Housewives’ Union Wants Other Sources Of Sugar

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30348, 25 January 1964, Page 2

Housewives’ Union Wants Other Sources Of Sugar

In its concern about the sharp rise in the price of sugar to the consumer, the Canterbury Housewives Union would ask the New Zealand Government to make increased endeavours to obtain alternative supplies, said a statement issued yesterday by the union’s secretary (Mrs P. Hobson).

The union would ask the Government to cease following the United States in applying a boycott on Cuba as a possible source of sugar; to purchase sugar from suppliers other than the Colonial Sugar Refining Company, the statement said.

A New Zealand sugar beet Industry is also mentioned in the statement as an alternative source of supply. The statement reads as follows:—

“The Canterbury Housewives’ Union agrees with the Public Service Association and the Federation of Labour that the present exorbitant rise in sugar costs will have far-reaching effects on the economy of the country, and will require a substantial wage increase to compensate.

“Our main concern is for housewives, who will have to bear the brunt of the threat-

ening additional costs of such things as bread, preserves, jams, jellies, biscuits, etc., while the sugar companies revel in increased profits. “We also wonder how the world price of sugar is fixed; who buys from whom and where the additional profits go.

“At the time when the New Zealand Government created a fund to assist the Colonial Sugar Refining Company to maintain the earlier price in the face of world price increases, the company published a financial statement recording the highest-

ever profits for its shareholders.

“Since then the sugar company in Fiji and Australia has actually cut its costs by mechanisation and new varieties of sugar cane without any increase in wages to workers. Therefore, we wonder why New Zealand consumers should be required, through a price rise, to raise the company’s profits even higher. “The Canterbury Housewives’ Union would ask the New Zealand Government to cease its following of United States policy in applying a boycott on Cuba as a possible source of supply and make increased endeavours to obtain alternative supplies either from a New Zealand sugar beet industry or by purchasing from other companies than the C.S.R., which we feel, holds consumers to ransom by virtue of its present monopoly,” the statement says.