TOBACCO SHORTAGE

Evening Star, Issue 25700, 25 January 1946, Page 6

TOBACCO SHORTAGE

FEMALE LABOUR THE PROBLEM POSITION NOT LIKELY TO IMPROVE (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Jan. 25. The supplies of cigarettes and manufactured tobacco to retail shops will continue to be limited only by the number of female workers in tobacco factories, said the Minister of Supply, the Hon. D. G. Sullivan, to-day, referring to Press references to the continued shortage of stock. The position as regards raw tobacco leaf, imported as well as locally-grown, had been satisfactory throughout recent years, and was so at present; but so long as the labour position remained as at present, the question of raw leaf supply was irrelevant to the general situation. Compared with the end of 1941, the staff at the two major factories in Wellington, which produced about nine-tenths of New Zealand's supplies was 140 lower at the end of 1945. The worst period was last May, when the shortage in these factories was aibout 190. "It is clear," said Mr Sullivan, "that the female labour position at the factories is not likely to improve substantially in the near future, and as it is not possible to substitute men | on most of the work the output must I continue to be limited to something in the vicinity of the present output." For this reason the Government'had issued import licenses on Canada, the United Kingdom, and South Africa for the first half of this year, and when this tobacco and cigarettes commenced to arrive the increase in supplies to the public should be approximately 20 per cent, ofr the present quotas. These supplies would be distributed through the ordinary trade channels, and the latest advice indicated that the first shipment, which would be Canadian cigarettes, should land before the end olf next month. Advice was awaited as to' shipments ordered from other countries. Mr Sullivan said that another factor in the tobacco shortage was the discharge of a huge number of men from the forces in the past six months. (Referring to the question of special allocations for particular groups of workers, he said that when supplies became very short arrangements were made for certain workers, particularly seasonal ones who move around the country, to have special allocations through local stores. Seasonal and itinerant workers were not able to secure ' supplies from stores in the locality in which they happened to be, and increased allocations were made through local stores or works canteens where there were influxes of freezing workers, shearers, and Public Works gangs, as well as in cases where considerable numbers of workers had been directed from their homes to sawmills and mines. Mr Sullivan said there was no truth in the rumour that merchants were,'for some obscure reason, withholding stocks of tobacco and from the market. He was' informed that supplies were moving through the distributors' channels from the factories to the shops as quickly as deliveries could be made. The output from the local factories could be increased, concluded Mr Sullivan, by the factories being able to attract more female labour to their employ.