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Northern Advocate, 17 January 1920, Page 3

Referring to the increase in the prices of tobaccos and cigarettes, Mr J. W. G. Brodie j general manager of the British Empire Trading Company, which distributes most of the brands of tobaccos and cigarettes smoked in New Zealand to merchants, said it was mainly attributable to the extreme price of Virginian leaf, now up to 3s per pound. The State, of Virginia and those adjacent grew roughly 90 per cent, of the world's supply of pipe and cigarette tobacco. Other sources of supply were neglig-1 ible, except in the case of South! Africa, which was almost entirely self-supporting. Continental tobacco was but a factor, it being grown for blending purposes with Virginia leaf. Australia was growing quite a large amount of tobacco, but by itself it wa. s not smoked (except for some of th e greatest lines made up for the island trade), but was used for blending. Practically the whole world, then, looked to Virginia for supplies, and the demand had quite unstripped them, for ther e had been a great in- j crease in consumption since the war. There was far more smoking now than ever before, especially cigarettes, and an increase in pipe-smoking. The adverse exchange rate with the United States and greatly-increased cost of manufacturing labour and packing materials would also be responsible to a certain extent for the rise in prices now announced. The demand for tobacco on the part of Germany now that that country was able to trade again would also have a very important bearing upon the question.