UNWANTED CIGARETTES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 August 1939, Page 5

UNWANTED CIGARETTES

REASONS FOR DESTRUCTION IN CHRISTCHURCH. NO QUESTION OF IMPORT RESTRICTION. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON. This Day. Referring last night to a Press Association report that nearly two million cigarettes had been destroyed in Christchurch, the Minister at present in charge of the Customs Department, Mr Mason, said that he had inquired and found that this circumstantial story connecting the destruction of the cigarettes with the import restriction had no foundation whatever in fact. The actual fact was that this line of cigarettes had been found to be such a slow-selling one that the importer had decided that it was not worth while paying the duty on the residue of them, and accordingly had had them destroyed. This was a situation that had often arisen from time to time long before the import regulations had been heard of. Occasionally in such circumstances it had been arranged to give such cigarettes to a charitable institution. sych as an old men's home. But this, of course, required the assent of the importer.

The essential point was that there had been no negotiations in the present instance and no question of import restriction. but merely a decision by the owner not to incur the expenditure of the ordinary duty on a line that had proved to be in little demand. The cigarettes had been in bond in Christchurch for more than four years, and had greatly deteriorated.