SUGAR SUPPLIES.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16033, 26 January 1920, Page 9

SUGAR SUPPLIES.

AGREEMENT WITH COMPANY CONTINUED, POSITION IMPROVING. (Per United Pres* Association.) WELLINGTON, January 26. The Prime Minister announced to-day that the present agreement with the Colonial Sugar Refining Company will not be terminated in March as intended, but will continue until the end of June, when more definite information as to the crop now growing will be available. Since November the position in regard to supplies for New Zealand has improved so considerably that the company anticipvtes that in all probability 18 months’ supply for normal requirements is now in sight.

VIEWS OF FIJIAN PLANTER,

An interesting letter relative to the sugar shortage appears in the Auckland Observer from the pen of the Hon, James D. Turner, A Fijian planter, who was formerly a farmer at Pukekohe. He says: “The abnormal demand for sugar is not a cause of the shortage, but is a consequence of the shortage. There would have been no abnormal demand for sugar, and incidentally the demand has not been satisfied, if there had not been a shortage. The whole and sole cause of the shortage of sugar is to be attributed to the Colonial Sugar Refining Company. This company has for years been paying such a starvation price to the planters for cane—a price that is 25 to 50 per cent less than it pays for the same quality cane in Queensland —a price that it cannot grow it for. So to-day, in the Rewa district, there is practically not one white cane planter where three or four years ago there were dozens. They have all had to cease cane Sowing. ’Tis true there are a few dians growing cane in small patches, but even the Indians are ceasing to produce cane. I quote from a letter I received from Rewa (Fiji) last mail: ‘lndians on the Rewa (Fiji) have got very poor prices for their cane. I hear that four or five Indians at Lowera Rewa had about 20 to 25 acres of very fine cane, and they cut four or five punt loads, for which they received £2O. They were so disgusted that they cut down the balance of cane and ploughed the whole lot out.” “The price paid to the Indians would be about 5s per ton, and I am able to state that it cost them at least 10s per ton to grow it and put it into the punts. Further, I would say that in Queensland the Colonial Sugar Refining Company would have been glad to pay at least 15s per ton for the same quality cane. The real reason of the shortage of sugar is the shortage of cane in Fiji.”