CUT TOBACCO PRICES.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 266, 9 November 1928, Page 6

CUT TOBACCO PRICES.

Tliere are a large number of tobacconists in this city and throughout the Dominion who have bought properties and established businesses for the purpose of selling tobacco, haircutting—the good old-fashioned man's kind— and other sundry lines, who to-day are being forced out of business because grocery and fancy goods stores have made tobacco an advertising line, relying on the profit made on other lines sold to get back the money they have invested in tobacco. They are content to sell "smokes" without profit. Do we smokers get the benefit? To a certain extent we do, but we pay it back with the bit added on other lines. Should we help to build up big businesses to ruin the tobacconist? Personally I think not. To me it appears very unfair trading. The law does not allow the tobacconist to sell butter as a catch line. There is, however, nothing to prevent him selling sardines, but this would serve no useful purpose. Government interference in business is no good. What we want is a determination among the public to support the legitimate traders. There can only be one end to this kind of trading—disaster. The workman who cuts his union wage is termed by his fellow workers a "black leg" and gets no sympathy' or support; the bricklayer who takes a joo as a gardener is considered of no account. The merchant who sells his fellow merchants' lines at or below cost as an advertisement, as • catch line, should not be supported. Why does not the grocer cut your hair free, or the tailor supply you with a pound of steak? SMOKE-OH.