The Press. Monday, December 18, 1916. A Sugar Crisis.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 15776, 18 December 1916, Page 6

The Press. Monday, December 18, 1916. A Sugar Crisis.

A very extraordinary position has arisen in Queensland in regard to the sugar industry. It is not an unusual thing, even in New Zealand, to find employees refusing to work under an award of the Court.on the ground that they consider it unsatisfactory, but in Queensland the spectacle has been witnessed of the employers in an important industry closing down operations on the ground that if they were to pay the wages awarded by the Court it would simply force them into bankruptcy. We refer to the sugargrowers in Queensland, who wero doubly hit. The Commonwealth Government having regard to the interest of the consumer fixed the price of refined sugar at a comparatively low figure. The Acting-Judge of the Industrial Court of Queensland having before him a claim of the Sugarmill and Sugar Field Workers gave such large increases of wages and imposed other conditions which the sugar-growers considered so onerous that they refused to carry on the industry upon such terms. For seven weeks they adhered to thi s determination, the cane meanwhile either rotting on the ground, or drying up on the stools. Then thoy resumed operations under protest, but it is estimated that the loss of seven weeks of the cutting season will reduce the output of sugar by many thousands of tons, thus entailing the purchase abroad of a similar quantity, seeing that under the most favourable circumstances the production of sugar in Australia this season was expected to be from 70,000 to 100,000 tons below requirements. Perusal of Acting-Judge Dickson's award, which occupies 32 closely-print-ed pages of the "Queensland Govern- " ment Gazette" is sufficient to show, even to one who is not an expert, that it must have come in the nature of a bombshell to the sugar-planters and mill-owners. As compared with tho previous award framed by Judge McNaughton, some extraordinary increases of wages were shown. Firemen in mills had. their pay increased from £2 ISs to' £4 ss, and greasers and trimmers from £2 17s to. £4 2s. Sugarboilers. who had been receiving £4 4s, ; were raised to £5 10s. Nor did the men on the land fare any worse, j Ploughmen's wages were increased from £2 15s to £4 2s. and canecutters from £3 12s to £5 2s. But the increase in wages was not the only feature of the award which staggered the employers. It provided that every employer should provide all employees with accommodation free of charge, in conformity with the "Workers' Accommodation Act" of 1915. and in addition thereto, the employer must provide wire strctchers, mattresses, and brooms. Tn all cases artificial light for all purposes was to be provided by the employer, on whose shoulders the men sought to impose the duty of keeping the huts clean, but this was disallowed by the Court. On plantations where ten or more men are employed the employer, if desired by the employees, was to supply a weekly dietary of 531b of solid food, including 141b of meat, 101b of bread, and also, including not only milk, vege- j tables, the ordinary groceries, together j with soap, matches, etc., but a long j list of luxuries ranging from fish ! pastes to desiccated cocoanut, and j from bay leaves to icing sugar. Tho \ charge for this liberal provision is limited to 19s in the south, and 20s per week in the north, but the cost to the employer according to the figures Quoted by the Judge, would amount to £1 Is in the south, and in the north

£1 5s 6d. In addition, the employer has to pay the cost of cooking, which must bo quite a substantial item, seeing, that under the award tho lowest rate of wags* payable tr> cooks is 13s lCkl per day to chief cooks. 12s 10l to second cook?., and 10s to "cook's " offsider." In considering the rates of wages it must bo borne in mind that cane-cut-ting. like sheep-shearing, is seasonal work, and that white labour in a hot climate like that of Queensland deserves to be well paid. It cannot, however, be to the advantage either of the community or of the workers that any staplo industry should be hampered and discouraged as the sugar industry in Queensland has been hampered and discouraged in the manner we have described. Two entirely incompatible objects seemed to have been aimed at by two conflicting authorities without any attempt at co-ordinating their work. The Commonwealth Government sought to appease the clamour about tho "cost of living" by fixing the maximum price of sugar. The ActingJudge of the Industrial Court appointed by tho Labour Government of the State of Queensland sought to make sugar-cutting as attractive . as possible to white labour, in £>w of the desirableness on national grounds of reducing the employment, of imported colour labour. Although the sugargrowers resumed operations under protest rather than see the whole of the crop perish, wo are told that they have not planted any fresh area. Tho local supply of sugar in this time" of national crisis has already bean materially decreased, necessitating heavier importations, so that tho prospects of cheap sugar for Australia seem remote. Worse than this, the President of tho Cane-growers' Association unhesitatingly declares that unless the whole award is recast in a drastically modified form the days of the sugar industry are numbered, and its total destruction is within measurable distance.