TOBACCO CULTURE AT NELSON

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22004, 30 January 1937, Page 11

TOBACCO CULTURE AT NELSON

Past Achievements And Present Needs

INSPECTION BY MINISTER

[From Our Own Reporter.]

NELSON, January 29,

The growing importance of the tobacco industry to the Dominion was seen by the Minister for Industries and Commerce (the Hon. D. G. Sullivan) during a comprehensive tour of the Motueka and Nelson districts today. The Minister drove through an area which is claimed to be one of the most highly productive in the British Empire, seeing hundreds of prosperous tobacco, hop, and fruit farms and actually spending a good deal of time visiting some of them to get first-hand information about these industries, which play a big part in the production records of the Dominion.

The culture of tobacco was started in a small way in Motueka only 12 years ago. Soon, as the Minister remarked to a deputation at Riwaka this afternoon, it had grown amazingly into, one of the most important and promising in New Zealand. There are approximately 750 growers in the district, and under normal conditions their gross return is about £200,000 a year. They have approximately 2500 acres in cultivation, with nearly 300 drying kilns and £IOO,OOO invested in plant. The industry gives continuous employment to hundreds of workers for mapy months, and from nearly all over the Dominion workers come to play their part in harvesting the tobacco and hop crops. Gathering the Crop To-day Mr Sullivan, visiting some of these farms, saw young men bringing in the leaf, and young women, brown and healthy, working adeptly at stringing • long lines of green leaf, preparatory to drying. He was even able to see some of the operations associated with the drying itself. He-was told that the wages bill lor these farms averages £3O to £35 an acre, and probaoly a good deal more this season, putting many thousands of pounds into circulation in the district among the working people. In addition, the industry expends many thousands of pounds in fertilisers, fuel materials, and transport. Harvesting is now well ahead all over the district. The leaves are picked collected in bins and taken to sheds, where girls tie them in pairs in stock for stacking in the kiln. When the kilns are full; fires are started for drying, and Mr Sullivan saw fires lit and heard of the long vigil which attendants have to keep to watch the kilns throughout the night. He was told how the careful handling which the leaf gets in New Zealand from skilled labour enabled a higher proportion of fine leaf to be extracted •than in other countries, where coloured cheap lablur is used. ,

Appeal For Assistance

At Riwaka three different organisations of growers representing all growers in the district, asked the Minister for assistance to the industry by stabilising tariffs, by ensuring an equal distribution of tariff benefits over all those interested in the industry and by taking steps to increase the amount of New Zealand leaf consumed by Now Zealand smokers. When replying to one specific point made by the deputation, Mr Sullivan agreed that it was not right that thoughts of customs revenue should dominate policy for the New Zealand industry. It was more important to have an industry properly established here, providing employment for workers and helping to stimulate the whole economic machine. People could not live on customs revenue. Mr Sullivan said he thought that the Tobacco Board was wisely and courageously tackling the job of organising the industry along the proper lines, visualising the future growth and possibilities of extending the use of the leaf grown in New Zealand. He knew that the proposals of the board involved a certain important decision by the Government about tariffs. The Minister agreed, too, that there was an urgent need for research into plant problems in the industry and expressed his pleasure at the assertion of the deputation that they were willing to contribute their share of the cost of research. He said that it would be necessary for the board to hold a conference with the growers about labour costs.