AUSTRALIAN SUGAR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21233, 13 July 1932, Page 8

AUSTRALIAN SUGAR.

The Federal Government has sent to the sugar growers of Queensland an emissary who will ui'ge them to agree voluntarily to a revision of the agreement by which they receive a fixed price for raw sugar at the mill. This is in accordance with the policy indicated by the Prime Minister, Mr. J. A. Lyons, in an address to the Loan Council at the end of January. While almost every other section of the community had suffered a reduction of income, he said, the sugar industry was maintained at much the same standard, relative to the increased purchasing power of money, as it had gained in the days of Australia's greatest prosperity. The Federal Government would therefore invite the parties to the existing agreement to review its terms, a reduction in the cost of living through lower sugar priceß being the objective. The agreement referred to, by which, with an embargo on imports, the growers are assured of a fixed price for raw sugar at the mill, was renewed for five years on September 1, 1931. The standard price for the first three years was fixed at £22 a ton, with provision for progressive increases to .£23 if the annual production fell below 500,000 tons. The extension of the agreement on these terms was severely criticised outside the sugar producing areas. Th£ price, of course, is only for domestic supplies. The exported surplus has to be sold at the world price, and the difference is spread over all the growers. The effect, on the internal price is of immediate moment. An official statement shows that with £22 paid for raw sugar, the wholesale price for refined is £37 6s Bd. In New Zealand, with a duty of £7 7s a ton on raw sugar, the wholesale price of the most popular grade of refined is £20155. In 1920, when prices were at their peak, New Zealand was paying £27 5s a ton for refined sugar and Australia £49. The Commonwealth Auditor-General, in his last report, said that the Australian price meant that Australian consumers were paying £7,000,000 a year more than was necessary. This is the cost of keeping the canefields producing with white labour. The burden of it, under existing conditions, is troubling the Federal Government.