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APPENDIX II.PRECIS OF EVIDENCE PRESENTED BY SENATOR SIR NUGENT EVERARD, ON BEHALF OF THE FEDERATION OF IRISH INDUSTRIES AND OF THE IRISH INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION.1. The terms of reference to the Committee of the Dáil holding this inquiry should be read in connection with the statement of the Minister for Finance in the Dáil on June 11th, 1925, and on which the amendment moved by Mr. Mulvany, T. D., to the Finance Bill of 1925 was withdrawn. The Minister for Finance stated, on page 763 (Official Report): “We are anxious that the tobacco growing industry should be made to take root and become established here if possible,” and on page 764: “We are, as I said, willing to do anything that seems likely to result in success, provided it is not at an outrageous cost.” Again, on same page: “I would suggest that we should see whether the 1s. 6d. is sufficient or not. This is a question of what is necessary on going into the figures. I would say that this is one of the things that some time later on, and well before the next Budget, might be very freely examined by a Committee.” Evidence was submitted to the Agricultural Commission in 1922 by witness, and by the Department of Agriculture’s tobacco expert, Mr. G. N. Keller. The findings of the Commission were embodied in an interim report published in the public Press, the final paragraph of which is as follows:—“Whether the remission of duty is total or partial, the grower, as distinguished from the manufacturer, should be relieved of all Excise restrictions and regulations, which at present interfere with the successful cultivation of the crop.” No action has been taken on this report by the Government. 2. For the benefit of those members of the Committee who are unacquainted with the history of tobacco-growing in Ireland, it might be advisable to give a short resumé. In 1584, Sir Walter Raleigh, on his return from North America, sowed the seed of the tobacco plant in his garden at Myrtle Grove, near Youghal, as well as the first potatoes. Both appear to have succeeded, and their cultivation soon spread throughout the country. Charles the First, who had made tobacco imported from the Colonies a royal monopoly, prohibited its cultivation in England, but it was not until 1672 that by an Act of Charles II. the prohibition was extended to Ireland, under a fine of £1,600 per acre. The preamble of this Act stated that its object was “to protect the Colonies and Plantations of this country (England) in America.” In 1779 the Colonies having revolted, the prohibition of tobacco culture in Ireland was removed, the preamble of the repealing Act stating that “Irish produce is to be encouraged so long as it does not interfere with the commercial interests of Great Britain.” The suppression of tobacco culture in Ireland for over a century. however, had caused an entire loss of the technical knowledge and skill required to produce satisfactory results, and it was fully twenty years before tobacco-cultivating again became an industry of national importance. For some years prior to 1830, this growing industry had become established in the following counties:—Wexford, Wicklow, Waterford, Dublin, Carlow, Kilkenny, Sligo, Limerick, Tipperary, Cork, Meath and Kildare. In County Wexford over a thousand acres of tobacco were planted. There were at that time over 130 tobacco factories, of which only about a dozen survive. The very success of the industry, however, was the cause of its undoing. It was alleged that “the commercial interests of England” were interfered with, and a committee of the House of Commons which sat in 1830 under Sir John Parnell recommended the suppression of tobacco-growing in Ireland. The evidence upon which the committee reported “that it was expedient to discontinue the growth of Irish tobacco from January 1st, 1830” and upon which Parliament acted, was based principally upon that given by the London manufacturers. One leading witness stated that “if the leaf was continued to be grown in Ireland it would ruin the business of the English and Scotch manufacturers, as, naturally, the Irish manufacturers, having the leaf at a cheaper price at hand, would be able to turn out the manufactured tobacco cheaper and better than they (the English manufacturers) possibly could.” There was at that time a considerable export trade of both unmanufactured and manufactured tobacco from Ireland. It was stated in the House of Commons without contradiction that up to 1821, the bulk of the tobacco consumed in England was imported from Ireland. See Hansard, Vol 12, No. 167, page 1295. The evidence given by Irish witnesses was entirely ignored. Mr. Francis Davis, of Enniscorthy, stated:—“Tobacco planting has had the most beneficial effects: in the neighbourhood where I live, when I began the cultivation of tobacco the peasants were extremely wretched; only a portion of the men had employment, and there was no employment for women and children. The last season I do not know an instance of any person disposed to work that was not able to find employment.” Mr. Brodigan, of Pilltown, Co. Meath, gave even stronger evidence in favour of the industry, stating that “during times of scarcity, tobacco cultivation saved hundreds from famine and the country from resulting disorder.” The Royal Dublin Society appointed a Committee to make inquiry respecting “the present state of the culture of tobacco in Ireland.” The report of the Committee was presented on April 22nd, 1830, and it was “ordered that the report be confirmed and that copies thereof be distributed.” It contains the following statement:— “well may the bare suggestion of any scheme that has a tendency to withdraw