SMOKING IN RESTAURANTS.

Southland Times, Issue 22067, 14 July 1933, Page 5

SMOKING IN RESTAURANTS.

To the Editor.

Sir, —As a subscriber for more years than I care sometimes to remember, and as one who has on only one previous occasion trespassed on your space, I hope you will permit me to direct attention to the extremely objectionable habit of indiscriminate smoking in restaurants and tea-rooms. The chief offenders in this respect are, I am sorry to say, the ladies, or rather young women at the “flapper” stage. On Friday last I had occasion to visit one of the three best-known restaurants in Invercargill, the next table to mine was occupied by four ladies. Having finished their own meal, they were engaged in very inpertinently blowing clouds of cigarette smoke over the food on my table, to the discomfort of myself and the lady accompanying me. Do you not think, Sir, that the time has arrived when Restaurant Proprietors should have places set apart for smokers, both male and female? I would suggest a place near the door of each restaurant, preferably near a strong current of air. Or, betterstill, is there one Restaurant Proprietor in all Invercargill who is braye enough to prohibit absolutely this vile practice on his premises? I am a rather heavy smoker myself, but there is a time and place for everything—l am, etc., NICOTINE. July 13, 1933.