10 July, 1919.] Beet Sugar Luhtstrij. 401 



Addenda, 

 While pursuing tlie inquiry, wc have been greatly iiu]uessed by matters 

 which did not come directly within the scope of your instructions, but which we 

 desire to bring under your notice. 



(1) The plant at Maffra factory was carefully inspected, and in certain 

 critical departments was found to be comparatively obsolete and inefficient, so 

 that operating costs are inflated. The plant was designed to treat 400 tons of 

 beet a day, whereas portions of the machinery are capable of treating only 200 

 tons a day. This is, therefore, the maximum quantity that oan be treated. Mr. 

 Williams states that the factory cannot face a substantial increase of work 

 unless the plant is remodelled, and tliat fact had to be considered in relation 

 to Mr. Pearson's proposals. We have pointed out in our report that almost the 

 whole of the revenue from the present output is absorbed by standing charges, 

 and that if the output were doubled the factory would show a substantial profit. 

 In the United States it is held that tlie minimum capacity of a sugar factory 

 should be 500 tons per day. Tlie cost of remodelling the Maffra factory would 

 be in tlie region of from £20,000 to £30,000. Consideration of the figures in the 

 main report indicates that if the output of the factory were doubled, after 

 making allowance for increased costs of repairs, interest, depreciation, and 

 management, the profit would be in the neighbourhood of £10,000 a year. 



(2) In examining the figures showing past operations of the factory, we have 

 been struck by the irregularity in the quantity of beet supplied, due to the 

 unreliability of the Maffra rainfall. Tlie supply improved when higher prices 

 were offered by the factory. In order to secure an ample supply of roots, we 

 consider that settlers on the Boisdale estate should be required to accept the 

 scheme of irrigation which the Water Supply Commission have offered them. If 

 this were done the increased profits of the factory would justify the payment of 

 higher prices for roots, which, in their turn,, would lead to increased production, 

 with higher acreage yields — all of which would help to place tht, factory in a 

 sounder financial position. 



(3) It has been shown that an additional campaign, in doubling the sugar 

 output of the factory, would bring in returns which, at the present selling price 

 of sugar, would justify the payment of an extra £6 7s. Gd. per ton sugar in the 

 juice at Maffra The same line of reasoning indicates that the factory, on a 

 doubled output during its normal campaign, could pay freight on roots (at the 

 greatly reduced Mafi'ra beet rates) over considerable distances, and not only 

 thereby increase its own profits, but encourage beet growing in districts whicli 

 rainfall records show to be peculiarly suited to the crop, e.g., Orbost and dis- 

 tricts between Traralgon and Dandenong. Freight for 100 miles (at special, 

 beet rates) would amount to 5s. 3d. per ton roots, or, say, 45s. per ton crystal- 

 lized sugar. If the factory agreed to pay 27s. 6d. per ton for roots delivered 

 at a station within a radius of 100 miles, an enormous stimulus inight be given 

 the industry on a safe ba,sis, or without rendering the State liable to more than 

 year to year expenditures. All suitable districts along the lines of railway lead- 

 ing from Maffra could be thus tested, and, when results logically justified that 

 policy, the Government could safely erect new factories in the proved centres. 

 An extension of the radius of the special rate would afford an additional snAc- 

 guard. The existing price of sugar cannot be expected to hold. If the supply 

 of raw beet is increased by such railway rates, the output of the factory will 

 be so augmented that it will be able to maintain existing prices for the raw 

 product while the price of the manufactured article recedes. 



(4) We also believe that the Government should give sympathetic considera- 

 tion to the question of erecting mills beyond the 100-niile radius mentioned. 



Throughout the inquiry 'every member of the committee has appreciated the 

 tremendous importance of sugar beet production, because of its possible influence 

 on the dairying and jam industries, and its application to such cardinal national 

 problems as repatriation, closer settlement, and decentralization. Before any 

 new mills are erected, however, we advise that the Department of Agriculture 

 shall satisfy itself as to the adaptability of any given district for production, 

 and that definite contracts be entered into with land-holders to plant, after erec- 

 tion, a given area each year for, say, ten years. This would give the guarantee 

 of supply of beets that would justify tlie heavy cost of a mill. The plan in 

 some cases adopted in the I'nited States of liaving associated with the mill a 



