The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1920. BEST VERSUS CANE SUGAR.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3649, 10 December 1920, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1920. BEST VERSUS CANE SUGAR.

With ia Incorporated “The Taiba’pe Post and Wafe&rino Nws”

and. accounts ®rom the Maf- ! i fra Beet Sugar Factory seqm to dis- j pei the almost universal opinion that !. beet sugar factories 'cannot be worked profitably in these days of unpre- , ■wedently high'wagefei'and high cost <of , | everything required in the establish- ; jimcnt and operation of such an Indus- ' V try. The propfdsal to found a heet | sugar industry 3n 'New Zealand is by j no means new, ; tfor some thirty ,yv*ars ; ago fullest official information 'Was | collected from Mnost reliable sources, | including costs ■of plant, of hfbeur, j and of land (tor growing the 'Resit i crops. A situation in the Warrarapa j

was considered suitable, and newspapers of'that time, in Masterton, discussed afeftnt all there was to be discussed about the industry, from sowing the beet seed to the consumption and flavour of the sugar to be prospe produced. The subject was most gone into, hut final figures were overwhelmingly against the project being successful from a business point of view and it was dropped, no one thinking it worth while t®-"mention anything About beet sugar factories again except as a subject for .Vjoking. Now, from i particulars by the Victorian Department of Agriculture it is demonstrated that beet sugar maMng cannot only be profitably made ©n a prodiguous scale, but also on a. f comparatively small scale. The Victorian ■ Department has about one thousand acres in beet, at least, during tne last season one thousand acres were j harvested, from which over thirteen j thousand tons of beet were taken, j i producing 1551 • tons of ' white sugar, I and though expenses of running the factory were at the highest, the: ad- , I vanee ‘in sugar prices enabled the ! ' Victorian Government to make a profit of no less than -.£16,749 13/1, after depreciation and interest amounting to £5627 had been pro-' vided 'for, and a general expenditure of £ 3Gj416 met. It may 'be stated that the first year’s working wa& not so successful, a loss of over £II,OOO having to be brought forward, but they* experience gained during the year of loss 'enabled the splendid results to be secured last year. . The Department states:, “these results, based on so small an acrea'ge, must be considered satisfactory; and indirectly, the Employment of about 250 men, and the value *of by-products for dairying and stock-feeding, make the industry of particular value throughout the district. The erection of ?a factory at Maffra was under consideration at the time' that similar consideration was being given to the erection or a factory in the Wairarapa. In New Zealand the Beet Sugar industry was turned down as being hopelessly unprofitable, '-while in Victoria the project came to fnjition. But the Maffra

experiment only proved the correctnqss of the view taken in New Zea- I land, for the factory there has stodtt idle, a white elephant, to Within the last three years. The abnormal rise in sugar prices as a result of the • stoppage of sugar factories in Europe during the war, gave the Maffro venture its •opportunity. Last season it 1 certainly produced what may fairly he termed a very substantial, if not a huge profit. And so long as sugar values remain approximately What they are to-day vbeet-sugar making is i going to become increasingly pos- | sible. As a matter of fact, it is <reI alised already that, with the increase j of intimate experience still further | i advantages become accmable. .Sugar i labourers are becoming anxious t© | , secure land for making themselves ! j into beet-farmers, and it augurs well 1 j for any industry when worlgmeu be- ' come enthusiastic about it, and dis- ! play anxiety to get permanently into it. Nevertheless, on the bklancej sheet figures before us it i& ajjparent I that beet sugar factories could not be made profitable on pre-war sugar prices, and there is always the danger that cane sugar companies may at any reduce the commodity to a price level with which beet • factory owners could not compete, unless, or course, *asi is suggested, production ! would be very much ’ cheapened by increasing the volume of root treated to somewhat on a level with the quantity dealt with In German factories. Owing to the enormous increase of sugar prices made by the cane sugar refining company, a very ■dangerous rival to cane sugar has developed, which will require considerable business abnegation to effccm- 1 ally subdue, even if it can actually be suppressed at all. The possibility 1 npw looms up that, with thorough 1 ]

1 reconstruction, of the ’European beet ! industry, combined with experience ' in beet growing and sugar making da .'Australia and elsewhere, beet sugar ! may actually secure control of the ! world’ig sugar market if prices remain ' high long enough to give a< thorough i and exhaustive test under the bust ! conditions, and on a scale that roi drees cost of production to the irre- | duciblo minimum. Whatever may be * the 'ultimate of beet sugar production iby the Victorian Government, the ' world shortage of sugar causing ■ -sugar-starved peoples in Europe to |-Piter abnormally high prices for cane I .‘Sugar, has given the Victorian De- ! 'partment of Agriculture an opportunity to “try out the beet sugar claim,? ’ ! ;and they have struck particularly good gold on only a small scale of ■ what may be termed surface-working. .'On this scale the years’ liabilities j totalled £103,124 13/11, and after I providing for interest, ■ depreciation I and a previous loss of £11,758 10/7, | the balance of £4,990 16/6* "mattes ■'the total income £108,115 10/5. Tt j seepns apparent that the Victorian ' Government are determined to inj'erease the industry Until operations arc economically perfect. When that time arrives the cane sugar refining ( company may encounter an antagofP ist that will not be beaten, for from the present time onward the cost of producing cane sugar must very con-, siderably increase while "that of proi ducing sugar from beet will be cheapened, besldejs finding profitable farming for maiy hundreds of British farmers. Coloured Asiatic labour will certainly become increasingly troublesome .and expensive, while the white labour employed on beet farm's i& rather inclined to be less expensive as war scarcities disappear. Viewed from all angles the beet sugar industry in Australia has a fair chance ol holding its own against the cane sugar produced by indentured Asiatic labour. ■