WHERE SUGAR IS BEARER

Taranaki Daily News, 30 August 1930, Page 12 (Supplement)

WHERE SUGAR IS BEARER

■ ' TftH AUSTRALIAN AGREEMENT. « Sydney, Aug. 4. Whereas the New Zealand consumer pays only 2yd a lb for sugar, the price of that product to the Australian consumer is Although no official announcement has been made, it can be taken for granted that the Federal Labour Government will renew the agreement which makes the high price necessary. Representatives of the sugar industry waited on the Prime Minister (Mr; Seullin) on Saturday, and asked that tho agreement should be renewed, and he promised to look into' the matter and refer it' to the Cabinet at an early date. The Government holds that the establishment of the sugar industry in Northern Queensland is a development of the White Australia policy,, so that it is sentimental and sociological as well as'economical in its application. In all other countries capable of producing sugar cane it is essentially a black labour commodity, because it can be grown only in tropical areas inhabited by coloured labour. In Australia it has become, by a system of protection and control, a sort of hothouse industry, costing the consumers millions a year, . and when' brought’into competition with black' sugar, selling at a- heavy loss in the world market. The sugar industry is the price which the Australian is called upon to pay for his belief in the White Australia policy as a national ideal. It is estimated that the consumers pay £5.500,000 a year. Contrary to tho general belief, there is no actual sugar bounty. Such a bounty existed in former years, but it has been replaced by an absolute embargo on the importation of foreign sugar. The sugar agreement negotiated b tween the Commonwealth and the Queensland Government in 1923 provides that, in return for the Commonwealth imposing the embargo, the Queensland Government agrees to observe the domestic selling price for sugar nominated by the Commonwealth Government. Certain concessions arc made to jammakers and others, and the main burden falls on tho small consumers. Sugar is by far the largest wage-pay-ing. industry in. Queensland, arid this point must be remembered. But there is another side to the picture. The in-. dustry has been on such a good footing for so many years that the over-pro-duction point has been reached. Thriving under the favourable conditions, the industry has expanded beyond the requirement of Australia, and the surplus must be sold in the open market at a heavy loss. All the proceeds of the sugar' crop, including the overseas return, are paid into a pool, and the net return is shared, pro rata by the various sections of -the industry. Taking the New Zealand I ,pripe.,asj. a basis for comparison,' the sugar? agreement costs th-e Australian, family Is 2d a week.