SMOKING IN THEATRES

Taranaki Daily News, 21 January 1935, Page 2

SMOKING IN THEATRES

WAIL FROM NON-SMOKERS. NICOTINE AROMA EVERYWHERE. Smoking in theatres has been the subject of much controversy of late in several English papers. The Manchester Guardian, in an editorial, paints a gloomy picture of discomforts from which the New Zealand theatregoer is happily free. “The non-smoker gets little consideration to-day. He. is fortunate if he can secure freedom from an aroma he dislikes even in railway compartments intended for his use. He may search far for a restaurant in which he can eat without scenting nicotine, and he is doomed to breathe the smoke of others in almost any place of entertainment he enters. This last is perhaps the most serious of his annoyances. The best of theatres is an ill-ventilated place. The victim’s seat is fixed. Though his neighbours blow clouds of shag about him he cannot exchange his place for one less distressing. His lungs are afflicted by the nuisance. His attention to the play is distracted by the flickering of lights, the scratching of matches, and the coughing that attends the habit of his fellows. He can probably recall a time when it was not so, when smoking in the auditorium waS as firmly barred by regulation as smoking in the ballroom was by common courtesy. Has the quality of entertainment deteriorated that this aid to the enjoyment of it is now thought to be necessary? Or has one theatre merely followed another sheepishly in the belief that this license will bring added custom? The older playgoer who enjoys his pipe or cigar can hardly in honesty admit that when he was restricted to smoking at the intervals his appreciation of the play was less than it is to-day. Certainly he was conscious of no deprivation that would justify him in making a nuisance of himself to others. His attitude would doubtless be the same to-day if theatre managements had the courage to test it.”