Beetroot Sugar Industry

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 74, 1 November 1884, Page 6

Beetroot Sugar Industry-

Amono many that are mischievous, and some that are visionary, Sir Julius Vogel has one little bill befote Parliament which has obtained considerable popularity in the Waikato district. This is the Beetroot Sugar Bill, of which our Wellington correspondent sent an epitome on Monday. Tho object of this measure is to authorise the offering of a bonus of a halfpenny per lb. on the first thousand tons of sugar produced in tho colony by the beetroot process. At tho caucus yesterday, the Government included this bill among those which they desire to pass during the present session. The processes employed in manufacturing sugar trom the beet have been so much improved of late years that the purest sugar can be produced and sold without refining ; and an authority on the subject says : — "Orystallised beetroot sugar is perfectly identical in composition with cane sugar, and is undistinguishable from it by the sight, the taste, or by chemical tests." Thero can be no doubt, therefore, on two points — (1) That a large maiket for sugar exists here, and (2) that sugar of piime quality can be manufactured from beet root. Other two points remain to be elucidated. These are — Will the climate and soil of New Zealand prove suitable for beetroot culture? And can the manufacture be profitably carried on here ? The question of suitability of soil and climate is answered j in a pamphlet issued by Mr W. A. Graham. The climate of all the North Island and of part of the South Island is adapted for the growth of beet, and the soil of the interior is particularly well suited for the production of sugar beets of excellent quality. The Waikato district, on account of the almost complete absence of salt from the soil, seems especially marked out for this industry, and on this account it is calculated to become a great centre for the growth and manufacture of beet-root sugar. Still we think it is by no means proved that the manufacture would become profitable and self-sustaining. For years it has been bolstered up elsewhere by heavy bonuses. At the German factories the prices paid for beets is 17s per ton, which, it is said, leaves a handsomo margin of profit to the manufacturers, who are receiving dividends of from 24 to 32 per cent, per annum. The subject is open to discussion, but it is obvious that much, if not all, we may gain from the establishment of the industry will be lost in the protective duty paid for it, and the destruction of our exchange trade with Fiji. It is a fine question whether the sugar we require cannot be grown with greater economy for us by cheap labour employed thero and paid for in the products which we can raise here to so much greater advantage,