The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1901-12-27
SUGAR

DuplISAltu SAtis VI blit N-tiilis' SNSoA
'karten" embracing producers and ref
ners, the general features Oh the mar
ration are authentic and familiar. The
story is that producers and refiners
have a secret agreement in accordance
with which the refiners pay high
price. more than the general market
would justify, for raw sugar, and the
producers assist the refilers In main
tanning an export bounty system, under
which sugar is sold abroad for what
ever can be got for it, and is held at
high price at home, where il is selling
for three times as much as the same
German sugar is selling for in London.
The maintenance of the domestic price
affords enormous profits which the re-
finers share with the producers.
But no effective means have been de-
vised for preventing the growth of
business that is exceptionally profita-
BILE and as the business grows the ex
ceptional profits cannot be maintained.
This years European sugar production
is estimated by the "Centralblatt for
ucher-industries" at more than %
per cent above that of three years ago.
In this estimate the increase in Ger
many is taken to be nearly Is per cent
in three years. The capacity of the
German market to absorb sugar at Il
high price is very greatly impaired by
the depression of trade and the large |
number of persons out of employment, |
and the reduction of one-half or two
thirds in the dividends of stock COM
panies. At the same time it is perfect |
ly evident that the United States cam
not long serve as a good market for |
German sugar; our own beet interests |
are growing fast, and a great increase |
in the production of cane sugar is GER
tain in our newly acquired islands and |
cuba. and it is evident enough that our |
own beet and cane interests are reach
ing the stage of a very serious, even il |
not vital. struggle, wholly apart from
the general question of the rivalry of |
beet and cane in the worlds markets.
Cane production in Porto Rico and
Hawaii is increasing fast. WilIett q
Gray estimate for the current crop 70O,-
600 long tons of cane sugar produced
within the territories of the Unit
ed States, and an increase over
the past year of 245,0O0 tons
in Cuba. which is fast get
ting back to it's high-water mark A
small increase is estimated in Java.
The combined cane and beet estimate
for 1902 Is put at nearly s per cent
above that of 1901.
Javan correspondence of the Louis
lana Planter describes the very extern /,
sive operations now going on in the =
way of improving varieties of cane in
order to get more sugar from an acre.
AS result of this one estate made
over five tons of sugar per acre, and {
Queensland and several of the British
West Indies are making every effort to
improve cane and get more sugar. one
company in Hawaii will get an average
of five tons of sugar per acre for it's
whole tract of 1900 acres. Hawaiian SUI
gar has generally gone to San Fran
cisco but the Hawaiian American +,
steamship Company is said II
have contracts to bring 10000 cons
of sugar to this port, ana it is predicted
that in two years the whole production
of the Maui plantations will be market
ed in the Eastern States
Hardly any branch of agriculture is
so profitable as sugar beet raising
where the soil is favorable and fac
tory is at hand. The manufacture of
sugar at present prices is abnormally
profitable where it can be carried on on
a sufficiently large scale. But most Of
the cane producing countries can pro-
duce little else. They must stay in the
business, and by improving their meth
DDS they can greatly reduce the cost of
production. The world is bound to have
cheap sugar, and the profits of culture
and manufacturing will have to come
down to normal rates.
In the meantime Germany is practice
ing an utterly vicious system, that of
maintaining a very high domestic price
and of exporting at a loss when it is
necessary to do this. The%onsumer IS
taxed in the price and the whole nation
to- 4 I
finer and the beet raiser are for the
time being dividing large profits 1t is
only too evident that this cannot go
on. Efforts are being made to reduce
their acreage, but how can any grow
or be sure that other growers will not
increase their acreage and profit by his
self-denial? Germany would like to
abolish the bounty system, but it is
doubtful If Russia will agree to give it
up. Germany has created a burden
which she cannot long continue to car
ry and which she knows not how to lay
down.-New York Journal of Com
merce.
WILLETT d GRAY'S CIRCULAR.
The Week-Raws unchanged. Rein
ed unchanged Net cash quotations
are: Muscovados. 8 .25c; centrifugals
3.15c; graduated, 4 Soc. Receipts, 1l,520
tens. Meetings., $4,000 tons. Total stock
in four ports, 1870 $40 tons, against 49,
O20 tons last week, and 69, 200 tons last
year. Beet sugar quotations, f. o. b. II
Hamburg, IS I'D per cwt. for SS-degree
analysis. First marks German granu-
lated, t. o. b., Hamburg, SIS l0l2d, equal
4 39c, New York, duty paid
Estimated afloats to the United
States from cuba and West Indies, To-
coo tons; Javas. $4,000 tons; Hawaii
$4,000 tons; Europe, 5000 TONS Peru
Demerara, etc. $4,000 tons; total, ST.
900 tons, against $1,000 tons last year
Spot Foreign Granulated-Tbe de-
mand is fair and the supply very
small. Fine Austrian, 45sc; Dutch,
472c asked. with concessions on round
Lots of some grades. For import Dutch