THE PRICE OF SUGAR.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 June 1921, Page 4

THE PRICE OF SUGAR.

RENEWAL OF CONTRACT RUMORED PRICE HIGHER THAN JAVA. MOVEMENT TO PROTEST By Telegraph—Press Association. Dunedin, Last Night. The contract between th? Government and the Colonial Sugar Company for the supply of sugar at £47 a ton Auckland has expired, and it is now rumored in local mercantile circles (says the Otago Daily Times) that the Government hat> entered into a fresh contract with the Colonial Sugar Company for a further period of months, under which the price to be paid *to the company will\be somewhere about £lO a ton below the price specified in the previous contract. - For some re&Aon or other no official, information is available on the subject, and in the meantime the weakness of the position as regards the Government's intentions is that at the present time Java sugar can be purchased on a basis of £26 a ton c.i.f. Sydney, which would make the landed cost in Dunedin, after the payment of freight and other expenses, about £3l. The Government’* price of £37 a ton at Auckland—equal to, say, £3B 10s landed—therefore compares most unfavorably with the price at which Java sugar can be purchased. Moreover, it is confidently asserted that the Board of Trade, in order to safeguard its contract with the Colonial Sugar Company, he* warned at least one firm in Wellington, and maybe other firms, that if any more Java sugar is imported from Java, whence a parcel is already on the way, it is likely to be refused permission to land it. The authority under which importations of Java sugar would be prevented would probably be conferred by Order-in-Council, providing another illustration of legis- « lation by the Executive. If the statements confidently made by merchants on the subject are well founded it will be seen that the purchasers of sugar will be required to pay at least £7 a ton more than would be the case if Java sugar were procurable. A movement has been started in Christchurch to call a combined meeting of merchants to protest against the proposed action of the Government. It is pointed out that if there is one thing which should be brought into the Dominion as cheaply as possible it is sugar. [There would appear to be a figure omitted before the word “months” in the first paragraph.]