The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1874.

Evening Star, Issue 3615, 23 September 1874, Page 2

The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1874.

Accounts from Auckland inform us that the first shipment of sugar from Fiji has arrived there ; a first fruit, as it were, of the future trade of Polynesia. What its quality is—whether brown or white, fit for grocery pur poses, or merely adapted for refining—we are not informed. The probability is that it will require further manufacture before it is fit for domestic purposes, as the process of refining is too expensive and too scientific to be carried out on a planter’s estate. So far as Fiji is concerned, we should not think tlie produce for many years to come would justify establishing a sugar refinery there. In order to be successful it is necessary that it should be carried on where fuel is cheap, machinery can be constructed and repaired, and whore •von the residuum can be utilised. In this respect New Zealand should

bn more favorably situated than Victoria. The vast coal fields of this Colony give to it au immense advantage' over the Sister Colony, for even the brown coal can be now supplied so cheaply as to reduce the cost of fuel to a minimum. Objection has been taken to the establishment of a refinery in New Zealand, because our population is not large enough. Yet, Victoria, supported a sugar refinery v/hen its inhabitants were not much more numerous than those of New Zealand, and now two are in full work ; and as the population of Victoria is only about double that of New Zealand, it is plain that so far as the proportion of possible consumers to a refinery is concerned, there is nothing valid in that objection. It may still further be urged that, as there are now two refineries in Victoria, the ground is already taken up, and that there is no room for further interference in that direction. This is equivalent to allowing a very valuable branch of manufacturing industry to pass away from us, to enrich a neighboring Colony. We have no objection whatever to that which cannot be profitably followed here, being carried out wherever it will naturally take root. The great mistake of many would-be benefactors of a country is to endeavor to cultivate exotic interprises, that no State subsidies or restrictions can render profitable This has been the error of Victoria, and indirectly, through its tariff, of New Zealand too. The question for us to consider is, not whether Victoria occupies ground which, but for the enterprise of her capitalists, would still be vacant; but whether the natural products of New Zealand, its geographical position, and manufacturing facilities, afford a prospect for the successful prosecution of particular industries It must not be forgotten that the diversion of the Polynesian trade in sugar to Victoria does not merely imply the loss of profit on that special product • it means the establishment of a commercial connection between two countries which will be mutually profitable. To suppose that the Victorian merchants will be content to receive the raw material from Fiji by way of New Zealand, instead of importing it direct, is simply to blind ourselves to the operation of the simplest principles of commerce. Whatever may be thought of Mr Vogel’s Polynesian Scheme, the first instalment has reached New Zealand from Fiji; and the question is, are we in a position to make the best of it j or whether, in order to its most profitable utilisation, it must be sent elsewhere ? A further point for consideration is, whether Dunedin pr Auckland should make a move towards In our opinion Dunedin is in tfie best position to do so. Although Auckland has more direct communication with Fiji, that group of islands, for many years to come, would not furnish sufficient supply of raw material to keep a refinery at work; and, even if it did, to confine operations to the product of one country would not be judicious. There is reason to think that sugar from many quarters woujd find its way hither wei-e a good re? finery at work, and that such a factory would prove the pioneer to profitable commercial connection with several other countries. Cheap coal, and ■he central position of the ports, would 'liable us to produce grocery and refined sugars at such prices as to compete profitably in the world’s market, need the cost of labor terrify. In many of the processes, even in England, it has been quite necessary to employ foreigners, for Englishmen found the work too hot for them. We should imagine the Chinese constitution well adapted to the work, and it is a class of labor that Englishmen would nob care to compete for. The matter is at any rate worth serious consideration.