Smoke Statistics 213 



the tobacco annually imported is over ;^ 5, 500,000 

 sterling. Only some ;^ 400,000 worth of this is manu- 

 factured tobacco — negrohead, cavendish, cigarettes 

 and snuff. The cigars are worth ;^i, 500,000. The 

 bonded warehouses of the United Kingdom never 

 hold less than 20,000 tons of unmanufactured 

 tobacco, three-quarters of which are stored in London. 



About 200,000,000 cigars are smoked annually in 

 this country, London alone consuming 1,000,000 a 

 week. The lowest estimate places London's daily 

 bill for tobacco at .£'15,000. 



The value of the tobacco imported every year into 

 England is between five and six millions sterling. 

 Taxation increases this to ;£i 7,000,000. Profits, 

 pipes, pouches, matches, etc., make Britain's annual 

 smoking bill at the very lowest estimate amount 

 to ;£20,ooo,ooo, or ;£! per head for every male in- 

 habitant. During an average life — from seventeen to 

 sixty years of age — it is estimated that a pipe-smoker 

 expends ;£'ioo on tobacco, a cigarette-smoker .£330, 

 and a cigar-smoker ;£"8oo — an average of, say, £sSO 

 per smoker. But what are these sums in comparison 

 with the solace to saddened hearts, the comfort to 

 wearied bodies, and the courage and joy to harassed 

 souls and saddened spirits ? The golden shekels 

 weighed against the balmy smoke fly upwards to the 

 beam ; they are as nothing in man's sight. 



In all countries, save some in Asia where its 

 growth cannot be supervised, tobacco forms a con- 

 stantly increasing source of revenue. Governments 

 have no firmer supporter than tobacco ; were smoking 

 to die out, half the Governments of the world would 



