humane readers tell U3 how to cure the leaf? Not many years ago tobacco could be bought m the Channel Islands for one shilling a pound. The tobacco dealers must, therefore, be wallowing in profits, even after taking into consideration the augmented cost of production.—l am, etc., \ CUTTY.