Tobacco-Men Divided

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 86, 2 July 1927, Page 8

Tobacco-Men Divided

Is Local Industry Menaced ?

“ IjyE sit and dream, and idly smoke"—and in certain sunlit W garden-plots the fragrant tobacco plant is coaxed to maturity. Auckland, the Waikato, the Bay of Plenty, and territories further south, are interested in tobacco growing, but the calm content the weed induces is not general among planters, who are divided on points of policy, chiefly concerning the recent deal in the Nelson crop.

{CONFLICTING interests are closely following the development of tobacco-growing in New Zealand. At Port Ahuriri, Napier, is the substantial building of the National Tobacco Company, a New Zealand concern. Having expanded its business from a humble beginning, until now it blends and markets leaf purchased from growers in various districts from North Auckland to Nelson, the concern claims to have fathered tobacco-cultivation in New Zealand. All along it has faced the competition of powerful overseas combines. Now it finds that these are competing for the purchase of the New Zealand crop. ENTER W. D. AND H. O. WILLS Tobacco-growing in Nelson was backed by Government support in the form of a guaranteed return of 2s 3d a lb for kiln-dried leaf, and Is 4d a lb for air-cured or sun-cured leaf. These rates were set as the minimum. Actually it was planned to export the leaf, and much higher returns were anticipated when the crop was sold in London, so the growers were naturally surprised when the Minister of Agriculture announced that W. D. and H. O. Wills had arranged to buy the crop at the guaranteed figure. The point of view of the National Tobacco Company, which has expressed resentment at the Government’s action, is not difficult to understand. In a letter to THE SUN, the principals of the firm ask why the experiment of sending the leaf to London was not followed through, as intended. “Why,” they ask, “was not the National Tobacco Company approached and asked to tender for the leaf? As the pioneers, who introduced the industry into this country, we could have expected a little con-

sideration. Before the advent of the National Tobacco Company, tobaccogrowing was unknown in New Zealand. and the Agricultural Department had probably never seen a tobacco field, or possessed the knowledge of how to 'cultivate such a crop. GROWERS DISSATISFIED From the first the Nelson growers, naturally, were anxious to exploit their crop to the best financial advantage, and when the executive of their association clinchtfd the deal with It . D. and H. O. Wills, many of them protested that the transaction secured them onlv the minimum guaranteed figure, that they lost the chance of a wider margin, and also the opportunity of testing their leaf on the London market. The last contingency, it appears, can be ruled out. as the t\ ills concern has agreed to send samples to London. Meanwhile there is evidence that the National Tobacco Company is still in the market, bidding at a higher figure, and many of the growers say they will not sell to Wills. In the Auckland district the dispute is particularly interesting, because hereabouts the cultivation of tobacco is a flourishing occupation, and because there are suggestions that the future of the industry in the Dominion is involved. .SUCCESS AT ROTORUA How far certain sheltered, sunny districts are fitted for tobacco-growing was realised by those who, at the Waikato and Rotorua Shows, examined exhibits of locally-grown leaf, an admirable product. Rotorua residents fully recognise the possibilities of the business, because at one of their town’s bestknown institutions, to wit, the police station, Senior-Sergeant Quinn has long cultivated the tobacco plant, with conspicuous success.