BEETROOT SUGAR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIV, Issue 7898, 17 March 1887, Page 3

BEETROOT SUGAR.

/ TO THE EDITOR. Sib, —The telegraphic announcement that German/ is considering the advisability of redacitg the sugar bounty, .encourages the expectation that the days of the bounty ay«te*i are numbered. For some time past therf have been indications that lead to the conclusion that Continental Governments iare become alive to the unwisdom of the system, and that the fsystem is continued oflly because the necessities of the position, which are the result of the bounty system, have made its immediate abolition an impossibility. Sooner, or later, however, an ; end will come to the sugar bounties, and so 1 soon as the end draws near sugar beet growers in New Zealand may take courage, for they will have a fine time before them. In the' interest of the beetroot growers in New Zealand, it may be well to examine the position of the beetroot growers on the Continent of Europe, and trace the causes of the extreme depression which has brought widespread ruin in its train. To encourage the growth of beetroot sugar ' on the Continent of Europe has been a pet project of Continental Governments for three generations. The First Napoleon led the !

way, and largely taxed imported cane sugar to strengthen the hand* of French beet) growers, and to inflict damage on the Wests Indian colonies of the then great enemy of his country. In the course of time other Continental nations followed suit, and en* couraged native industry by taxing the imports of the foreign producer. The stimulus of artificial prices for beetroot thus created, induced a large extension of its growth, and the day at length came when the growth of beet sugar on the Continent exceeded the consumption of the Continent. The question then presented itself : What should be dons with the surplus ? To send it to the English market was absurd, became prions were always lower in England than on the Con* tinent. To retain it on the Continent, where stocks were always increasing, was equally absurd, because in the long run the pressure of stocks on the Continent would bring down prices there. The happy idea of establishing a bounty was oonoeived, and from that time till now the bounty system has been in force. Franoe, Germany, Belgium, Austria,and Russia give the bounty. But lo 1 the Balaam that was brought to bless the Continental nations and to curse England, has pronounced a curse on the Continent and a blessing on England. Black ruin stares the Continental beet grower and refiner in the faoe, and many millions are annually transferred from the pockets of the Continental people to the pockets of the English nation. Lest these statements should seem exag* gerated it may be well to examine the figures which prove them. The price of sugar has for many years been falling. Porto Rico grocery sugar, which some years since was 38s per cwt, has fallen to 12s 6d $ Java cargoes, from 40s to 14s; beetroot, from 36s to 9a 6d per cwt. When the bounty system first began to work, the outturn of beet sugar on the Continent of Europe was nob over 1,100,000 tons, and prices were then at a point which left a large margin of profit to the producer, but the operation of the tax on the import of cane sugar, together with the bounty on the export of beet, has been suoh a stimulus to the production of beet sugar that an immense, inorease has taken place, and daring the last four years the annual output has been over 2,500,000 tons, rather more than half of whioh has been available for export; this output, added to the supply of cane sugar, has been so greatly in excess of the consumption that notwithstanding the large inorease in the consumption caused by low prices—(and it is remarkable that the consumption of sngar in the United Kingdom now averages 74Iba per annum for every man, woman, and child in the United Kingdom) — stocks have con* tinned to inorease, and prioes have fallen much below the point at whioh beetroot sugar can be profitably grown. Beetroot sugar cannot be produced for 9s 6d per owt free on board; it is said that the nett cost to the producer is fully 15s per cwt, and that any prioe below that figure leaves him a loss# To mitigate that loss the bounty system is enforced, and as the average bounty on the export of beet is about 3s per ; !wt, the people on the continent are taxed about £3,900,000 on the about 1,300,000 tons exported, which £3,900,000 are paid to the beetroot growers and refiners who export them. In Russia, owing to the extreme depression in prices, and the prospect of imminent oollapse of the whole trade" there, the Government were induoed in the autumn of 18&5 to raise the bounty to something over 6s per cwt. The consumption of sugar in the United Kingdom has for some time exceeded 1,200,000 tons, and the reduction of the price by some 25s per owt. is a matter of considerable importance to the people of the United Kingdom, and the people of the United Kingdom are quite alive to the ad* vantages of the position. They know that if they buy sugar at 9s 61 whioh costs 15s to produce, that whether the loss falls upon tbeContinental producer or is made up to the produoer by the Continental government, they at all events are benefited to the extent of 5s 6d per cwt. at the expense of the Continent, and if the result of the working of the bounty system is to give them their sugar at 5s 6d per cwt. below the oost they accept the present joyfully, and do not care a fig that the Continental people are content to divide the loss between tne pro* ducer and the taxpayer. Lord Randolph Churchill, in speaking to a deputation of sugar refiners, who complained to him that the bounty system had damaged the English refiners' business, said:—"lam truly sorry to hear that the result of the bounty system is to injure you in yourbusine&s ; but I have still to learn that any complaint has been made by those who are most largely interested in the system, viz., the consumers of sugar in the United Kingdom." The price of sugar is kept up on the Con* tinent, and kept down in the United Kingdom by the bounty, and the whole of the immense industry on the Continent has become dependent on the bounty system, but the Continent is awakening to a sense of the real facts of the position, and the Continental Governments are now aware of the fact that the bounty system really means an annual present to the people of the United Kingdom by the continental nations of many millions of money. It is easy to get into a hole, the difficulty is to get out of it. The horns of the dilemma are there. If the bounty system is stopped the beetroot indus* try on the Continent will be to a very large extent destroyed; if the bounty is continued the annual present' of so many millions of money to the people of the United Kingdom becomes perennial. What will they do! Let the would-be beetroot grower in New Zealand watch for the answer. His time ik coming !—I am, etc., Geobgb Whits. | Auckland, March 16, ISB7.