CIGAR MAKING IN SYDNEY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1031, 21 December 1883, Page 4

CIGAR MAKING IN SYDNEY.

Cigar making has been an industry "jlh'Sydney for many years, more or less, but it has not until comparatively lately taken any considerable proportions as a trade. However, if is now being entered on more extensively. About six or eight months ago, a cigar-making factory was opened at 102, Clarence street, by Messrs De Beer, Hart and I Go., asd. they have found so good a ifield’* for their manufactures that no doubt others will shortly follow in their footsteps. In this factory the whole process of cigar-making can be seen. The tobacco, packed in bales and boxes when it reaches the factory, is there unpacked, and in the quantities required, it is moistened or dried as occasion may necessitate. Only imported leaf is used, as the .colonial tobacco is said to be too course and poor in.quality. . In the composition of cigars thS'pYih'cipai tobaccos used are Connecticut, Virginian; and others of the States leaf, and Palmyra, -Savanna, Sumatra, Brazil, Giron, and • Manilla leaf. One .of the first’processes is to fetirtoveAhe stem’ from the leaves, and this being,dpne, so much inside filling and so much outside covering is served out to the workmen. First of all, the filler takes small quantities of leaf in proportions, ■, and lays them rin that they all he then'places these little <s ftdis» l o,f ,tobacco leaf in sets of wooden moulds, and placing the upper . pqrtion of the_ mould upon the lower, ’"puts me whole into a press where it is subjected to pressure. Whilst in the press the cigars are pricked to ensure them drawing well. When taken out they are trimmed and passed on to a set of T wprkraen, who with sharp knives cufleUves of tobacco into strips, and then dexterously roll these strips round the pressed tobacco taken from the mould. The end of the cigar is then neatly cut, and it is placed in a rack. %liS cigar' -hi this stage is, with thousands of others, passed on to a colorSOiter, who has acquired great profi-

- r ,qiency : in separating the cigars into p«classes of similar colors; these classes being Claro, Colorado Claro, Colorado, Colorado Maduro, and Maduro. He then binds the cigars in the different classes into bundles' of fifty each, and they are placed in sets of two bundles . each into cedar boxes. These boxes are principally .imported in pieces, and are put together ; ifr : the factory by boys, girls,.being, engaged to line them neatly with paper, 'and paste the necessary labels upon them, the trade mark and brand being burned into the wood by a stamp and press machine heated by gas. The labels used are printed in AmerSa-and: Germany, and are quite art ; in the way of advertisenitfentsi one- used by this firm for a special J Brand of cigar termed the Rheihgold, in allusion to the old German legend, being a beautifully finished Lpiece; i 6( .rwprk. After being placed in the boxes the cigars are then taken to an iron-lined room, where they are placed on shelves and allowed to remain for several months to seaspjrt. .. This room is heated by gas, aVways kept at ah equable temperature. When seasoned, the. cigars are sent out for sale. The manufacture of cigarettes is interesting for the dexterity with which those employed at ■Qhebvork roll up the tiny papers of tobacco with an evenness and quickness that shows much practice. It is. posfor a. very quick workman to turn a6out 18,000 cigarettes in a week, but 10,000 or 12,000 a week is -fair -‘Average work, ■ In making cigars, 2,000 a week is 5 a fair average for a man. ’VCfop'd ’industrious workmen—payment ''bpihg. by results —can earn as much as yXa’.tp.Ls 105 at. the trade. When we Considerthethousands of cigarand cigar--■ette’imakers daily employed throughout ■ the world in rolling the fragrant lewes, "affd the quan‘ity that each is capable /bf’making in that time, some faint idea ’ 6f the enormous annual consumption of these articles may be gamed, and the (.moralist may- ponder on the millions overling spent in the gratification of a habit,- but at the same time compute the amount of pleasure ’’gtiified and care forgotten, and of the 'multitude'"of'petty trouble? blown to the winds in the smoke of a cigar.