I. —17

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(e) Representing National Tobacco Co.— Mr. C. C. Nash, Nelson district representative. Mr. W. E. Barnard, M.P. for Napier, handed in to the Committee a statement made to certain individual members' of Parliament by Mr. Gerhard Husheer, managing director, National Tobacco Co., Ltd., Napier. This statement was accepted in evidence. (e) Representing growers for the National Tobacco Co., Ltd. — Colonel C. B. Brereton, Ngatimoti district. Mr. F. W. Gibbs, Tapawera district. Mr. R. Lewis, WaimeS, district. Mr. F. A. Mayes, Pokororo district. Mr. J. A. McGlashan, Riwaka district. Mr. 0. C. Best, Pangatotara district. Mr. C. J. Boyes, Motueka district. Mr. C. F. Wilkinson, Stanley Brook district. Mr. L. H. Mitton, Woodstock district. Mr. D. C. Eggers, Upper Moutere district. (/) Representing Wills's growers — Mr. B. Rowling, Riwaka district. Mr. S. Fry, Motueka district. Mr. B. Lusty, Waimea district. Mr. W. M. Hawkes, Dovedale and Thorpe districts. Mr. L. P. Haycock, Pokororo district. Mr. R. R. Hodgkinson, Upper Moutere and Lower Moutere districts. Mr. J. F. Balck, Woodstock and Dovedale districts. (g) Representing other interests— Mr. B. Sutherland, Self-help Co-operative, Ltd., Wellington. Mr. S. F. Brame, tobacco expert, Nelson and Motueka growers. Mr. A. E. Bartlett, Marlborough growers. Mr. F. 0. Hamilton, Buxton and Co., Ltd., Nelson. Mr. S. G. Smith, Motueka Progress League. Individual members of the Committee have also taken the opportunity to visit the manufacturing tobacco-factories operated by the National Tobacco Co., Ltd., at Napier, and the Dominion Tobacco Co. and associated companies at Petone ; and also the tobacco-growing areas in the Nelson-Motueka district, and at Riverhead in the Auckland Province. History op Tobacco-growing in New Zealand. First introduced into the colony more than a century ago, tobacco-growing has since been carried on in a small way by the Maori and pakeha alike, and during the past forty years or so some Europeans in the northern part of the North Island have been producing a leaf in such quantities as to attract the attention of horticulturists. As a commercial enterprise, however, tobacco-growing in the Dominion owes its establishment to Mr. Gerhard Husheer, the present managing director of the National Tobacco Co., Ltd. His first crop was grown in 1911 at Pakipaki, outside of Napier, while at the same time he carried out experiments on behalf of the Department of Agriculture on the Government Experimental Farm at Arataki. Mr. C. E. Lowe, now Government Tobacco Instructor, commenced tobacco-growing in the Motueka district in 1916. In August, 1920, Mr. C. C. Nash, of Brightwater, planted a field of tobacco, and it gave a yield of a quality sufficient to convince Mr. Husheer of the possibilities of the NelsonMotueka district; and to this small beginning can be traced the great strides that tobacco-culture has made in that province. Messrs. W. D. and H. 0. Wills (N.Z.), Ltd., by their expert, Mr. J. T. Whittaker, carried out experiments in various parts of the Dominion in 1921-22, and commenced growing operations in the Nelson-Motueka district in 1927. Quality of New Zealand Leaf. Realizing that one of the cardinal factors governing the industry in the Dominion is the quality of the New Zealand leaf produced, your Committee has carefully inquired into this phase of the matter. We have sought to ascertain how the domestic leaf compares with that grown in the several United States and imported as American leaf ; we have also, realizing the importance of such inquiry in view of the present policy of the Empire Marketing Board, probed the question as to how New Zealand leaf compares with that produced in other countries within the Empire. We have sought thus information regarding the burn, the aroma, the physical and chemical constitution of the leaf, and its smoking-qualities ; we have inquired as to whether tests have been carried out to determine what methods of processing—whether by heat, moisture, added substances, or removal of injurious substances —would improve such leaf. In this connection we attach very great value to the statement of Mr. G. Husheer, managing director of the National Tobacco Co., who has been handling leaf as a manufacturer longer than any other person or company in the Dominion. Mr. Husheer states : — " Our greatest difficulty was to remove the prejudice that still existed in many quarters, and wean smokers off the American and other imported tobacco and get them to recognize the merits of the New-Zealand-manufactured tobacco, The New Zealand leaf is distinct from any other grown