CHEAP SMOKING

Southland Times, Issue 25343, 23 July 1935, Page 8

CHEAP SMOKING

BACK TO 1911 LEVEL. LATEST REDUCTIONS. With further reductions in the price of two cheap brands of cigarettes it is now possible to buy packets of ten for fourpence. A number of lines are selling at sixpence, so that manufactured cigarettes are about on a par with the pre-war level. The announcement just made by tobacconists shows that the three brands which are manufactured in New Zealand and which, therefore, have a slight advantage in taxation over imported cigarettes, have each been reduced by a penny a packet. Two lines have been reduced from fivepence to fourpence and the other from sevenpence to sixpence. Despite their cheapness, fourpenny packets have only a small sale. The Government’s action in altering the taxation and duty on loose tobacco and cigarettes to cause a swing to the latter form of smoking has undoubtedly had the effect intended. A Times reporter was told by a tobacconist yesterday that while “rolling one’s own” was still popular there had been a great increase in the sales of “tailormades.”

Perhaps the best result of the Government’s measure, the reporter was told, was the increase in the trade of the legitimate tobacconist through the cheaper prices. Before the reduction last year all kinds of retailers were securing catch trade by cutting cigarette prices, a procedure that was doing the regular trade much harm. Now there was no incentive other than, perhaps, personal convenience for the bv”er to secure his cigarettes elsewhere than at a tobacconist’s. Everyone was now on the same footing. A tobacconist who has been in the trade in New Zealand for 45 years told the reporter that it was now undoubtedly cheaper to buy the lowest grade cigarettes than the cigarette tobacco and papers. “Now that they are down to four-pence for ten,” he said, “no one can make fifty ‘loose’ cigarettes for 1/8, for the average price of tobacco is 1/9 a tin, bringing it up to about 1/11 with the necessary cigarette papers.”

A reduction from ninepence to sixpence in the price of an old-estab-lished brand had caused a great run on this line, he said. While the biggest sellers were those at about sixpence a packet, the next best was a line which had remained at eightpence for a considerable period. Quality was thus still one of the biggest factors with cigarette smokers.

Following on the King’s Silver Jubilee celebrations the cigarette card has experienced a new vogue, for pictures of members of the Royal Family are being included with several brands of cigarettes. Generally speaking, however, the issue of cigarette pictures will probably be discontinued when the series conclude. It has been authoritatively stated that they now have little connection with sales.