“SMOKING PERMITTED.”

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4363, 9 January 1922, Page 3

“SMOKING PERMITTED.”

VALUE OF TOBACCO. AID TO INDUSTRY. "Please smoke The day is fast approaching when that notice will be everywhere. A retired Civil Servant, one of the old school, recently visited the scene of' his former labours in Whitehall. He was amazed .to And some of the junior clerks smoking at their work. Suitably Indignant, he rushed' tp the principal clerk’s room to report this outbreak of insubordination. 5 He found the principal clerk puffing at a .briar I The only thing lefit for the bld gentleman to do was to go home and tell, his wife that the coun-i try was going to the dogs. It is the same story everywhere. The old-fashioned idea that it is •wrong for a man to smoke at his \ybrk ( : is becoming as out-of-date as ' crimplines and side-whiskers. Even in solicitors’ officers, clerks have been seen smoking. ..Many of the bpt sermons nowadays are composed With the help of “my Lady Nicotine.” What is more important is the fact that several big industrial firms report that they have had better and more work and more contented worker's since, they have not only permit- . ted but. encouraged the men to smoke. ’ in other - words, smoking means increased production and happier workers.

Of course, every smoker knows that he works better when, he is smoking. Tobacco does not take his mind off his work, it enables, him to concentrate/ It was only old-fashioned, ignorant nonsense which maintained that a man could not work properly while sucking a pipe. There is not an office ip the land where my Lady Nicotine has not helped to grapple with the annual terrors of the trial balance. There is always a missing shilling or penny which eludes all scrutiny during the day. . At last the office closes, the har-i rassed bookkeepers decide tp put in a little overtime. They lightwup, and before long the ‘ missing amount is found, and the trial balance is satisfactory. They ..all knew that if they had been allowed to smoke during office hours they would have solved the trial balance perhaps days before. There have always been some who realised the truth about tobacco and work. Journalists, for instance. Has anyone eVer discovered an editor who was not smoking ? : He smokes because he knows from experience that tobacco. helps him to work better. Everywhere it is becoming more and more realised that the secret of good wprk lies in the contentment pf the worker. A discontented man never did and never will work well; And every: smoker' knows that the surest means of contentment is » .‘pipeful of his favourite brand. It ,Is' remarkable and significant that nearly all our .hot-headed cranks the teetotal faddists, the Bolshevist • agitators, the Stigginses, and ail the rest of them, are for the most part non-smokers. Just as a murder has t never yet been committed by a man With a pipe in his mouth, so there never yet was a hare-brained fanatic who enjoyed a pipeful of honest tobac-i .co. Everybody is shouting “Increased production !’’ “Build more houses!” . “Stop these labour squabbles !” Shout’ ing does not do much good. But encouraging smokers to carry on the good work would help. One of the wisest institutions in the Army was the tobacco ration. The tobacco was not anything to write home about, but there were times wjien a ration gasper was worth its weight in gold. “How can ye expect the miners to be anything but a pack o’ cantankerous wretches?” said a hefty Scottish miner the other day. "Mon, it’s awful work! D’ye ken it’s as bad as working in a gunpowder factory ? Why, ye canna.liae a wee bit smoke all the time ye’re doon the mine!” And all smokers will, agree that there was something in what he said. Tobacco is not a luxury to be frowned at. It is a necessity which ought to be encouraged. We are gradually waking up to the fact. Tlie up-to-date firm df the future will' not merely permit its workers tp smoke, but will encourage them to smoke, and will supply them with tobacco. It sounds absurd at first. But it is a practical proposition, and it will pay! [The above is reprinted from that smart London paper, “Answers;*’ and all that needs to be added to it by way of local advice is that Jock Greig’s saloon, next to the "Gazette” Office, is the place to purchase your tol acco from.l