SUGAR COMMISSION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 169, 4 December 1912, Page 5

SUGAR COMMISSION.

AN EXHAUSTIVE REPORT. By Cable—Press Association—Copyright. Received 4, 12.5 a.m. Melbourne, December 3. The Sugar Commission report has been signed by all except Mr. Crawford, who presented a minority. report. The majority based its adherence on a white Australia policy, and the national importance, from the standpoint of defence, of settling and cultivating tropical areas. The supreme justification for the protection of the sugar industry is the part it plays in solving these problems. There is no reason why white labor should not lie employed on the plantations and in the mills. The net protection through duty, excise and bounty, is generally £5 per ton, and the Commission estimates it at £5 5s per ton. This involves an annual subsidy of £1,000,000 from the community, and tends to increase. The growers are dissatisfied with the return revived for their outlay. The Commission explains that this is because the price of raw sugar is not determined by competition but fixed bv the Colonial Sugar Company. Ninety-four per cent. of the labor is white. To prevent a reversion to colored labor, the Commission prefers- the direct prohibition of colored men. It recommends that the system of bounty and excise be abolished, and that In view of securing this the Commonwealth should negotiate with the States for the purpose of promoting a white labor policy, and the maintenance of a standard wage; that pending such abolition the bounty be made equal to*the excise, dating from July 1, 1912. Further, that owing to the special order of August, raising wages, that the duty on raw or refined sugar fluctuate according to foreign markets that the duty be the amount of the difference between foreign prices and that of sugar grade la, and that the standard price of Australian be not less than £2l 10s per ton; that the duty be the same on beet as on cane sugar; that the duty imposed on molasses be £1 10s a ton.