The Hawaiian gazette., 1869-04-07

"This discrimination is not based upon
the quality or value of the sugar, but on be-
ing boiled in vacuum-pans, or purged in
centrifugals, while in fact the clayed sugars
are well known to be stronger and of more
commercial value than the corresponding
numbers made by any other known process.
That the real protection to the refiners
amounts to s., rs, ,6S7, annually, burden on
the consumer quite large enough, and laid
in such a specious way that it will burden the
grocery grades, while apparently not increas-
ing the general duty on sugars"
If the refners can get this additional bur
den on the grocery grades-so cheapened in
the manufacture, by the use on the planta-
tions, of the vacuum-pans and centrifugals,
instead of the slower and more expensive
mode of open-trains and draining in molds
and claying, that the sugars can compete in
the markets with the same gaades of coffee
sugars of the refiners-then the consumer
will pay for these sugars the added duty as a
further profit to the retiner, while he enjoys,
at the same time, complete immunity from
competition in the making of loaf or stove
dried sugars.
By the petition no advance of dutyis sought
on No. u, though boiled in vacuum-pan
and purged in a centrifugal. This grade of
sugar is conceded to be a raw, as it undergoes
no refining process-the simple Qualification
OF the juice not falling into that category. 1t
is true that Qualification sutices to make
grades up to No. 10, with the use of improved
trains, but the use of vacuum pans and cen
trifugals is claimed as the special property
of the refners, and must not be allowed TO
improve raws. What are raws, and what
refined sugars, is now a somewhat muddled
point. The refiner contends that his sugars,
from loaf down to No. II, are only coarser
grades of refined; the dealers, that No IL up
to No. 20, are but better grades of raw sugar.
But the happy test has been discovered by the
retiners. Professor Cameron, of Dublin,
in his capacity of public analyst, states " that
there are found in ALL raw sugar minute in
sects named AcdTuS sdcchari, closely allied to
the AcdTuS Scdbiei, or itch insect. These two
kinds of Acari resemble each other very
closely, but the sugar insect appears to be the
larger and more formidable, and is the cause
of the pustulous disease known as the gro
GERS itch. Various microscopists state that
they find this insect in nearly every sample
of raw sugar, in numbers varying from 40, 0O0
to 268,00 in each pound weight of sugar.
In refined sugar, no trace of this insect has
been discovered. 1t is not found in the
higher grades of vacuum-pan and centrifugal
sugars" No wonder that there is a growing
| distaste among the people for the use of i'm
pure raw or muscovado sugars since the de-
velopment of the ever-present, multitudinous
Acari, land an increased demand for the
coffee and soft sugars of the refners," in
which they do not exist If the future Tariff
should be based on the distinction of raws
and refined, a supply of Acari might be use
full to the dealer in passing his sugar through
the Custom House, since, being microscopic,
they will not damage the sugar to the eye of
the consumer.
The real difficulty, in this contest, is the
duty on No. II, the raw sugar being so near
to that of grades up to Is, which can be used
!
grades debatable ground. The true relief for
these Eastern refiners, as it is the true policy
in Tariffs, is to seek abatement of the duty
on the raw material. This would give them
the full benefit of their capital and SKILL and
relieve them of all fear of the improvements
of plantation machinery, and at the same
time cheaper the better classes of sugar to
the consumers.
Their memorial says: "The season of
greatest prosperity known to the American
Sugar Refiner was when the duty was half a
cent per pound, and the people were supplied
with standard loaf sugar at S1S cents per
pound" This prosperity can not now be
secured by reduction of duty on all classes
of sugar, but it can be secured by reduction
of duty on the raws, better than by their
present effort, at a duty really higher than
the present onerous one, on the grocery
grades. Such is the direction in which at
last they must seek relief; and it is probably
this conviction forcing itself upon their at
tention, that causes them to put no obstacle
in the way of our Reciprocity Treaty. The
freeing of Hawaiian raws could be used by
them as a powerful argument why raws on
the Atlantic side, should either be freed en-
tirely, or be much reduced from the present
rate From conversations with those in re-
fining interests here, l believe they would
assist, sooner than hinder, the ratification of
the Treaty. j. NJ. S.