The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1905. THE RISE IN SUGAR.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7727, 1 February 1905, Page 2

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1905. THE RISE IN SUGAR.

The complex ramifications of trade have never been better exemplified J than in the recent continuons rise in the price ■ of sugar. Throughout Australia and New Zealand consumers are practically at the mercy of the Colonial Sugar Company, which 1 controls the whole production and refining of sugar throughout Australia, Fiji, and New Zealand. Within the last live months the price of su- ■ gar in New Zealand has advanced by £3 10s per ton—the last leap of £1 per ton having been made only last week. Under the system of trading practised lUy the Colonial Sugar Company both wholesalers and retailers are largely governed ,by the directors of the Company. In the conduct of its trade it is alleged that the Company makes a concession in favour of persons who deal solely with it to the extent of a bonus or rebate of 10s per ton, ! paid at stated terms. In addition to this in certain towns of the colony the prices at which retailers may sell the .various grades of sugar produced by the Company are dictated to them, and alterations in this are promptly notified. This system we believe does not extend to New , Plymouth, 4he natural keenness of I competition possibly rendering such a step unnecessary, and the margin of profit permitted to the retailer by the Company tKing ko small as to prohibit anything in the shape of ■" cutting." Until the rise in the pricu began leading local grocers were retailing grades No. 1 and No. 2 of the Company's sugVu- at the ate of 51bs for a shilling. At the present time the price charged for these is three pence per lb—an advance to the consumer of twenty-five per cent. The effect of a leap of I three-fifths of a penny per lb is besides not confined merely to sugfer, and every manufactured article into the composition of which it enters I must necessarily promptly respond.. Thus all kinds of sweets, cordials, jams, jellies, and other sweet preserves must also become appreciably 1 dearer. As things have been since ho Colonial Sugar Company got ' practical control of the colonial , markets there is next to no profit for the retailer in the handling of sugar.. Allowing for the balance of the scalos and for paper bags and tring ho practically handles that ommodity to oblige his customers. Even on the sale of sugar in unbroken bags there is no margin of ! profit between a .wholesale cost of . lis 9d and a retail price of 12s (id, jrhich are the rates at which No, 2 sugar is at present bought and sold m New Plymouth. The cause of tkis serious advance is presumably to be sought in the rise which has taken place in Europe on account of the Sugar Bounties Convention, in which all the leading countries of Europe, except Hussia, bound themselves no longer to pay any bonuses' or bounties direct or indirect by , which sugar producers might benefits Previously to the signing of this convention the manufacture of sugar had been variously subsidised by nearly every European nation and the production of beet had become an enormous industry, and Great- Britain had been made the dumping ground of enormous quantities of European sugar. The effect of this was practically for the time being to kill the British West Indian cane sugar industry. With the intention of fostering the productions of her West Indian colonies Great Britain, which consumes nearly two million tons of sugar a year, bi-came a party to the convention which was finally signed in 1002 - and endures till 1908. The result , is that without the direct and indirect bounties whichi previously gave a working margin of profit the continental production of sugar has . been kept down to meet natural demands. Those countries which failed to fall in with the convention ' have now only their home markets ( to rely on for by a further clause In [ the agreement the contracting parties bound themselves to discriminate by a surtax against the sugar and sugar products of countries not in the convention England now pays • enhanced prices amounting to £B,500,000. As the total difference in the value of tho sugar produced in ' the West Indies and sold at old rates caused only a loss of £1,200,000 to the producers it is reasonably enough contended that it wo.ild have paid England better to make a direct cash payment and to have herself remained outside the couven- ' tion. As regards the enhanced cost of sugar in our own colonies the in- , crease is no rtoulrt. a sympathetic response to the alteration in European rates. That is to say in plain words that those who control the , sugar supply of these colonies saw in the state of the European sugar . market a good chanco " to exact increased profits for themselves from Australasian consumers. There is no shortage in the Australian sugar l crop quite the reverse, indeed and we may be pretty sure that but a snail fraction of the increased rate which we arc now paying will j find its way to the sugar growers of Fiji and Queensland. New Zealand and Australia are in fact at the mercy of a company which knows how to make hay while the sun shines, and is at present enjoying n capitul hwvosti -.1 '