from the country, or even to diminish the source of such blessings, justify the unanimous expressions we have received from all quarters of anxiety for its preservation.” Again:— “The net result of the existing state of things has been the production of an article of general use on cheaper terms. The consumer has, no doubt, enjoyed the benefit, and we are not aware that any equivalent inconvenience has attended it. Any apprehended diminution of revenue from increased home production has, we believe, been countervailed by a general increase of consumption. In Ireland since the year 1799, the growth and sale of tobacco have been entirely unrestricted, while all foreign tobacco pays 3/- per lb. duty.” “We conclude this, our report, by earnestly expressing a hope, on the ground of expediency as well as humanity, that any alteration of the law now meditated tending to repress this culture may be a gradual one, as we cannot without anxiety contemplate any abrupt check on this infant source of our industry that must not at once operate to the derangement of invested capital, the frustration of existing arrangements, the disappointments of hopes, and, above all, the dismissal from profitable employment of thousands of our labouring and long-suffering people.” 3. Witness, in studying the question of industrial revival, learned of the above facts, and caused experiments to be initiated. The experimental period, which commenced in 1898, terminated in 1923. It is important, therefore, that no time should be lost in formulating a policy calculated to restore to Ireland a once great industry on sound and permanent lines. The experiments devised by the Department of Agriculture have implanted the knowledge of tobacco cultivation on modern lines amongst 221 growers residing in the Counties of Meath, Offaly, Limerick, Wexford, Louth, Kilkenny, Wicklow, Tipperary, Cork and Dublin, whose present condition of anxiety is somewhat similar to that of the tobacco growers in 1830, when the industry was suppressed by the British Government, as described in the foregoing account. From the period of its suppression, tobacco ceased to be grown in Ireland until 1898, when it was permitted upon an experimental scale under the control of the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction. These experiments were aided by grants from the British Treasury either in the form of refunds of duty or by acreable subsidies, the latter having a most damaging effect on the progress of the industry, as the same subsidy fixed at £50 per acre was paid to all licensed growers without any regard to the results obtained. The latest development took place in 1914, when a scheme of re-handling experiments with an acreable grant of £25 was devised by the D.A.T.I., approved by the Development Commission, and to carry out which the British Treasury allocated a sum of £75,000 under Section 6 of the Development Act, 1909. This scheme, which terminated in 1923, was administered by Lord Dunraven and Witness in their respective districts under the control of the Department. Owing to the altered conditions of agriculture brought about by the War and the introduction of Imperial preference, the scheme became hopelessly uneconomic. The growers were reduced to less than a quarter of their original number, and the subsidy correspondingly reduced was no longer sufficient to meet the requirements of the scheme, and the re-handlers became involved in heavy losses. Only about two-thirds of the original grant of £75,000 was expended upon the scheme, and the balance was handed over to the Free State. The attitude of the British Government, when approached in 1898, was largely influenced by knowledge of the fact that so lately as 1830 Parliament had ruthlessly stamped out the tobacco-growing industry in Ireland, and they frequently acknowledged the moral obligation of fostering its revival. Their modus operandi, however, consisted of relaxing the restrictions just sufficiently to make the experiments workable. 4. No attempt, however, has hitherto been made to place tobacco-growing upon an industrial basis. The bonds which were imposed by the Excise Department for the purpose of securing the Revenue were so heavy that they exercised an intimidatory effect upon would-be growers. In order to obtain a licence to grow tobacco, the applicant must enter into a bond of £50 per acre with a surety. If curing tobacco for a neighbour, the bond amounts to £500. Rehandlers who prepare tobacco for market are required to enter into a bond with sureties for £2,000, and in order to remove tobacco to a Government warehouse, £5,000 more. If he owns a private warehouse duly approved, a further bond of £3,000 is required. Witness could only persuade farmers to co-operate with him in carrying out the Department’s scheme of experiments by becoming surety for all their bonds himself. Excise regulations require the grower to give written notice to the proper revenue officer 24 hours before any important operation can be commenced; entries must be made on official forms, and permits obtained for removals, etc., under heavy penalties. Inspections at intervals, not exceeding 28 days, must be made by the Officer of the growing crop, and after harvesting at least once a week until removal. Supervisors also must occasionally visit every farm and once a fortnight, when the tobacco is being cured; they must also attend at the destruction of tobacco scrap used in other countries for the extraction of nicotine, the most valuable of all agricultural products. Collectors must see that Supervisors report regularly on the progress of the experiments. The curing of tobacco is also made subject to rules, which make it almost impossible to produce the best results, as they prohibit processes used in every other country. All these interferences are most harassing to growers and unknown in other countries where the growing is entirely unrestricted and supervision confined to the manufacturer. 5. Tobacco production is without an equal as regards employment provided for workers of both sexes. The following figures were given by Mr. Keller, the Department’s expert, to the Agricultural Commission:— Number of hours of manual labour per acre required for the production of various staple crops:—
