SUGAR MANUFACTURE IN NEW ZEALAND.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5340, 9 May 1878, Page 2

SUGAR MANUFACTURE IN NEW ZEALAND.

We have been favored with a copy of the following letter from the Hon. J. Macandrew, Minister of Immigration, to the Hon. Sir Julius Vogel,, the, Agent-General for New Zealand, in Boudon;— * ’..lmmigration-Office, Wellington, New Zealand, 24th April, 1878. Sir, —From the notice enclosed herewith you will observe that it is proposed to pay a bonus of £IO,OOO towards inducing a commencement of the manufacture of sugar in New Zealand.

I have to request that you will be so good as to give this notice such publicity iu the United Kingdom and on the Continent as you may deem advisable. It is possible that this. industry may be entered upon by capitalists now in the colony. X am not, however, aware of any, go that the race is at present equally open to all. - It will probably be within your recollection that some eight or nine years ago several casks of the best Silesian beet seed were imported by me by way of experiment ; the result was to establish the fact that the root can be successfully grown in the colony,.. ..... _ There is every reason to thinks that if a payable market could be found tor the beet, there are farmers iu various parts of _New Zealand now who would produce it to an extent ■ sufficient ,to manufacture a. great part 'of the sugar required for homo consumption. It may not be out of place here to state that there are individual farmers in some parts of the colony having as much, as 2000 acres under turnip crop. I believe that in the Southland district especially, as well as in other parts of, the colony, there would be little difficulty in contracting for a very large annual supply of, beet-root at a fair price. Formerly the growth of beet involved to a very large extent' the employment, of highpriced labor, thereby preventing the production of sugar, so as to compete in price with the imported article. : I - ,/ Now, however, that our leading agriculturists are bringing to, bear upon the of the soil the best mechanical appliances which the world can produce, this objection is greatly diminished ;and with such a soil and climate as it possesses there is no reason why New Zealand should not profitably supply sugar to other markets besides its own. And here I might allude incidentally to the gratifying circumstance that .in respect of all the most recent and approved inventions of agricultural implements and labor saying machinery,both European and American, in no part of the world have these been more largely taken advantage of than iu some portions of New Zealand. The result is abundantly manifested, in the enormous amount of breadstuff to which I alluded in a late letter as having been produced by a mere handful of people. It is difficult to overestimate the prospect which the undertaking now in question holds. out towards affording a comfortable subsist- ■ enoe to many thousands of industrious families in the colony; at first sight it seems almost. Utopian, it is one, however, which I venture to predict will yet be realised. Could you not induce such men as Mr. Duncan, the great sugar refiner, in London, to take the matter up. lam persuaded there .is an opening for the highly remunerative employment of a very large amount of capital in the production of sugar in the colony.—-I ■ have, &o. (Signed) J. MaoaNBBEW. ~ ‘ The Agent-General for New Zealand, : London. . , . ‘