The Chronicle PUBLISHED DAILY. LEVIN. FRIDAY. JANUARY 5, 1915. THE ADVANCE IN THE PRICE OF SUGAR.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 5 February 1915, Page 2

The Chronicle PUBLISHED DAILY. LEVIN. FRIDAY. JANUARY 5, 1915. THE ADVANCE IN THE PRICE OF SUGAR.

The Christehurch Star has pointed out that the price of best household sugar on August 4th was £15 a ton. By December 22nd it had increased to £20 a ton. There was no apparent reason for this rise. Sugar cane was no dearer, labour was no dearer, transport and insurance cost little or nothing more. Tho company simply took advantage of the war to make a profit of £5 a ton. New Zealand consumes (i 1,637 tons of sugar annually, so that this rise of £5 a ton represents a present from the consumers of New Zealand to the patriotic shareholders of the Colonial Sugar Company of approximately £322,685 per annum. There is a law on the Statute Book to prevent the Colonial Sugar Company or any other corporation from taking advantage of the people's necessities, a law which makes it an offence punishable with a penalty of £500 to raise the "standard" price of goods; that is to sa.y, the prices of goods ruling on August Ist, 1914. Has this law been enforced. Parliament made it to protect the people of New Zealand from exploitation, but it has been flagrantly brokon scores of times and nobody has been punished. The duty on Australian sugar is £4 a ton if locally manufactured, and £6 a ton if imported, or an average of £5 a ton. "What have the Australian statesmen done in this crisis? They have fixed , the price of sugar at £21 a ton. and. as we saw by n cablegram on Thursday last, have firmly refused to allow the company to charge another penny for it as far as the Australian market is concerned. This £21, minus duty, is equivalent to £16 a ton, while here in New Zealand, the Government has fixed it at £20. As the result of the Colonial Sugar Company treating the Regulation of Trade and Commerce Act with aßsolute contempt, New Zealand is paying £20 a bon for sugar.