THE SUGAR BOUNTIES BILL.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 390, 3 August 1889, Page 8

THE SUGAR BOUNTIES BILL.

"When the Sugar Convention had reached the eve of being fin illy settled, it was suddenly discovered by a good many people «-tt Home that it was not likely to prove an unmixed blessing. Briefly put, the position stood ;is follows . — Certain 35uropean Governments, to encourage thp growth of beet, were giving bounties to aid su^ar manufacture and export. The drect effect of this policy was to supply English consumers with a cheapsng.tr, largely at the expense of thetaxpayeis of France, Germany, Austria, and various other foreign countiies by whom the bounties, were contiibuted. A further r-ffect was to cniif-e seveie depression in the sugarrefininj* industiifs of England, which were heavily handicapped io having to compete with manufacturers subsidised by the State. The convention was to bring about the discontinuance of the bounsies, and the effect of this Mould be to raise the piice of sugar in England. The general consumer would, of couise, suffer, that the lot of refiners might be iiupioved. Then theie was the case of the sugar confectioners to be con<-ideied. They of course would be injuied by the higher price of sugar. The editor of the Confectioneis' Union declares that, excluding makers 01" biscuits, pastry, &c , there are 200,000 persons in the United Kingdom and £22,000,000 of capital engaged in the sugar confectionery tiade nioper. He then urges :—": — " Now the whole question resolves itself into one plain statement — Are we, as a nation, to imperil 22 millions of money and nearly 200,000 persons, so that an odd 5000 may wax fat? Aiewe to attack the pockets of the whole population of the United Kingdom, say in j'ound numbers 50 millions of pei'bons, so that the aforesaid 5000 may have things their own way? 11 These and other arguments seem to have caused quite a revul Bion of feeling in England just as the Convention was on *he point of being finally settled. Now it is hung up for a time, and it is possible we may yet see the Convention fall through The recent increase in the price of sugar will not have been without its effect in educating the public mind.