CIGARETTES BY AIR.

Manawatu Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 4415, 8 November 1934, Page 1

CIGARETTES BY AIR.

SOUTH ISLAND SHORTAGE. Aeroplanes were used last Thursdav to rush supplies of cigarettes from Christchurch and Dunedin to other points of the South Island, owing to retail stocks being exceptionally low. Retailers, mindful of the fact that prices would be substantially reduced with the coming into operation of the new duties, worked on very small stoe|ks, and the demand for cigarettes at the lower wholesale rate was unprecedented. x Even in iChristehurch thei’e were some tobacconists who could not satisfy their customers with the particular brands they desired, and it was some time before the retail orders could be met.

Taking a full load of cigarettes, one of the Canterbury Aero Club’s machines, piloted by Mr R. A. Kirkup, the club’s instructor, left for Tiinaru at about 10.30 a.m. A machine from the West Coast, piloted by Mr A. H. Nancekivell, arrived at Sockburn at about 1 p.m., and left with a full load on its return to the West Coast. Another aeroplane left Dunedin at 10 a.m. with supplies for Invercargill, Gore, Cromwell and Oamaru. The Blenheim-Nelson territory is covered from Wellington, as far as the distribution of many brands of cigarettes is concerned.