TOBACCO-GROWING.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2550, 10 July 1909, Page 2

TOBACCO-GROWING.

SUITABLE NEW ZEALAND SOILS.

WHAT KILLS THE INDUSTRY

Not only can it be said that all theoretical considerations point to /the suitability of New Zealand as a. tobaccogrowing country, but it can also be asserted that experiments made in widely separated parts of the Dominion have, placed the matter beyond doubt. Til order to gain some information as , to tho results that have been achieved a New Zealand "Herald” representative waited on Mr Austin Walsh, who has been associated with several attempts to foster the cultivation.of tobacco in New Zealand. Mr Walsh stated that very fine tobacco had been grown in New Zealand, and he was convinced that if the cultivation of the plant were, undertaken in a businesslike” way largo quantities of leaf highly suitable for manufacture into cigarettes and pipe tobacco -could be produced. Tlio country ,was hardly so well adapted to the production of cigar tobacco, because cigar tobacco had to bo cured by natural heat, and only the extreme North appeared a suitable climate. There, however, good cigar tobacco could be. grown in quantity if desired and cigarette, and pipe tobacco could be grown all over the Dominion, _ even on very poor soil,'which was suitable for tho aromatic variety, for which there was now great demand. The better the. soil the heavier tlie tobacco, and good heavy varieties had been grown at Opotiki and Tauranga. Connecticut and Virginia had done well at Mangore, and tobacco bad been grown as far south as Oamaru, Timaru, and Queenstown. In reply to a query as to the value of the tobacco crop to tlie farmer, Mr Walsli stated that SOOlb or 9001 bof cured leaf of the brighter Virginians, •which were eminently suitable for cigar-ette-making, could be. produced from an acre of land each year and 120011) of the heavier varieties, such as Kentucky and Connecticut. The value of an acre’s crop might be set down at the present time at from £35 to £4O, and the labor cost from sowing time till tlie leaf was cured was not more than 0 per acre. In tlie season .1887-88 the factory with which lie. was once connected in Auckland received 13,2941 b of locally-grown tobacco. It was employing over 70 hands, and there was every prospect of a flourishing industry being built up when the alteration of the tariff made operations unprofitable. Mr H. E. Partridge, of the firm of H. E. Partridge and Co., also expressed his conviction that tobacco could be successfully grown in New Zealand from North to South. He believed that bad tlie Government given it proper encouragement the industry in New Zealand would now have been as flourishing as it is in Australia, where 50 jx)r cent, of the tobacco used in New Zealand is now manufactured. The tobacco industry, said Mr Partridge, creates a considerable demand for tinsmiths and other classes of labor. For 700 or 800 men employed in a factory employment would be created for 2000 outside. It .would be a particularly valuable industry? for tlie. country because it was eminently suitable for small farmers. There is a strong feeling amongst those who realise the possibilities oi New Zealand as a tobacco-growing country' that something should be done by tlio Government to give the industry a footing. The proposals which are variously made to foster tlie industry' may be summarised as follows: —(1) That the Government should appoint an expert to tench farmers how to handle the plant, and should conduct experiments at the State farms for the benefit of cultivators and curers; (2) that the duty on imported leaf should be lowered, 'at least temporarily; (3) that the excise on machinc-mad© cigarettes should be lowered to the level of that on band-made; (4) that extra duty should be placed on tobaccos of all descriptions coming in in tins and fancy packets; (5) that a bonus should be given on all tobacco exported. The second of these propositions derives its significance from the fact that 'during the first few- years of a tobacco industry in any country it is necessary to import the raw material in large quantities. Practically every tobacco is made by blending different varieties of leaf, and.it is necessary at first to use a small quantitv of locally-grown leaf blended with a large quantity of imported leaf, and as the local article becomes better known it is used in greater proportion until ultimately a purely local tobacco is obtained by blending the different varieties which the country produces. The third proposition is that the excise on machine-made cigarettes should be lowered to that on hand-made. At present it is Is .per lb on cigarettes made by hand, and 2s 6d per lb on ma-cliine-made cigarettes. It is contended that this tax on machinery is quite unjustifiable, and that it has failed to loster the making of cigarettes by band, less than 50 workers being thus engaged throughout the Dominion. In support of the final argument that a bonus .should be given for tobacco exported, it is mentioned that if the industry grew sufficiently to leave a suiplms for export after local requirements were. supplied this surplus would have to go on the Home market and compote with tobacco from other countries where labor is cheaper. Australia- has voted £4OOO a year for five vears as a bonus on exported tobacco, which works out at about 2d a lb.