AMERICA’S CIGARETTE BILL.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 12 May 1925, Page 2

AMERICA’S CIGARETTE BILL.

SEVENTY-ONE BILLIONS SMOKED

A YEAR

“Expansion in cigarette output since 1910 lias l>ut few parallels in the industrial world,” say s the Commerce Monthly. “Production in that year was 8.7 billion cigarettes. The average for 1910-14 was about 13 billion, and there has since been a steady annual increase to approximately 71 billion in 1924.' This branch of the industry prohablv now requires more leaf tohaco than any other. Demands in 1924 exceeded those of 1923 by over 6 per cent., with the saturation point apparently nowhere in sight. “The' new field of woman smokers now being developed promises further expansion. Some- authorities in the industry predict annual production in the United States of a hundred billion pigarettes within a- few years. Tobacco, including cigarettes, is one of the few articles in which tile value of the factory product in 1921, a year of worldwide depresion, exceeded that of 191 J. This was due primarily to the steadily increasing uer capita consumption in the United States.” It is added that, in addition, 48b,900,0001 b of tobacco leaf was exported to other countries.