THE ONLY SMOKE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19844, 19 May 1927, Page 2

THE ONLY SMOKE

A GOOD CIGAR LORD BIRKENHEAD’S VIEW Lord Birkenhead, who was smoking a fine cigar seven and a quarter inches long and wheighing two-thirds of an oz., was the guest at luncheon of the Cigar Merchants’ Association on April, writes ' our London correspondent. He proposi cd the toast of the cigar trade and disI coursed amusingly on his favourite : form of smoking; while diplomatically I avoiding committing himself on the chief topic of interest to his hearers. ' For some time past the cigar merchants ■ have been appealing to Mr Churchill to do something for cigars in the Budget by reducing the ad valorem duty. The chairman of the Association (Mr Graham D’Arcy) said that they had been trying to persuade the Chancellor of the Exchequer that a reduction of the duty on cigars was a necessity to help the trade, and they argued that it would expand the national revenue. Since 1899 the cigar duty had been increased ,nine times, and the result had been an alarming decrease in the consumption of cigars. At present the public had to pay approximately a shilling per ounce on every cigar that was smoked. His Lordship’s First. Lord Birkenhead recalled that it was at the age of eighteen, when he was at Oxford and went with a reading party to Dinard. that be smoked his first cigars. “They were the best cigars I have ever smoked in my life. They were of French tobacco, and they cost one penny each. Anyone who really understands what a cigar is and has any palate capable of discriminating in the matter justly refuses to admit that those who smoke cigarettes or pipes smoke at all. (Loud laughter and applause). They have crude and gross palates, or else, in the case of cigarette smokers, dilettante and inconsiderable habits not worthy of attention. It is with cigars alone that serious smokers are concerned, but unfortunately cigars are very expensive under modern conditions.” Referring to the taxation of cigars, Lord Birkenhead said that not being the Minister in charge of the Budget, and being wholly unaware of the proposals of his colleague in the matter, he thought the Chancellor of the Exchequer ought to be an indulgent judge of their necessities. Mr Churchill I smoked a large number of cigars. (Laughter and applause). The “Sixpenny” The contentions of those in the cigar trade were worthy of examination. The i sensible period of decline in the ini dustry set in when it became impossible to produce an undoubted Havana cigar iat the price of sixpence. This was a ; sum which many a man would throw away on a cigar which had a band on it, ; which he might inadventently omit to • remove. There was a great psychological difference between sixpence and . ninepence. A man would pay sixpence again and again, but if he had to pay I more he might degenerate to a pipe. It ’ was useless to persevere with a tax to i , the extent of crippling or cancelling an ' industry. It must be a great blow to I the trade when it was impossible to proI duce a Havana cigar which could be j sold at a low price. The whole quesItion was a financial one. With all luxury taxes there came a point where increasing the tax wiped out the benefit from it. The Government had to deal with the finances of what was a most unhappy year. Mr J. H. Thomas made a jesting 1 speech about cigar-smoking. He remarked that he had never attended a more disinterested lunch. “But,” he asked, “what chance have you got with a Colonial Secretary who does not smoke at all, not even a cigarette, a Chancellor of the Exchequer who i smokes cigars that are not Havana, and a Prime Minister who smokes a pipe!”