THE ISLANDS TOUR

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 151, 22 March 1920, Page 4

THE ISLANDS TOUR

PARLIAMENTARY PARTY AT L.-VU-TOKA.

By Telegraph—Press Asiociatton. (By Wireless from the Mokoia.) The Parliamentary party visited Lan(oka on Tliuradaj- in charge of. Mr. Sidey. As a result of the courtesy of tlm officers of the Colonial Sugar Company, this proved one of the most instructive visits of the tour. In two days they travelled over 120 miles on a narrowgauge railway along the coast line through alluvial plains, great areas ot which were planted with ' sugar cane. Sugar is Fiji's biggest crop, and Aew Zealand is her biggest customer. lhere is now no indentured labour in Fiji, lho field workers are paid half-a-crown per dav, ngainst a shilling before the war. and find their own food. Many Hindus lease blocks of five acres and grow cane. All the planters are guaranteed for 1920 an average of 15s. per ton for cut cane, which is delivered at the mill, free over the company's railways. The crops average about 25 tons an acre. The planters are anxious that the New Zealand Government should negotiate with the company for at least a three-years' agreement, in order that the prioe may be guaranteed to planters for that penou. which represents tho cropping life of buml* cono. It is stated that ns a result of uncertainty, owing to the short twelve months' agreement, son)e arc refraining, from planting, "and no new development has been undertaken. Planters contend nlso that it is to the interest of New Zealand consumers to have the price 'fixed for a longer period. Before tho war the price was guaranteed for five years. Tho company's Lautoka mill is one of the largest in the world. After the cane is fed into, the elevators it is not touched through the whole process till sewn into bags and lifted into trucks. Tho party will now probably reach Auckland oil March 25.