BEET ROOT SUGAR.

Patea Mail, Volume IV, Issue 332, 22 June 1878, Page 4

BEET ROOT SUGAR.

Is last session of Parliament (says the New. Zealander) Mr Macfarlaue called the attention of the House to the desirability of offering encouragement for the establishment of a beet sugar manufactory. An interesting debate ensued, and ultimately acommittec was appointed to consider the matter. This committee reported in favour ofprotecting the manufacture for a certain number of years, but with the recent example of the distilling experiment before their eyes, members were not inclined to adopt this method of fostering native industry. Ultimately a vote of A 10,000, by way of bonus for the first establishment of the manufacture in New Zealand, was passed, The conditions attached to the bonus have been carefully drawn up, and with a view of inducing some competent persons to enter on the task of earning it, the Minister for Lands and Immigration has brought the offer prominently under the notice of the Agent-General in the following letter;— “ Immigration Office, •*' £ Wellington, New Zealand, • “21 th April, 187 S. “ Si rj —From the notice enclosed herewith, you will observe that it is proposed to pay a bonus of £ 10,000 towards inducing a commencement of the manufacture of sugar in New Zealand. “ I have to request that you will bo so good as to give this notice such publicity in the United Kingdom and on the Continent as you may deem, advisable. tc Jt Is possible that this industry may ho entered upon by capitalists now in the colony. lam not aware, however, of any, so that the race is at present equally open to all. i- 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 think that if a payable market could be 'found for the beet, there are farmers in various parts of New Zealand now who would produce it to an extent sufficient to manufacture a great part oi the sugar required for home consumption. It may not bo out of place here to ■ state that there are individual farmers in sonie parts of the colony having as much as 2UOO acres under turnip crop. • I believe that in the Southland district especially, as well as in other parts of the colony, there would bo little difficulty in contracting for a very large annual supply of beetroot at a fair price. “ Formerly the growth of boot involved to a very large extent the employment of high-priced labor, thereby preventing the production of sugar, so as to compete in price with the imported article. “ Now, however, that our leading agriculturists arc bringing to bear upon the cultivation of Urn soil the host 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 nob profitably supply sugar toother markets besides its own; And hero I might, allude incidentally to the gratifying circumstance that in respect of all the most recent and approved inventions of agricultural implements and Lbonr-savlng machinery, both Fnropeau and American, in no part of the world have these been more largely taken advantage of than in some portions of mew 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 over-estimate the prospect which the undertaking now in question holds out towards affording a com tollable subsislnco 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-rcmnnerativc employment of a very largo amount of capital in the production of sugar in the colony, £: I have the honor to-be, “ Sir, “ Your obedient servant, £: (Signed) «L Macakduew. Agonfc-Goucral for New Zealand, “ London.” The subject is one in which Sir Julius Vogel himself takes a great interest. It engaged the attention of our Parliament in the sessions of 1872 to 1870 inclusive, and in the latter session Sir Julius Vogel presented valuable, exhaustive, and most in tores ting papers relating to the cultivation of beet, and the manufacture of sugar iVo.n it. As Mr Macandrew points out in his letter, the experiment tried by iiimself as Superintendent of Otago, has established the iact that the beet can be successfully grown in this colony. All that is now wanted is the capital and enterprise to cuter on the manufacture of sugar on a largo scale, and as Mr Macandrew s instructions to Sir Julius Vogel arc addressed to one deeply interested in the subject, and anxious to have something practical done in it, we may hope to sec the bonus claimed in due time. A preacher said—“ Every tub must stand on its own bottom.” A sailor jumped up, and said —■“ But, sir, suppose it has no bottom ?” “Then it’s no. tub,” returned he quickly, and went on with the sermon.