WHAT A WHITE AUSTRALIA COSTS.

Mataura Ensign, Issue 1419, 3 December 1904, Page 8

WHAT A WHITE AUSTRALIA COSTS.

Thu sugar-growers are ulrcndy beginning to agitate for the renewal of the conditions muier which tliey are at present producing—tho Act expiring at. the end of 1!">I>. ]t is not to bo supposed that l'ailiamcnt will, at that date, ruthlessly cut oil' all once, but at th? same time it if tliut the people should know what they are paying uud are likely to pay for* the production of sugar in Australia by white labor. The consumption of "sugar in Australia ninouus to about IcU.OOO tons annually. When it is all produced in Australia by white labor tho revenue will benolil to the extent of only £1 per toil, cr a total of £IBO,OOO. The revenue, derived from sugar in l;102-03—before tho new laws began to operate—was £789,0011. There is, therefore, a clear loss of revenue foreshadowed to the enormous extent of .£lioll,ooo annually. This will come about as follows:—The j duty on imported sugar is £<i per ton. The excise on Australian sugar is'.Cli per ton. But on all this sugar grown by while labor a bonus of £-' jxsr ton is" granted, so that only £1 per ton is left to the revenue from Australian white-grown sugar. I'p to the pres'iit the loss of -revenue amounts to £1012,000 a year, but at tho end of li'Oli, when ihe law requires that black labor shall cease to be used, the lossimusl be as stutod—£6ooo,ooo per annum—if the request of the plantar be granted, and tho present conditions bo renewed. Not a fraction of this revenue loss conies back to tin- consumers in the shape of reduced pr.ee. The Commonwealth might, on the other hand, import all its sugar, obtain C<> per ton import duty on it.

and the public buy'saga at exactly iho same prico as to-dav. A return just furnished to the Commonwealth treasurer »w>..s that up to Ue „.. •»- se.,t tiiC Donus oi x.l per i oa pa ,d j lir ' uie production of sugar | jy w hiu> or has liad scarcely any elfect iu extolling black labor. It is nearly n l| paid to producers in temperate districts, where white labor was forwrly employed. It constitutes a present of £2 per ton paid to them f„ r curryiuc on production as they carried it on before. Almost twice the quantity rf sugar is anticipated lliis year j„ t .,„ northern district of Queensland from Wnck labor that «ns produced m the year 1'.102.-'AnHti-nlaKian.'