An Item in England's Tobacco Bill

Manawatu Herald, 6 April 1899, Page 2

An Item in England's Tobacco Bill

At the Imperial Institute, an illustrated public lecture was delivered by Mr Richard Davey, upon " Cuba, Past and Present." After referring to the Island's geographical features and products, and illustrating some of the leading traits of character manifested by the inhabitants, the lecturer considered the important tobacco industry, Infiuite care was, he said, bestowed upon the cultivation of the tobacco plant, and it was estimated that over one hundred millions of Havana cigars annually found their way to England, not one of which could be purchased under sixpence. The Cubans themselves never smoked cigars because of their cost, but the cigarette was in the month of the entire population from morning till night. The lecturer had even seen people going through their devotions in church with cigarettes between their lips. Yet he was told by the best medical authorities on the Island that smokers' throat, or cancer from smoking, was unknown, showing the difference between pure and impure tobacco. One very curious fact about the Havana tobacco was that it only grew in the neighbourhood of the capital in its best state, and that if transplanted, even in other parts of the Island \tself, its standard ot excellence greatly declined.