TOBACCO GROWING.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 45, 23 February 1927, Page 4

TOBACCO GROWING.

INDUSTRY HAS POSSIBILITIES. AN OPTIMISTIC REPORT. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, this day. The growth and manufacture of tobacco in New Zealand has passed the experimental stage and arrived at a period when growing for export is being seriously considered. For some years the industry was carried on at a loss, without assistance from the Government, but it now shows every promise of becoming an asset to the Dominion. According to a statement made by the Department of Industries and Commerce yesterday, the area under cultivation in the Dominion at present is between 350 ami 400 acres. According to the report: "There is no doubt whatever about the fact that tobacco can be, and lias been, and is being grown on a commercial basithere, and that it is a profitable crop, which brings in an appreciable and welcome sum. This year it will run into many thousands of pounds to those, mostly fruitgrowers, who contract to supply the New Zealand manufacturer.

"In the past four years the actual quantities of Xew Zealand-grown tobacco manufactured and sold in the Dominion have increased tenfold. The commercial possibilities of Xew Zealand-grown leaf are established, and if the demand for Xew Zealand pipe tobacco continues to increase as it has during recent years, on its merits, both as regards quality and price, much larger areas will have to be grown to meet the local demand alone."

The Department is sanguine that any leaf exported will rind a ready market overseas.