THE QUEEN'S PIPE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 3082, 16 April 1892, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE QUEEN'S PIPE.

The supposition that "The Queens Pipe " is on tho point of being abolished proves to be quite erroneous. Enquiries made at Her Majesty's Costoius revealed that the time-honoured oven in which tobacco is destroyed|b.y the Inland Revenue authorities, and which, from being devoted solely to that purpose , has earned its fanciful title, is only to bo replaced by a furnace of sterner stuff than the exapparatus now presents. WHAT IS KH>r.LY DONK WITH TIIK TOBACCO. From tho very time that Charles Dickens touched upon the subject a great deal of misapprehension appears to have gathered about " the Queens Pipe." Instead of being a ravenous maw that is eternally smoking the primest smuggled cigars and provenders for pipes and oisraratces.it is the decent crematory of mirely the worthless portions of cargoes and the refuse and the sweepings of the bonding house. After the seizure, contraband tobacco is overhauled and the good portions aro separated from tho worthless. Such portions as are retained are then passed on to a cuttter. He slices up the cakes, and plugs, and the different brands are then mixed and an agreeable bland obtained. The mixture thus obtained is suplied to the convict prisons, and is one of "tho consolations of criminal lunatics. This is absolutely the only dircctiou in which confiscated tobacco is sent out again for use. Where it distributed to workhouse and similar institutions there would soon be an outcry from the trade of spoiling the market. For the quautity of tobacco thus treated is hugely, gwolleu by the refuso which traders have themselves to reject. When n consignment comes to be tiken out of bo n d it is in very rare cases that tho whole of the quantity is found to be serviceable. The bad is thrown out and gne< to feed "the pipe." At least two destinations await such\-tuff as may be condemned as paft reclaim. Some is sent to Kew Gardens to be used in fumigating the plant-houses. The rest is shovelled into ' the O'leeas P'P O " by !l sl:0,<01 ' vv ' 10 has been engaged in replenishing this singular fire for years, and who is confident that the pain* in his aged back are due to the fumes and dust he inhales in the task, and to nothing eUc. WHAT TUB" l'll'l! IS LIICB. Tiio most persistent of smokers is suite 1 at the Victorian Dock, where from 93 to 9S per cent of the entire imports of tobaccg aro received, It is a hugo oven,

fronted by a grnto through which the ie i* some fuel is c ist. From time to time in n iri'jders have been fixed about the str'ie-

uro to counteract the of tlio in

tense iicat neneruted within it. But, -v„thed ill band-* as it is, its sides still bulge, and it exhibits such a crazy iipj e.irance tlmt u brand new pipe is to ho cuppliod for " the (Queen's smoking. ' Tiio utile brick house in which tin- furnace is set up is sacred to the consumption of i.obiuuo. Nothing else ever enters the precincts. When reduced to ashes, the proportion of lime contained ill tl.o dirt renders it useful for manure. It is disposed of to agriculturists for inixture with other materials in tilling the land. There is a fiirjfiller "pipe" in the Queen's warehouse on the river bank near the Monument. Into this furnuco all kinds of condemned goods are cast. Boxes of cigarettes como to hand enclosed in prettily emblazoned cases, which would lead one to suppose tha 1 , they are of the English make they profess to be. A tiny label modesty endeavours to meet the requirements ot tbo law bv intimating that the contents arc " Austrian make.'' There is nothing upon the cigarettes themselves to show that they aro not piratical counterfeits, however, and so they uic stripped of their false colours, and condemned as against regulations.