CIGARETTE SMOKING.

Waikato Times, Volume 107, Issue 17991, 9 April 1930, Page 14

CIGARETTE SMOKING.

INCREASE IN THE SOUTH. the pipe declines in favour. Cigarette smoking has increased enormously in Christchurch in the past few years, but pipe smoking is falling off, according to tobacconists approached by a Sun reporter with refer-, ence to statistics from London showing a rapid growth in tobacco consumption in Great Britain since the war. Apparently the main reason for the decline in popularity of the pipe and the favour shown to the cigarette is nothing but sheer laziness on the part of the average smoker. A few years ago plug pipe tobacco was bought by tobacconists by the case; now they only buy a few pounds at a time. They consider that the reason for this is that smokers are too lazy to use plug tobacco, though it makes a very good smoke, but buy tinned tobacco instead. But the sale of tinned tobacco has also fallen off heavily, and old men now smoke cigarettes who some years ago would have scorned the habit as being effeminate.

"It is a sign of the times," said a tobacconist, “it’s easier and quicker to take out a cigarette and light it up than to fill up a pipe.” "Men have gradually drifted around to cigarettes, and those who before the war would have nothing but a pipe now buy cigarettes, though many of them favour both kinds of smoke. You now sec workmen on the roads smoking cigarettes; a while ago you would not have seen them with anything but pipes. What little plug tobacco is now sold is mainly disposed of in the country, and the tendency with tinned tobacco is for the lighter grades to be smoked. \ Smoking by Women. Women have had a large effect on the consumption of cigarettes. Several years ago they were diffident about going into a tobacconist’s shop to purchase cigarettes, and would get a male friend to do the job. But the war changed all that, and women got into the habit of going into shops to buy cigarettes for the men at the front. Also, at the present time, the unknown number of women who smoke cigarettes but do not go into tobacconists’ srops themselves to buy them must he enormous. Women do not, as a rule, favour the special brands made for them, but prefer men’s cigarettes. In Christchurch they have not yet got as far as smoking pipes, but the reporter was shown an English catalogue in which was included dainty little pipes, hookahs, and special smoking outfits for women I One tobacconist did not think that men were making their own cigarettes any more now than before, mainly because of laziness; hut another said that about half the tinned pipe tobacco bought was used for cigarettes. A huge amount of cigarette papers was now sold, and more men were making their own cigarettes nowadays. On the other hand, it was pointed out that New Zealand had been producing its -own cigarettes in the past ten years. These cigarettes were a lot cheaper than the imported article, and the duty on tobacco had increased so much that people could now smoke New Zealand-made cigarettes at almost the same price as they could make them themselves. Cigar Consumption. New Zealand has never been a big cigar-smoking country,” said one tobacconist. “Even in America, where the cigar was -once the national smoke, it is now being dropped, and the consumption of cigarettes is increasing rapidly.” At this point a customer in the shop interrupted and declared that Indian cigars were a very good smoke; they were Empire produce, and the almost prohibitive duty on them should be reduced, he volunteered. The tobacconist said that women bought largely of cigars, and more boxes of them were sold to women than to men. Presumably they wanted them to give away as presents. Curiously enough, said one tobacconist, he had recently had an instance of four elderly women coming into a shop one after the other to buy snuff. On the whole, it appears that the total consumption of tobacco in Christchurch and New Zealand is on the increase, though since tobacconists are not the only people who sell tobacco it is hard to ascertain anything very definite. But the gross returns from manufacturing firms are not decreasing.