DEAR SUGAR FOR AUSTRALIA.

Marlborough Express, Volume LIIII, Issue 83, 9 April 1920, Page 6

DEAR SUGAR FOR AUSTRALIA.

FORTUNATE NEW ZEALAND.

SYDNEY, tffarch 26. It is reported here that New Zealand, as a result of some shrewd or lucky agreement made a long time ago, has sugar at 3d per pound. Lucky New Zealand I Australia, up till now has had sugar, in somewhat short supply, at <s£d; but now the end has come, and it risking to be 6d or Yd in future. Tlpfif} a result of a combination of itiogk and Government bungling^1 ;, ; ; This country consumes about 200,----000 tons of vsugar a year, and -has been known in a. good season to prpduce 300,000 tons. But. in recent years the industry has been shockingly -neglected. The Federal Government took charge of sugar production and markzting as a- war measure, and fought bitterly with the Queensland Government- about it, the Queensland Government regarding this control as an invasion of its sovereign rights.. Between thorn they tore the industry to pieces. The Queensland Government placed heavy wages burdens '. upon at. The Federal Government, anxious to keep the people quiet, fed , them with cheap sugar, and refused to give the grower the price he wanted. And so, as was to be expected, the production of sugar cano dwindled rapidly. The Government simply made ui> the deficiency— amounting last season to 100,000 tons —r-by purchases I abroad. And then the sugar market went mad, and the Government, driven to-day to foreign ; markets by the shortage of home pro- ; duction, lias to pay anything up to ! £80 per ton for raw sugar, for which it is allowing the Australian grower £21.

Hence some rapid changes in the sugar situation. Since the Government must pay the world's parity for sugar, the people must now pay at least 6d per pound for it. The Government, too late, is awakening to the need of encouraging local production. It has raised the price for raw sugar from £21 to £30 6s Sd per ton; but it is too late to stimulate the 1920 crop, on which a shortage of anything up to 100,000 tons is estimated. I^ad the Government only had the foresight to guard and encourage local production of sugar, Australian manufacture!*:* who use sugar wo aid to-day have had a unique advantage over all the manufacturers of the world. The muddling Government nominally controls the distribution of the available s-'ugar supplies. Actually, it has left them in hands where most scandalous things am permitted. Generally speaking, the wealthy classes caii get as much sugar as they vtait, while the poorer classes are piactically on rations.