A CHOICE LUXURY.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LII, Issue 9188, 7 September 1906, Page 3

A CHOICE LUXURY.

The questioo of *be prohibition of cigarette smoking by boys is being considered by a select- committee of the House of Commons, and some of the evidence taken by the committee has been of a decidedly sensational nature. Mr E. P. Gasbon, giving his testimony as to the nature of repressive legislation in America, added that Gireat Britain ought to prohibit the sale «of cigarettes imported from America altogether. "The American cigarette," he sadd, "is the -Worst j thing our country sends to you — worse than Chicago tinned meat." The making of the cigarettes, he explained, was carried on by low-class Italians, who prowl about the streets of the city with bags clung over their shoulders, into which they pitch anything they can find that has a semblance of tobacco about it. Cigar ends,- cigarette "ends, "quids" of tobacco thrown away by those who habitually chew, anything and everything of the kind that can be picked up in the gutter or from the spitoons of 'hotels and railway carriages i& collected and uiti maitely finds it© way back to the factory, ■vrheTe it is thrown into a 'hopper with a little genuine tobacco, and worked up for cheap cigarettes. The makers of this vile product declare that they sterilise the mass before using it, but expert analytical chemists have said that is not so. Further, these same aufhoritiee have detected amongst the -contents of the cigarettes quantities' of belladonna, opium, and 1 cocaine, which produce- a peculiar, hazy, benumbing feeling on the smoker, and these cigarette© are peculiarly popular among boys. Mr Gaston says that the number of cases of insanity amongst boys who smoke them is amazing, and many 'social reformers in America class the cigarette as a greatetr cures than drink. It is for these reasons that the various' States are introducing drastic legislation, with a view to stopping the sale. Since 1888, legislation has been adopted in 47 out of the 53 States in the Union. - Ohio was the first to start, and the most stringent regulations are now in force in Wisconsin, lowa, Tennassee and Indiana. Indiana has now gone further, and has introduced a measure prohibiting a man frotoi being found in possession of cigarettes, or •even paper which is suitable for the manufitcture of cigarettes.