THE SUGAR SHORTAGE.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 142, 15 June 1920, Page 2

THE SUGAR SHORTAGE.

POSITION REAIXY ACUTE. J I VARIOUS KXPLANATION'S. '] Tin- iuinoumement that a rise in tie J ! retail price of sugar has been agreed ■ upon by merchant!) at Christchurch ! caused inquiries to be made as to the ' state of affairs locally. The rise i n ; Chri.stclwrcli is from 3-Jd to 3£d per ,Ib, ami the merchants ure prepared to • stand their ground in the event of the I Board of Trade, refusing approval. It i 8 i claimed that present prices fail to meet 'J overhead charges, and that grocers are I not receiving any consideration fromth« Government. ! | The fact ha? long been recognised that i the margin of profit on sugar has been far to:) small, but as there is to be t change on July 1 under the. new arrange- ' mrnt with the Government, there is not much chance of prices being altered for '■the balance of June. 'i "The trouble," said the riead of one large retail firm, "is not the price at which sugar is sold, but to get supplies '; for our customers." The suggestion that ' people were hoarding sugar in the hope ■of getting a bigger profit after the Ist f. 'of July met with a prompt denial. ;| ''Xeither merchants nor retailers nave ) had the sugar to hoard," he said. "AH -■ those rumours are absolutely untrue.* \ '; The "Star" representative was taken ! to the store. "There is our stock of sugar." waa the remark as four 701 i li : ' bags were pointed out. It was explained \- r- \ that various causes contributed to the f ehortage of sugar. In 1913 it took the I ! company all its time To supply the re- I ■ quirements of the Dominion, and even I ] then when jam making was in season, a f shipment of sugar was brought over f . from Australia to the South. Now [; with returned Boldiers and their wires,' there aie about 100.000 more people to t. .be supplied, and as the average per head | is 21b of sugar, that means 200,000 extra I to bo provided. At the present time it I is utterly impossible to import refined • sugar from abroad. One merchant said: ? "'I hold no brief for the Sugar Company, I but I know it is doing all it can to keep '■ supplies going. You can only refine as C much sugar as the plant can deal with, l> During the war there has been a develop- | ment of the manufacture of confectionery I owing to stoppage of imports from 1 Europe. This, of course, means more [ sugar consumed. Then, too, there hat [ been an increase in the population [ during the last year." ) CONTROL OF SUPPLIES. Another merchant iv the trade remarked that he thought country store- 1 keepers were better supplied with sugar 1 ; than those in town, in proportion to i their customers. a storekeeper from the YVaikato was asked: ''Bow are you off for sugar?" and he replied,-I have been able to get all I require so far." As far as the Sugar Company i& con- | corned, the position for some time-.past f. has been that all. deliveries were made I according to allocation by an officer of the Board of Trade. From 300 to 400 I tons of sugar are distributed weekly in I and around the city, and other lots are sent to various centres, as directed by the Board of Trade's representative. In order to prevent the possibility of hoarding stocks of sugar in anticipation of an advance after July 1 next, the i Board of Trade has .power to inspect , all stocks, apart from the fact that I !by allocating supplies, it is pretty well known how each firm is situated in that respect. One thinjr is quite certain, i there is a great shortage of sugar; that retailers are being worried by their ens- I tomers to supph- an article upon which there is very little profit to handle at present prices, even if ample stock* lj were available-. . I-