AUSTRALIAN TOBACCO.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18348, 14 March 1923, Page 7

AUSTRALIAN TOBACCO.

PROGRESS OF INDUSTRY.

Although 15,000,0001b. of tobacco is smoked in Australia every year, very few people know anything of the manner in which tobacco is produced and prepared for the smoker, says a Melbourne paper. The average Australian's knowledge of tobacco is that it is grown in America, and that the cost of smoking has risen. 100 per cent, in the last few years. He does not know that tobacco is grown in Australia, and that he is . probably smoking a proportion of Australian leaf when he enjoys a pipeful of his favourite plug or ' flake cat. At . present it is estimated that one-tenth of the tobacco consumed in Australia is locally grown. Some' of it is placed on the market unmixed with others, but the greater proportion is used to Wend with American leaf prepared tor smoking in Australia. Tobacco growing is not a new industry in Australia. It was introduced over 50 years ago by a few Americans who came to the gold diggings, and found tobacco planting more profitable than searching for nuggets. Later the Chinese entered the industry, but they hindered its progress by producing inferior tobacco, It is only since the Victorian Government if recent years began to assist the cultivation of tobacco that the industry has begun to flourish, and the introduction of the flue-caring process of treating the leaf has placed the industry on a sound and profitable basis. *