SUGAR SUPPLIES

Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 14, 18 January 1922, Page 6

SUGAR SUPPLIES

TALK OF BUNGLING.

There is a shortage of sugar in some parts of New Zealand, and the people who are feeling it are looking round for someone to blame. Mr. G. E. Sykes ' (Masterton) yesterday stated in the Houee of Representatives that in Masterton the position was so bad that the people were being rationed, and there were no' supplies to meet the extra demand for the jam-making season. This was unfortunate, as the Government had about 6000 tons in Auckland. He wanted to know whether it was the Board of Trade, the Colonial Sugar Co., or the Union Shipping Co. "that had "- bundled the shipments. The Minister of Industries and Commerce (the Hon. E. P. Lee) said that , the Board of Trade had not bungled the distribution, nor had the Sugar Co., and he knew of no bungling by the Union Co. He did know, however, that he had warned people that there were ample supplies in Auckland, and that •it would be advisablo to lay in stocks before the rush atj this time of the year commenced. Merchants had been Hying from hand to mouth, and when the demand increased there was a shortage. It was the fault of the merchants m failing to lay in stocks when- the freight was available. The Masterton traders had been following a go-slow policy in stocking sugar, and all he could say . now was that he was sorry that they had bungled it. Mr. Holland said that the Runanga Co-operative Society had ordered susjar in November, and had not received it. He knew that was the fault of the GreyI mouth merchants, but he suggested that an arrangement should be made by which the co-operative societies at least could purchase from ithe Si»-av Co. , -through the. Co-op»ative Societies \ Union. * ■ The Minister said he would consider if this proposal were feasible. West Coast people, he added, had ordered ' sugar, but had refused to order sufficient for a ship to be sent down.