TOBACCO DUTY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 22 October 1924, Page 10

TOBACCO DUTY.

A FENNY REDUCTION. ON TWO OUNCE TIN. A reduction of one penny per two ounce tin in the retail price of pipe tobaccos is anticipated by Auckland tobacconists, as. a. result of the reducr tiori. in the Customs duty on imported cut and plug tobaccos which it is proposed shall come into effect on January 17 of next year. These proposed Customs reductions on imported cut tobacco (not including tobacco suitable for cigarettes), and on uncut plug tobacco, amount to 8d per lb., while an equal reduction' is proposed: in the case of similar tobaccos manufactured in New Zealand. The general opinion of the, trade in . Auckland is that; .these reductions will he passed on' to the consuming public.' This will mean . that pine tobaccos will "be id per ounce cheaper, or one penny less per two ounce tin, than at present charged. Certain lines of tobacco are sold in one dunce lots, but there seems some doubt as to whether it will be possible to make a halfpenny reduction on these sales; the other alternative would be to give the customer the benefit of a penny rcducjtion. I One tobacconist stated that on an. [average a pipe smoker used three two-ounce tins of tobacco, a week, so that the savings would he 3d a week. Although a lingo business is done in the sale of cigarettes and cigarette Tobacco, no reduction is proposed on these lines. It was suggested by a retailer that these smokers were entitled to some concession, and he showed that- the duty being passed on to them was fairly considerable. For instance, a working man who for economic, .reasons was in the habit of rolling his own cigarettes, paid his share of the duty of 10s 6d. a pound imposed on this tobacco, lire duty on ready-made cigarettes was 25s 6(1 a thousand when that quantity, wc’ghed 21b to 2Ub. . hut when a" thousand ; .cigarettes .weighed 2lh 9ojs or over a duty at the,, rate of TOs 6rl a pound was levied. " t