AUSTRALIA'S BRIGHT OUTLOOK.

Hokitika Guardian, 10 September 1920, Page 4

AUSTRALIA'S BRIGHT OUTLOOK.

13XJT A SUGAR SHORTAGE INEVITABLE.

SYDNEY, August 31

Australia lias had “great” rains, extending over every part of the Continent, and “one of the best seasons on record” is being predicted. Reports from the far-back areas, where for years there has been only aridity arid bareness, tell of magnificent stretches of pasture, which have sprung into being as if under a wizard’s wand. Stock are rolling in luxury, and the agriculturists everywhere, tempted by the world-wide shortage of foodstuffs are putting every kind of growing thing into the kindly soil. The rains came Just'in time for the wheat farmers, and huge areas have been ploughed and sown. Reports from all the wheat-growing Spates agree that unless the season becomes suddenly and pronouncedly adverse —a development j which is now very unlikely—Australia /will in the 1920-21 season produce a record crop of wheat. Information gathered from all over the world suggests that this, good,Australian grain will reach a hungry and eager market.' *

The rain came too late for the sugargrowers ,however. An official estimate of this season’s cane crop in Queensland shows about 1,365,000 tons of cane, which should produce about 160,000 tons of raw sugar. With New South Wales production added to these figures, the- total sugar in sight is 100,000 tons short of Australia’s domestic requirements. This means that Austra lia must import heavily-—a calamity, of a sort, because with cheap sugar as a basis there has gfown up rapidly iti thiscountry a big confectionery and Sweetmaking industry, whicli lias been rapidly developing a highly profitable export business. Sugar seems dear in this country at Gel per pound, 'hut it is cheap when compared with the world’s parity. The sugar outlook for next season is much more promising. This year, altho'ugh the growers were eager to plant, the drought did not break in time. But large areas have now been prepared, planting is proceeding apace, and if the weather is only somewhere near the average, the sugar crop of 1921 should he a- record.

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