Tobacco-growing does not conflict with the production of ordinary crops, but provides a considerable amount of employment at times when other work is scarce. Most of the work can be done by the wives and children of farmers and small holders. Being an intensive crop, it requires careful cultivation and heavy manuring, as a result of which all crops in rotation with tobacco are greatly benefited and wheat is a very profitable crop in Ireland when grown after tobacco. The above facts explain why tobacco growing is fostered by the Government of every agricultural country. As previously explained, tobacco-growing in Ireland is at present on an experimental basis, but the experiments have proved that the possibility of reviving the industry is dependent only upon the alteration of the laws affecting it. The experiments since 1914 have been organised on the approved American basis, whereby numerous small farmers grow and cure tobacco, which is prepared for market and sold by a rehandler specially equipped for the purpose. The rehandling station at Randlestown, Co. Meath, is equipped with expensive modern machinery, capable of dealing with the produce of 1,000 acres. Each grower was provided with the necessary glass-covered hot beds and curing barn for dealing with his own crop at a cost of about £100 per acre. The curing barn is a general-purpose structure equally suitable for cattle feeding and storage purposes. Thanks to the action of the Minister for Lands and Agriculture in arranging for short-term loans for the erection of curing-barns, new growers should be in a favourable position. The effect of the tobacco-growing industry on labour conditions would be to provide more regular and more general employment for those families engaged in its production. Their total earnings or labour income would be augmented to the above extent, which is an important consideration to small holders or labourers who might grow tobacco on the “conacre” system. 6. The amount of tobacco produced in other parts of the Empire has no relation to the amount required for their own consumption. In European countries tobacco is either made a State monopoly, or, as in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, etc., it is protected by import duties. In the case of Denmark, home-grown tobacco is taxed only one-sixth of the duty on foreign leaf, whereas in Ireland it is taxed five-sixths. In Canada and South Africa, Rhodesia and Nyasaland there is no tax of any account on home-grown leaf consumed in the country. In the first two Dominions above mentioned there was the same difficulty in overcoming the prejudice against home-grown tobacco on the part of manufacturers and the public as in Ireland. To show what sympathetic treatment by a Government can effect: in Rhodesia tobacco planting was begun in 1903, its exports have now reached four and a half million pounds per annum, whereas in Ireland, the experiments, commencing in 1898, have received little encouragement from the successive Governments. Mainly for fiscal reasons, tobacco planting has not been allowed to advance beyond the experimental stage. Without an assured market farmers can hardly be expected to put all their time and energies into the production of either tobacco or sugar beet. The home market only imports 7½ million pounds of leaf annually, and the trade, to the extent of over 80%, is in the hands of one Company, whereas our alternative is the British market, which has an annual import of over 229 million pounds. Empire countries are given the inducement of 2/- in the lb. preference in the customs duty in order to encourage increased production in these countries for export. An export allowance of 1/- per lb. would secure this market to Irish growers and enable them to compete with other Empire countries that have the advantage of cheap coloured labour, and do not suffer from the handicaps imposed upon them by reason of a fiscal system like ours. In order to facilitate the work of the Department’s tobacco expert, the witness established a plant-breeding research station and rehandling factory at Randlestown, at his own expense, where a thorough examination was made of the suitability of different varieties of tobacco to the soil and climate of Ireland. These included 183 imported varieties, 51 varieties and strains of Irish-grown seed, and 23 hybrids produced at Randlestown. The witness also established an experimental factory in Dublin, also at his own expense, in order to test the manufacturing and smoking qualities of Irish leaf. To this factory the Department’s expert had free access. could check every result, suggest improvements, and make any experiments he wished. By these means was established beyond dispute the proportions in which Irish tobacco could be blended; viz., from 10 to 50 per cent., according to quality of leaf. The following figures will prove this statement made by witness at a previous enquiry. From 1916 to 1925, a period of nine years, out of a total of 366,548 lbs. withdrawn from bond manufactured and sold by the Irish Tobacco Company 178,566 lbs. was Irish leaf. This statement can be verified by reference to the Excise Officers’ books. |
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