THE PRICE OF SUGAR.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 July 1922, Page 5

THE PRICE OF SUGAR.

QUESTION RAISED IN PARLIAMENT. MINISTER EXPLAINS POSITION. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, Last Night. In the. House to-day, Mr. J. McCombs (Lyttelton) criticised the Government for maintaining a duty of a halfpenny on sugar, although it had been clearly stated that this would not be continued after the expiration of the contract with the Colonial Sugar Company. He stated that if the duty was taken off good, first-class sugar could be landed from Australia for £26 6s 8d in Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin, where the present price was over £36. The Hon. E. P. Lee said the figures quoted by Mr. McCombs were grossly inaccurate. If Mr. McCombs’ argument was reasonable, why did not the merchants import sugar, as they could do so without restriction, and undersell the Government? Java sugar was not as refined as the Colonial Sugar Company’s output. The Government. kept the country supplied with the cheapest sugar of any country in the world. The reason the duty was still enforced was that the contract had been extended and there was still surplus sugar on hand on which duty must be paid. When Labor members were in Fiji they concerned themselves very much about the wages paid to Indians, and now, because of the higher wages paid to Indians, Fiji sugar is a little dearer, and they wanted sugar brought in from Japan, which is cheaper because of cheaper labor. The present contract would expire in November, and he was not sure he would not ask the Government to extend it for another three months after that.

Mr. H. E. Holland (Leader of the Labor Party) said the duty on sugar was established solely for the benefit of the Colonial Sugar Company—a company that built up its business in Australia by the aid of black labor, and which had flung its tentacles across New Zealand and Fiji. In the latter country the most awful evils were rampant, simply that the profits of this company might be increased. If the new agreement was only a temporary affair it ought to be terminated at once and the Government ought to endeavor to get control of sugar-growing in Fiji. Mr. Massey denied that a duty on sugar was operative. No duty had been collected, and the effect of the Government’s arrangements with the Colonial Sugar Companj’ was that right through the war and up to now New Zealand had the cheapest sugar in the world, and everyone had reason to be satisfied with the results. If the contract with the company was terminated, then they would not get as good or as cheap sugar.