Nelson Evening Mail TUESDAY, JUNE 15, 1920. NELSON’S SUGAR SUPPLIES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LIV, Issue LIV, 15 June 1920, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail TUESDAY, JUNE 15, 1920. NELSON’S SUGAR SUPPLIES

REPLYING to representations made by The Mail regarding sugai supplies for Nelson, the Board or Trade states that the average total supply of sugar per month to Nelson is approximately . 16/ tons and that the sugar for distribution to consumers is supposed to provide lib per head, per week. Returns obtained from the Board or Trade’s Auckland office show the following summary of sugar entering Port Nelson. Tons. 1917-18 “dOB 19LS-19 1803 1919-20 _ •. , 1949 In the foregoing the year is taken from the Ist May to 30th April, and the cwts. and quarters are not given. The Board further' states that it is impossible at present to secure the exact allocations made to merchants, as some of the Nelson firms obtain their sugar supplies from Wellington wholesale houses and these quantities have not been tabulated, but are, says the Board, included in. the above return. This, it will be remembered, was the point that made finality difficult in the recent inquiries made locally by The Mail. It is, how*ever, pretty certain that very little sugar comes in in this manner. The Board of Trade goes on to state that It would appear that supplies to the principal mer- . chants during the period, January ■ to May . 1920, were G3 tons, short of Hie amount supplied for the same - period in 1919. “Practically all the merchants in the Dominion,” it says, “have had to suffer a reduction in sugar-.allocations, as , sugar has not been available in the same quantities as in previous years. Supplies to Messrs Kirkpatrick and Company have been similarly curtailed and they have not received for the period ending 31st May, 1920 the same quantities of sugar as were supplied to them in similar periods in 1918 and 1919. Other cities like Nelson have fori short periods, had no sugar supplies, owing to transportation troubles, but the Board has endeavoured to be fair to consumers in the .allocation of supplies. Shortages are, however, bound to occur for the simple reason that the sugar refined at Chelsea, has not totalled the tonnage that was manufactured in previous years.”

. Ifc is also stated that no’sugar is' being imported other than that brought from Fiji for the Chelsea Befinery, as a world shortage exists, and in most countries supplies are strictly rationed and prices are double and treble thatpaid in New Zealand.