WOMEN AND PIPES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 77, Issue 108, 9 May 1934, Page 6

WOMEN AND PIPES

MANUFACTURERS’ IDEAS. MATCHING DRESSES AND HATS. There have been many recent efforts in Engand to induce women to smoke pipes instead of cigarettes. Mr. H. Orlik, of the well-known pipe-making firm of that name, who has been visiting Christchurch, said when interviewed by the Press that some manufacturers were making pipes of shapes and sizes calculated to attract the attention of women, and that some pipes were being turned out in colours to match women’s dresses and hats. These efforts had not met with much success so far, but if they did, Mr. Orlik said, cigarette smoking would tend to die out. Men smoked cigarettes for many and varied reasons, but Mr. Orlik said be believed one of the most common reasons to be the fact that women expected to be supplied with cigarettes by their male escorts or friends. That was why most men caried cigarettes about with them. Many of them would prefer their pipe, but they disliked cramming their pockets with smoking gear. Mr. Oritk .'aid he believed that pipesmoking «as holding its own against cigarette smoking. There had been more pipes sold in Great Britain during the last five years than for some time, and the number had not decreased much in New Zealand. But these sales were probably deceptive, for there were so many cheap pipes on the market which lasted for a very short time in comparison with good English briars. Cheap pipes were not, on the whole, satisfactory. They did not last so well and they did not smoke so well as the others. Many of the cheaper European pipes looked just aj smart as the best English could turn out, and this probably accounted for their ready sale. "It is a pity that so many New Zealanders smoke cheap pipes,” said Mr. Orlik, “instead of buying good English pipes which keep British workmen in employment. Many pipes are sold in New Zealand with the London-made stamp when actually they have been made in other European countries which subsidise their industries.-’

Mr. Orlik said that forged marks of origin on pipes were by no means uncommon. During the last three years this tendency had been on the increase in Australia. Pipes made in Italy were bought by London firms and stamped “London-made’’ before being shipped. The Australian Customs Department had investigated the situation in 1926 and 1927 and the sale of this type of pipe had been arrested. But since that date more and more foreign pipes had come into the Commonwealth.