"SUGAR SHORTAGE"

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 201, 25 August 1945, Page 4

"SUGAR SHORTAGE"

I read with interest an article on the shortage of sugar in New Zealand, the cause of which was attributed to the Indians in Fiji. The writer ought to have known that only a limited supply of sugar can be shipped to New Zealand. She can only have that amount which is allocated to her, irrespective of how much the Indians in Fiji produce. The statement that the present shortage in New Zealand is due to the strike of the farmers in Fiji is far from correct. In spite of the strike in that year there was a large surplus for export. Condemnation of the strike is unfair. Fiji is not the only country where strikes occur. I have been in New Zealand long enough to witness dozens of strikes. But I would be justified in savins; that Fiji is the only country where strikes are never successful—that, the Government always turns a deaf ear to the demands of the farmers. As for the statement about the New Zealand butter which the Indians consume, while turning their own butterfat into ghee, a large majority of Indians have their own cows. Tnev do not depend on New Zealand butter. It is the European population which clamours for New Zealand butter, not the Indian STILL A KAI-VITi;