DEARER SUGAR.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIIC, Issue 14211, 30 May 1910, Page 6

DEARER SUGAR.

THE OUTLOOK AT HOME. '•We were never nearer a sugar famine witliiu my memory than we are at the present time," said Mr Stanley Maeliin during an interview with a '•Westminster" representative on the recent; advance in sugar prices. Mr Mackin is chairman of the London Chamber of Commerce and president of the Manufacturing Confectioners' Alliance.

"The advance in priie," ho said ''has been practically oO per ei nt. iji the course of the past twelve months, and there is 110 immediate sings of any relief. It. is simply a question of supply and demand. The resolution of the Brussels Sugar Commission really meant a

cheapening ot sugar a-broad, a. consequent increased consumption, and si resulting increase of price in tbo English market. The foreigners taxed their iiome markets in order to secure the bounty for the English market,—the. mo.st open market in the world—and when that bounty or cartel was abolished they iowercd their prices at liome, and do not send so much sugar hers. "Take Germany, for instance, where the great bulk of the sugar cornea from. Under tile bounty system the Germans were practically compelled to eienv themselves a literal use ot sugar, which is, of cour.se. a nutritive fowl. In rough ligures they consumed only about -1-Alhs per liead annually of their population against tSlb consumed in. this country. But tlie position is. no doubt, very different now. Again, America, and China are both eating '< more sugar, and all that tends to rer strict the supply here, and 1 do not I see where it'will' all end unless some | fresh source, of supply is opened up." "'ls this country adapted" lor "rosying sugar beet'r"

"Ves, I believe it could be grown liere with a little reasonable encouragement from the State, or some other authority. England, in fact, might herself, if the matter were properly taken in hand, supply the increased demand and make up the present shortage. "The Brussels Sugar Commission was a great mistake of Mr Chamberlain. "Wo import one and a half million tons into this country annually, and we sacrificed that for the sake of forty thousand tons annually grown in the West Indies."

""What of the cheap sweetmeats trade ?" "That trade is becoming seriously endangered. It will he necessary to revisa a whole Tange of prices, and some lines maa hare ta b.e dene away with

altogether. That may lie, the fact of the four-ouneos-a-penny sweets. although they give. n deal of pleasure to thousands and provide labour lor great numbers. And allow me to add that there is nothing whatever deleterious in these cheap sweets. The idea of forming our Alliance was to prevent that, and no linn of repute would ever use anything but Hie best of materials. In the mere making of sweets sugar undergoes an additional refining process, and I would like the public to know that." The view of ilr "SV. Clarke Saunders, of the Confectioners' Union, was that the disappearance of 4ox a. penny sweets would not be an unmixed ovil, a; (Ley yield little profit to the retail confectioner and give liiui much trouble.

"•Owing to tlta enntiuurd advance in the price of sugar." he s;ud. "I know wholesale firms who have had to revise their price list at least four times in the hist- three months. Several lims of confectionery have been withdrawn from the market altogether, and quite a. number of wholesale houses to keep going are silling at a loss in the hope that the price of their raw material will drop. '! he price has gone up £o per ton, which means five shillings per hundredweight —a. very serious thing for the trade. It means 'your sweets will cost you more.' and unless sugar drops jam is bound to , go up in price before long."