The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE

Waikato Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1941, 13 December 1884, Page 2

The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE

I'qu il .md exact justice t'* alt men, Ol \\hiKoe\Lr st.ite or persu.ision, religious or politic, il. Hrre «.h ill tlic l'ro^s tlip People's ripht miintain, L'n.iwefl by lnflupnre .md unbribed b) ffatn.

SATURDAY, DEC. J-J, 1884.

Mr. J. A. Poxd, the Colonial Analyst at Auckland, has made a valuable contribution to sugar-beet literature. Consul Griffin, who is on the point of leaving for Sydney, wrote to Mr Pond, asking his views on establishing the beet-sugar industry in this island, and the latter thereupon drew up a memorandum which is especially interesting to settlers in this district. 31 r Pond commences by referring to the paper which he read before the Auckland Institute in 1881, in which he demonstrated the suitability of the soil and. climate of the North Island to the production of beet, and proceeds to deal with the advantages held out at present to the growers. These he shows are three: (I) the bonus of £4,(5G6 offered by the Government for the iirst 1,000 tons of sugar prepared, (2) the erection of a compete sugar refinery in the neighbourhood of Auckland "able to utilise all the raw beet sugar thus raised for a long time " and (3) the establishment of dairy factories throughout the country. With such inducements as these, Mr Pond does not doubt that the industry will soon be started in .some part of this provincial district, and we shall be greatly surprised if his prediction prove to be incorrect. His idea is that what is known as " concreting" plant should be erected at one of the cheese factories, where the roots could be received, the juice concreted by evaporation, the raw sugar sent thence to the refinery, and the residuum or pulp returned to the growers, to be used as winter feed for stock. Be. points out that the dairy industry has a great future before it, that the necessity for growing root crops will become more and more a necessity, and that few roots are so well adapted 1 for the purpose as sugar-beet. This is an aspect of the question to which we have on nuny occasions directed the attention of the farmers of this district, and we have been guided not by theory only, iior by the experiences of other countries, but by the actual experience of>a§#Jers in this part of the colony. j|(f yiriU be remembered that Tss $r§g'j£jan, <?f Raglan, tried the l expewn&~Q£& : feeding -his milch cows on whitoHSilesian beet, 1

and the results in the increase of the milk supply worn published in our columns, and surprised a great many people. The '• concreting" plant is not very costly, and the outlay wouU be more than covered by the Government bonus. A portion of the machinery might, when there were no roots to hand, be used for the nmnuficturo of starch from potatoes, .md in this way the staff could h« kept employed all the year round It is not necessary to follow Mr Pond into all the details of the system which he advocates. The subsidiary benefits flowing from the industry will also be considerable. " The manufacture of wool sacks for the presses ; the increase of traffic by rail, and also by water, if the factories are built beside the Waikato river ; the increase of labour for the cultivation of the roots ; the manufacture of machinery capable of aiding the cultivation and reducing the cost to a minimum, arc," he remarks, "all matters worthy of consideration." Mr Pond bases his calculations upon the assumption that the producers and the proprietors of the refinery at Auckland will work harmoniously together, and this, he thinks, he has good grounds for believing will be the case. This is a point upon which, doubtless, much will yet be written and said. Mr Graham, we know,contemplates the erection of a refinery as a part of his scheme, but probably, in the event of the Auckland company agreeing to purchase the raw material, he would forego this for the present, until the profitableness of the industry could be thoroughly tested. In either case there is reason to believe that a forward movement! will be made before long.