A Lost Industry.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 33, 14 August 1902, Page 13

A Lost Industry.

Some extremely interesting figures says the Dublin ' Independent ') have have just been published by the Statistical Department of the! United States, which cast more instructive light on the enormous los 9 which Ireland has endured through

the failure of the various efforts which were made to utilise the undeniable capabilities of its soil fon the growth of sugar beet. Two attempts were made in the fifties— one at Mountmelliok— -to introduce, notJ only the cultivation of beet root, but alsio to provide factories! for extracting the saccharine which it generally contains. It may, perhaps, be noted that beet roots grown in Ireland have invariatjjy) proved, on chemical examination, to contain a larger percentage of sugar, than the avenage quantity produced by beets grown on the Continent. Owing to a variety of causes, the undertakings to which we have referred proved complete failures, in-« flicting! considerable loss on thosa who embarked in them. It is, however, by no means improbable that! thie lvesults in question were dv» to easily explainable causes, amongst] which is not included a lack of business capacity on the part of th« Irishman. The Bnitish Government) and Parliament have long sternly set their faces against what is style*! the bounty system, which Grattan's Parliament employed so successfully, for the restoration of Irish commerce and industries. Foreign) countries entertain no similar prejudice, and both in the United States and on the Continent the manufao-i turer of beet-root sugar is assisted, not only by protective diuties as regards homo trade, but by the payment of bounfies on all his exports. Furthermore, in the localities where; the beet sugar industry flourishes, profitable markets exist for the byproducts of the manufacture. For instance, the molasses ane sold td local distillers, which extract a low class spirit, which is used in variofui* industries, and often, unfortunately,, flavored and doctored to enable its sale as cheap brandy. Again besides) the molasses there remains a considerable quantity of material which) Continental and American farmers! have long since proved to be useful feeding for live stock. In Ireland 1 , neither of the sources of revenue named were found available, and it is pnobable that the manufacture of beetroot sugar could only be carried on successfully in this co,untr<y by a capitalist or company wealthy! enough to also establish a distillery? and emlbark in stock raising. Even then the products of the refinery would have to compete with the? bounty-fed sugars of the Continent! and America, and even the HopieRuled Australia. To ask the Westminister Parliament to protect oil assist an Irish industry would bet hopeless. This fact, however, does) not render 1 the less 1 interesting thei figures set out in the United States official report, which has just been * issued, and from which it appears) that, while in 1840 beet-roots supplied less than five per cent*, of the world's comsumption of sugar, they now supply no less than 67 per cent, of a vastly increased consumption. In the enormous profits derivable from this state of things Irish farmers and landlords might have had their share any time during the last) half century had our native Parlio-" ment been still . in existence.