Tobacco Industry

New Guinea Has A New Tobacco Industry

TOBACCO is part of the officia ration for New Guinea native; —the nation usually being base* on stick-tobacco of the old-fashione» trade kind.

The more sophisticated natives however, grew away from the blacl licorice-like bar some time ago am most of them now prefer what the;; usually call “capstan” (no matte what its brand), meaning ready rubbed.

There were a number of attempt! to establish a stick-tobacco industr before the war but the flavou achieved never seemed, in the loca native’s estimation, to come up tl the imported variety.

A new company, recently estate lished in Madang, NG, is now prcr viding locally the ready-rubbe; variety. This is packed in plasti bags.

Pacific Tobacco and Developmen Ltd., has called its product “Manic Brand” tobacco —maruk being tte native name for the local cassowan The company has built a facton in Madang and equipped it witt expensive and up-to-date machinery At present, due to the unsuitabililt of native leaf, tobacco is import© but it is hoped that in the future the leaf itself will also be produce locally.

With this in view, seed has be© procured from overseas and is noe being grown experimentally i nurseries. Pamphlets and instruej tion sheets have been issued by tM company to interested persons wH could like to try tobacco as a cas crop. If the idea catches on, could be another agricultural ente:? prise for Europeans and natives. t Lieutenant K. C. H. Cadmar RNZN, has been appointed New Zealand Naval Liaison Office in Fiji. He succeeded Lieutenanr Commander E. H. O. Bryan, RNZ.: