THE SUGAR INDUSTRY

Marlborough Express, Volume LIII, Issue 272, 19 November 1919, Page 2

THE SUGAR INDUSTRY

PRICES IN THE FUTURE.

AN UNCERTAIN OUTLOOK.

Referring to the future prospects of the sugar industry in his address at the annual meeting of the Colonial Sugar Refining Oo.^Ltd., m Sydney, the chairman, the Hon. Ji. E Kater, said there was no indication of the company's business returning to its normal lines. "In the first place," he said, we have no idea what will be the course of the sugar market. No one can expect that the extraordinary prices now ruling elsewhere will continue, at any rate after the beet * sugar crop of 1920 is available for consumption, but these rates are now much above any we have, seen in the last 50 years, and it is uncertain whether they will prevail till towards the end of next year, or advance, or recede. Under any circumstances, you can derive no advantage from the present position, seeing that the 1919 crops in Australia and Fiji are being disposed of under arrangements made lons since with the Australian and New Zealand Governments, which provide for prices greatly below the values now ruling in other countries. "Then, in industrial affairs, the outlook must bring anxiety to all employers. '"' Everyone knows that there is no~ chance of existing wages conditions being maintained if business is to be done in the early future on the lines existing before the war, and, further, that, in every respect, there should be a great improvement in the output and cost of production as compared with the 1913 figures, if the country is to meet its indebtedness.

"Yet we see daily an advance in the pay of some trade, while there is at the same time a strong movement in the direction of- shortening the weekly working hours—a fatal course in a business like ours, where so large a portion of the mamifacturing expenses is represented by the fixed charges for interest, depreciation, and upkeep. And these troubles are aggravated by Government interference in the conduct of vital services like coal mining and sea traffic, in both of which there have been of late serious increases in cost because of such interference.

. "An immediate effect of the shipping trouble was the closing of our four refineries for so long a period that we have during the half-year, produced only two-thirds of the quantity of refined sugar usually made in those six months. This stoppage has added greatly to the cost of handling the quantity melted. "You will have seen in the newspapers some reference to our refusal to give to the Sugar Commission, which has sat during the past few months, the private details of the working of our mills and refineries. It is now becoming evident that the

action we took in. the direction of lessening the waste in manufacture, commenced nearly 40 years ago and maintained since with success, is regarded as imposing on us the obligation to explain to our competitors all that we have done in this direction. Of course, this would be, in every respect, impossible. Many alusions have been made in the newspapers of late to the application of science to industry, and you can estimate for yourselves the depth of feeling on this subject by the continuance of the efforts to break up ♦the one business -' in which some success has been achieved by the adoption of the methods of scienitfic control.

"Our attention has been given constantly throughout the half-year to the position of affairs in Fiji, and though I cannot say that this has materially improved since we last met, there are indications that the British Government begins to recognise that a serious injustice is being done to those who have invested money in the colony. In this connection it seemed desirable that we should be represented in London, and one of our officer's is now there to speak on our behalf."