TOBACCO INDUSTRY

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 71, Issue 6143, 1 October 1945, Page 6

TOBACCO INDUSTRY

GROWTH IN NEW ZEALAND The rapid expansion tobacco-grow-ing has made in New Zealand in the past nine years. was revealed in a paper on “Tobacco Curing by Electricity,” read by Mr N. A. Andrews, ! engineer to the Waimea Electric i Power Board, at the conference of the i Electric Supply Authority Engineers’ Association of New’ Zealand in Wellington. “There are 420 tobacco growers in the Nelson area this year, and 180 are in the board’s area of supply,” said Mr Andrews. Of the 310 kilns owned by the growers, 180 are dependent on electricity for operating. Electricity has become the brains of the heating process even if it cannot economically supply the heat units required.

“Experience has shown that highgrade Nelson tobacco compares favourably with similar grades of fluecured tobacco in the U.S.A, and Canada, and is in many cases superior to that grown in Victoria. Chemical tests carried out at the Cawthron Institute indicate the percentage of sugars and nitrogen are similar to those in corresponding leaf samples from the U.S.A. The Nelson district enjoys advantages for flue-cured tobacco culture not obtained in other districts in New Zealand. It has sheltered conditions, relative freedom from frosts, and a satisfactory rainfall. These favourable conditions are associated with occurrence of soils of the right texture and mineral composition for the production of high quality leaf.

“The production of New Zealand leaf is less than half the total tobacco manufactured in the country, the balance being imported and blended. The New Zealand smoker is gradually being educated to consumption of a blend containing 75 per cent, domestic leaf, by a provision that manufacturers must use an increasing percentage of New Zealand leaf in the blends.”