THE SUGAR SHORTAGE

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 117, 11 February 1920, Page 7

THE SUGAR SHORTAGE

ALLEGED HOARDING

PRIME MINISTER'S OPINION Ever since th'o statement was roiule by the Prime Minister that tlio output of tho Sugar Uouipany' ( s mills has been tlio sauio this vear as it hns ever been, slightly bettor, in fact, tliero liave be"susraeiitions made that someone must l>o hoarding sugar in expectation of a rise in the nrice of sugar at the expiry of tlio present Agreement in three months' time. All nvnilable evidence should supnort the theory that there will be a riso in tho nrice of sugar when a new agreement has to be made. Sugar is, and has been for some years, cheaper in New Zealand than in any other part of tho world. It has already liecn reported that tho comnaiiy has had. to pay higher nrices for cane in Fiji, and no doubt the nresenf. strike is for still higher prices. So that hoarding sugar might prove to bo eood business. Mr. Mnssev was asked for bis opinion on tho resorts of hoarding on tho part of middlemen or others. He replied that lie was unable' to say whether anything of the sort was going on, but be thought it unlikely. The outnut was still 1200 tons a vf<!k, and an officer had been sent to Auckland to supervise the rationing of supplies' to localities nccordimr to population. Every elTort was beine made to ensure the fair distribution of available supplies. He thought that the reasons for the present shortace were that the country had been bare of suiar at the opening of the fruit season, chiefly owing to the loss of one whole careo o fsngar which the watersiders at Auckland would not unload, that the fruit season had been- a good one, makins: the demands for sugar for prcscrvine very heavy, and that tho population of the country had been increased iiv the return from the war of thousands of men. all users of sugar.