ROMANCE OF TOBACCO.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20722, 15 November 1930, Page 3 (Supplement)

ROMANCE OF TOBACCO.

CONNECTION WITH BRISTOL. STORY THROUGH THE AGES. PREJUDICES AND TROUBLES. Two of the most famous characters in fiction, Robinson Crusoe and Long John Silver, were given domicile in Bristol, England, by their respective authors, and it is interesting to note that just about the lime when Defoe was supposed to be listening to Crusoe's wonderful adventures in a Bristol hostelry, he noted the growing habit of smoking and snuff taking. " My maid." Defoe says, " took the snuff with the elegance of a duchess/ The story of tobacco connection with Bristol is*one of the most romantic, for it smacks of pirates, soldiers, raids, smuggling and struggles between King

and people. in the early sixteen hundreds, half the shipping which Bristol possessed—about 6000 tons—was engaged in the importation of tobacco, and at the same time the merchants of Bristol wrre at war wi:h the cultivators of the plant in Gloucestershire. In 1631, 1634 and 1638, the sheriff was ordered to cut down the plantations in Gloucestershire, but whether because the local gentry winked nt tobacco cultivation or for some oilier

reason tobacco growing remained. ? The liarebone Parliament put a duty of

threepence a pound on homc-giow n tobacco and ordered that the cultivation should cease in the following year. 'J he cultivation went on as before, however, unlil in 1667 the merchants induced the Government to send down a body of the King's Guard, which destroyed the plant ami squeezed a promising productivr industry out of .England. The merchants also had their difficulties. hi J631, the King issued a proclamation that all tobacco should bo imported through London, but stress of weather " and " pretence of damage led to most of tha ships reaching Bristol just the same and to the tobacco belua; smuggled ashore and the duties lost. Kiev.,, years before this the granting of a monopoly for tobacco pipe making led to .serious persecution in Bristol. N'othwithst.Hiding all these troubles, tohafco stuck to Fir stol, and the old city saw tho coming of the cigar, the earliest mention of which was made bv ('ockbiiru in 1735, and in later times the übiquitous cigarette. Over 26 pel cent, of tobacco taken to England today goes into the Port of Bristol, and something like £25,000,000 is paid in duties alone. The magnitude of the industry may be judged from tho fact that one warehouse alone will hold 41,000 casks of tobacco, the duty upon which amounts to £16,000,000. The tobacco warehouses owned by the Bristol Corporation will hold 32,400 casks. The total potential duty value of tin? contents of all the tobacco warehouses in the city reaches the imposing sum of £49.500,000. In addition to the great tobacco firms, which employ many thousands of people, largo subsidiary in dustries, such as printing, cardboard and tiii! box making, have grown-up in the CH v.