OBJECTIONABLE?

Southland Times, Issue 22068, 15 July 1933, Page 6

OBJECTIONABLE?

SMOKING IN TEA ROOMS CORRESPONDENT RAISES POINT PROPRIETORS’ VIEWS Should promiscuous smoking in restaurants and tea-rooms be permitted? A correspondent in yesterday’s issue raised this point when, writing under the nom de plume of “Nicotine,” he condemned the practice in no uncertain terms. Excerpts from his letter are: I hope you will permit me to direct attention to the extremely objectionable habit of indiscriminate smoking in restaurants and tearooms. The chief offenders in this respect are, I am sorry to say, the ladies, or rather young women at the “flapper” stage. ... 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. Oh, better still, is there one restaurant proprietor in all Invercargill who is brave 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. Yesterday morning a reporter sought the proprietors of the leading tearooms in the city and asked them to express their views on the matter. “When Sir Walter Raleigh first smoked everybody thought he was on fire and tried to put him out. But soon they got quite used to it. Now we have people wanting to put smokers out of restaurants; but I fear they will have to get used to them,” commented one proprietor. “I know that to have cigarette smoke puffed in one’s face is objectionable, but I don’t think many of those who smoke in restaurants offend those at neighbouring tables. Were a tea-room ownqr to prohibit smoking he would be regarded as an anachronism. Whether people like it or not smoking in public by women has come to stay. A restaurant is regarded by me, at any rate, as a public place and I should not dream of prohibiting smoking. It might be possible to reserve certain parts of a restaurant for non-smokers, but I doubt if this would be worth while in this advanced age. Why, even in the trams and trains the smoking compartments are practically out-of-date. “It has to be admitted that a great change in the practice of smoking in tea-rooms has been seen in the last two years,” said another of those approached. “A couple of years ago if anyone wanted to smoke after his meal he would ask a waitress or the manager if he were allowed to light a cigarette. Now it is taken as a matter of course. At the same time my experience is that very seldom, if ever, do smokers make themselves objectionable to other diners. We find it is usually when, they are comparatively isolated that people light up. Otherwise they go into the lounge. I think your correspondent was right when he said that it was principally young women at the ‘flapper’ stage who indulged in the habit. After all it largely boils down to a matter of courtesy and good taste, and I don t think in Invercargill there are many who offend as did the four ladies of whom your correspondent complains. “I think you will find that very soon smoking will be permitted in church,” said another proprietor, “and I venture to say that there wotdd be much larger congregations if this were allowed. The writer of the letter should have mentioned his grievance to the management of the restaurant concerned instead of rushing into print. In any case he is hopelessly out-of-date. In the North Island there is far more smoking in tea-rooms than here and in other parts of the world men and women smoke in theatres, hotels and almost any place you can mention. On a cabaret night I have seen the tearooms here hazy with tobacco smoke, but no one has complained. People smoke here after and during meals, but I have never received a complaint. What restaurant proprietor is going, to be fool enough to prohibit, a practice which is so firmly established? He would be committing financial suicide. “A great many people enter tearooms to enjoy a smoke and a chat rather than a cup of tea,” was another comment. “Why then debar them from this simple pleasure?”