NEW ZEALAND TOBACCO.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5093, 25 February 1927, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND TOBACCO.

TEST OF ENGLISH MARKET,

TRIAL SHIPMENT TO BE MADE.

All being well, a shipment of New Zealand-grown tobacco sufficient to tost the London- market will be despatched at the end Of the season in order to definitely ascertain whether tobacco can be grown on a commercial scale in the Dominion. The only satisfactory way o'f testing the market is to grow a sufficient quantity t,o command attention and send this to London. Men with some knowledge of tobacco-growing sought the assistance of the Government in the matter, with the result that the Government has given a guarantee on the crop to be grown for export. The guarantee practically amounts to financing the shipment of the crop. In consequence of this an area of about 30 acres has been planted in tobacco in Nelson, and at the present time is developing very .satisfactorily. The Agricultural Department’s horticulturist is watching the experiment closely, and is at the moment making further investigations in the Nelson district. It is hoped to send something like a five-ton shipment o’f leafSome time will then have to elapse inorder tascertain if the quality and flavour are of a kind likely to prove popular, and that the price returned will make tobacqp-growing a paying proposition in New Zealand, Over 96 per cent, of the tobacc" used in England is imported from foreign countries and but an infinitesimal portion from any part of the Empire. It is hoped that the present experiment will open up a new channel o'f productivity in the Dominion.