Some Interesting Facts about Tobacco.

Mataura Ensign, Issue 223, 3 December 1896, Page 6

Some Interesting Facts about Tobacco.

♦ THE QUEEN'S PIPE. Since the abolition of " The Queen's Pipe," some few years ago, in which were consumed all sized tobacco and cigars, soldiers going to foreign stations have had these dealt out to them on board troopships. The quantity obtained in this way is now very small ; last year only three tons were captured. Although it is nearly in the trooping season, the smuggled stock is nearly exhausted. For the pr-wSont, therefore, there will be no free smokes for troops leaving Southampton. On board ship they will, as a matter of course, be able to purchase it free of duly and at a cost of about -Hy - penny per ounce. For this purpose and for the use of the sailors generally, over 700 tons of tobacco leaves the Old Country free of duty annually. Although the consumption has increased in Great Britain, the amount exported as ships' stores is not so high as it was eight years ago. The average consumption" of tobacco per head of the population is now 26 ounces ; ten years ago it was not quite 21 ounces, and fifteen years ago the average was one ounce per head less. The consumption is therefore increasing three times as rapidly as the population. The number of persons in the United Kingdom selling tobacco has increased from 296,000 to 317,000 in the past 15 years. For Scotland the numbers are 24,236 and 26,827 respectively. But, on the other hand, the manufacturers of of tobacco havo decreased from 598 in 1890 to 495 last year throughout the country, while in Scotland in that interv a l they have fallen from 101 to 54. The experimental cultivation of tobacco at Home has almost ceased. Nothing has been cured in Scotland since 1888, nor in Ireland sinced 1889, and as regards England, only ten pounds of marketable- tobacco have been producod in the past four years. The results of the experiments allowed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer have not, therefore, been satisfactory, and so confirm the opinions of the Committee appointed by the House of Commons nearly seventy years ago to report upon the subject.