THE SUGAR INDUSTRY.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 March 1920, Page 6

THE SUGAR INDUSTRY.

FIELDS WHICH SUPPLY DOMINION, VISITED BY PARLIAMENTARY PARTY. By Telegraph.—Press AuoeUtloa. Wellington, Laat Night. • A wireless message from the Mokola" says the Parliamentary party visited Lautoka on Tliursdjiy, in charge of Mr. Sidey. As a result of the courtesy of the officers of the Colonial Sugar Company, this proved one of the most instructive viaits of the tour. In two days they travelled over al hundred and twenty miles on a narrow, gauge railway along the coast line, through alluvial plains, great areas of which are planted with sugar cane. Sugar is Fiji's biggest crop, and New Zealand her biggest customer. There is now no indentured labor in Fiji. The field workers are paid half-a-erown per day against a shilling before the -war, and find their own food. Many Hindoos lease blocks of five acres and grow cane. All planter* are guaranteed for 1920 an average of fifteen shillings a ton for cut cane deliv* ered at the mill free over the company's railways. The crops average about twenty-five tons an acre. The planters are anxious that the KfeHJ Zealand Government should negotiate with the company for at least a three years' agreement in order that a prico may be guaranteed for that period, which represents the cropping life of sugar cane. It is stated that as a result of uncertainty owing to the short twelve months' agreement, some are refraining from planting', and no new development work is undertaken. The planters contend, also, tlrnt it is to the interest of the New Zealand consumers to have the price fixed for a longer period. Before the war the price was guaranteed for five years. The company's Lautoka mill is one of the world's largest. After the cane is fed into elevators it is not touched tfirougU the whole process till it is sewn into bags and lifted into trucks.