Mike follows conscience, bans tobacco from barber shop

After more than 45 years running a barber shop and tobacconists in Wairoa, Mike Bird had had enough.
"A conscience thing," he said of his decision to pull the plug on selling tobacco a couple of months ago.
His decision to break from decades of tradition saw him receive a visit recently from the Ngati Kahungunu Tobacco Free Strategy group, who presented him with a certificate of support - as the iwi has embarked on a national campaign to get shops to pull tobacco from their shelves.
Not the sort of man inclined to blow any trumpets, he simply said "a handshake would have done."
Mr Bird had simply seen enough "young kids smoking...doing themselves harm" and said he lost his father to smoking-related illness when he was far too young.
"Dad was a smoker all his life. He was only 61 when it got him...he deserved better...he should have lived longer."
He began his barber career back in the late '50s, working for a couple of Napier barbers and tobacconists, and started his own shop after moving to Wairoa, in 1964. And like other traditional barbering businesses across the country he stocked the shelves with pipes, tobacco and cigarettes.
But years of seeing people fall ill from smoking, and what he called the hypocrisy of Government when it came to tobacco, his conscience began to get to him.
"The Government...if a tobacconist sells cigarettes to someone under age they cop a $2000 fine...but if mum or dad or a brother or sister buys them, and gives them to a youngster, nothing happens. They don't get fined, and I've seen it happen. It's hypocritical."
While he accepted that since taking tobacco off his shelves meant smokers would simply go somewhere else he said "that's the way it is."
But he added that his own conscience was now clear.
"It is very significant," was how Jenny Smith from the Ngati Kahungunu iwi's action group summed up Mr Bird's decision.
"He is the first," she said of the campaign to get tobacco off shop shelves which got under way in May.
Recognising that Maori had a higher smoking rate across all ages, the iwi wanted to build support and had already published an open letter to all retailers asking them to get tobacco off the shelves.
"The strategy is under way and is gathering legs...it is happening."
Next month letters would be sent out to supermarkets, and following that to dairies and service stations. "We want our people to live longer," Ms Smith said.
Mr Bird could only agree, and said while others were likely to continue selling tobacco - "because they're probably making a few bob out of it" - he could not.
Nothing had replaced what used to be shelves of tobacco in his barber shop, he said.
"No, I've just got more room to walk around in now."