THE SUGAR BOUNTIES.

Evening Star, Issue 7254, 4 July 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE SUGAR BOUNTIES.

TO THB EDITOR. Sir,— The sugar refiners in England at the present time are In apitiable condition, owing to the competition of the German competitor, who is the recipient of liberal assistance in the shape of protection from the German Government. Unthinking Protectionists immediately assume that the only remedy is letiliation—that is, placing a heavy duty on sugar imported into England from foreign countries; and this argument is of i ourse supported by the English sugarman, who declares that if not protected he will be ruined. It may not be generally known that if a duty were imposed on foreign sugar there are industries to whom cheap sugar is absolutely necessary that would be brought into the same state as the sugar refiners are now. I allude to the biscuit, confectionery, mineral water, and cattle-feeding industries. The first two alone, viz., the biscuit and confectionery or sweets industry, employ double the number of hands to be found in the whole of the sugar refineries in England put together. Whilst out hearty sympathy therefore may be extended to the unfortunate sugar refiners under the present state of things, it would be unquestionably wrong to introduce Protection (or their possible benefit, thus ignoring the 12,000 hands employed in the two industries referred to, and whose interests should be Just as much a ears of the State as those of the refiners. Meantime the English biscuit and confection manufacturers undersell the German manufacturer in his own market, and the German housewife has to pay twice as much for her sugar as her English sister. The same run irk bolds good in America, where the consumers as a whole pay 1.14,500,000 per annum to bolster up a languishing Industry—l am, etc., Australian. Dunedin, June 28.