"THE SUGAR BEEF ROOT INDUSTRY."

Waikato Times, Volume LVII, Issue 8018, 25 September 1906, Page 1

"THE SUGAR BEEF ROOT INDUSTRY."

TO THE KUITOK. Sll4.—Since we have betu again drawing the attention of Waikato ci.n.->uinors and producers to the sug*r beetroot indu=;ry Uunntf the past few months, by a cuii-ci-dence the Colonial Sn;;ar r.eiiuiug Company have lowered toe price ot th»-ir sugar ous per too, in toree biased of lus each, which means a drop of about -£OO,OOO or X7u,U'JO in the sugar billot .New Zealand. Hut the consumer have not benente.!, nor have the sugar producers beuttited by tne drop —who thbn has ? The demand for crystalled sugars is inereasidg at the rate of about IUU.UOO toos per annum ; in 16h6 the Uemaua <vas G,0U0,000 odd tons, of which 4,0i-U,OOO and upwards were sugar cane and only ~,UG0,000 was of beet sugar. v-N.U. Cane sugar from sugar cane, and cane sugar Irom sugar beets is identical, and at No. 1 purity toey are oui to be distinguished by sight, taste, or chemical test. Cane sugar is a technical term for granulated sugars, in contradistinction to grape sugars and glucose). In 1890 the amount of sugar manufactured exceeded 7,000,000 tons, of which upwards of 4,000,000 was beet sugar, and only 2,000,0uu tons sugar erne sugar. The sugar cane producers huve been, and are , now, lighting a hopeless fight against beet sugar—the producers and tne consumers, not the refiaers, paying the costs meanwhile. The sugar cane cau only be grown to pruht to the producer ror sugar manufacture, by the employment of the primitive laborers from the Pacific Islanos, Japan, Cniua or India; and, excepting the molasses, the residues frjiu the sugar cane are of comparatively no value except tor fuel for the mill ; whereas the sugar beet root is an agricultural triumph of the j white races. These residues and waste products from the manufactured beet | sugars are of constant and especial ! value to the farmer and to the community at large, apait from the ever-increasing values in quantity and quality ot the sugar beets themselves, j the rotation of crops contingent upon the cultivation of sugar beet roots whicn the intense aid practical working of the sugar beetroot cultivators entail,and the mutual co-operation of land, labour, and capital upon up-to-date and scientific lines which have aiready placed sugar beets and beet sugars in the front ranks of agriculture in European countrioa and in America and made them rank with gold and commercial industries. If the consumers and the producers of New Zealand and British Manufactures, including refined sugars, would study the potencialitiej of the beet sugar question, they would be lully repaid for their trouble Flour, sugar, butfer and wool are to become New ZeaIsel's staple industries, but sugar cane can never be grown for sugar manufacture in iNew Zealaod; nor can sugir beats be ever grown in the sugar cane growing districts of Australia, the Tacific islands, or the Eastern countries, "for sugar manufacturing purp .-es." New Zealand already requires about .£1,000,000 worth of sugar per annum, and America has at present 50 beet factories at wort, but it is estimated that ic would require upwards of 500 similar factories to supply the demand tor sugar in the United States, which have to import- upwards of X 2.000.000 tons of sugar per annum; notwithstanding that sue hoids wituin herself the rieheat of sugarcane lands. Canada and Australia wiii become ever increasing markets for New Zealand's surplus sugars and oth r agricultural manufactures— should Ne.v Zetland require an outside market but too Mother Country could take all our surplus undfr a fair trade policy which means reciprocity or mutality—not preference or protection.—l am etc, W. A. GBAHAM. The Lodge, Hamilton, iept 20th 1906.