, 1867-04-12
From the Barbados West Indian, March 29.)
SUGAR DUTIES.

propose Will, II adopted, effect a great
change in a very important portion ofour
Customs revenue. They are the conse-
quence Of a convention into which Her
Majesty entered in 1864 with the Empe-
ror Of the French, the King Of the Bel
gians, and the King Of the Netherlands,
with the object OF putting an end to great
abuses existing In the assessment Of the
drawback in several countries of Europe,
and establishing a drawback upon a prin-
ciple to be adopted by all those countries.
In our own country | am bound 10 say,
that | believe the drawback upon refined
sugar was, upon the whole, established
upon fair principles, and bore a just pro-
portion to the duty paid upon the impor-
tatlOn of the raw material but it was
far otherwise on the continent Of Europe,
especially in the countries where the
great sugar %reiners existed Holland,
Belgium, and France. There the draw
back was, [ will not say calculated, but
arranged upon a most %eXtravagant scale;
and, in fact, under the name Of draw
back in those three countries, practically
speaking, q great bounty was given 10
the sugar r~efiners. The consequence Of
this bounty was that the English sugar
refners could no longer compete with the
sugar %refiners of those countries in neu-
trail markets, and not only could they
not compete in neutral markets, but they
soon found the sugar %refiners of France
and the Low Countries competing sue
cessfully with them in our own markets.
Under these circumstances the sugar re-
fning in this country greatly decreased,
and was, in fact, fast disappearing ; and
at the first blush il seemed difficult to
suppose that anything could be done to
relieve this body of our felloW-subjects
from so great a disadvantage, 1t so hap
pened, however, that in time a mode Of
relief occurred, and in q very remarkable
manner. Some years ago the finances of
France were not in q satisfactory state,
and M. Fould, a Minister of great ability
and acuteness, especially on financial
subjects, having been called into power
to suggest the requisite remedies, found,
on examination, that there was a large
and most indefensible expenditure in the
shape of bounties TO sugar ~refiners. The
French Government, under these circum-
stances, placed themselves in COMMUNE
cation with the authorities of this coun-
try. The sugar refners of France did
not defend the principle of the abuse UNI
der which their trade had fourished, but
defended the practice on the ground that
all other countries also, under the name
of drawbacks, really supplied bounties to
the refners. 1t was in 1862 that the
French Government communicated with
Her Majesty's Government, and about
the time of the last Exhibition, M. Rou-
her, the Minister of Commerce, visited
this country and had interviews with the
authorities. The result Of NJ. Rouher's
visit was to convince him that the fault
did not lie with England, and that our
drawback was calculated on principles
which bore a fair and just relation to the
duties maintained on the raw material.
But that was not the case with Belgium
and Holland. The French Government
then communicated with the Magistrates
Of Belgium and Holland, and after a con-
A1-L