FIJIAN INDUSTRY

Evening Post, Volume XCIX, Issue 69, 22 March 1920, Page 7

FIJIAN INDUSTRY

PARLIAMENTARY INVESTI-

GATIONS

SUGAR PRICES AND PRO.

DUCTION.

(BY TELEGRAPH.—PRESS ASSOCIATION.) (By Wireless from the Mokoia.)

.. THe Parliamentary party visited Lautoka on Thursday in charge of Mr. Sidey: As a result of the courtesy of the officers of the Colonial Sugar Company, this proved one, of the most instructive visits^of the tour.' In two days 'they travelled over 120 miles on a narrowguage- _ railway along the coast line; through alluvial plains, great areas of which were planted with sugar cane. Sugai- is Fiji's biggest crop, and New Zealand is her biggest customer. There is now no indentured la,bour in Fiji. The field workers are paid half-a-crowii per day, against a shilling before- the' war; and find their own ftjpd. Many Hiildus lease blocks of five' acres and grow cane. Ail the planters' are guaranteed for 1920 an average of 15s per ton for cut cane, which is delivered at thei mill free over the company's railways. The crops average about 25 tons an atr-e. The planters are anxious that the New Zealand Government should negotiate with the company for at least a three-years' agreement, in order that the price may be guaranteed to planters for that period, which represents the cropping lifo of sugar cane. It is stated that as a. result, of uncertainty, owing to the short twelve months' agreement, some are refraining from planting, and no new development has been undertaken. Planters contend also that it is to the interest of New Zealand consumers to have the price fixed for. a longer period. Before the war the price was guaranteed for five years. The company's Lautoka mill is one of the largest in the world. After the cane is fed into the elevators it is not touched through the whole process till sewri into bags and lifted into trucks. The party will now probably reach Auckland on 25th March.