88 SUGAR 



is divided, has given its name to all sugar refined in a certain 

 manner, whether it comes from Demerara or not. This 

 colony of British Guiana is almost as large as the British 

 Isles, and its lowlands, if they were all cultivated, could supply 

 us with all the sugar we need, and a great deal more. 



Mauritius. This little island has an area of only 720 square 

 miles, but, lying as it does in the Indian Ocean, in latitude 

 20 S., it has an ideal climate for sugar cane, and sugar- 

 growing is its one and only industry. It used to export most 

 of its supplies to countries near at hand, but of late years 

 we in Britain have bought a large proportion of them. 



British India has many thousands of acres under sugar, 

 but a great deal is required for home consumption, and our 

 imports from there are not so great as from other places. 

 Bengal, the Punjab, and the United Provinces of Agra and 

 Oudh, have the most extensive plantations. 



Egypt. Both the climate and the soil of Egypt are eminently 

 suited for sugar, especially in the Delta, and here many acres 

 are planted with it, but hitherto we have not imported much. 



Queensland. Many sincere friends of Australia counsel her 

 to employ coloured labour on her tropical lands, which they 

 refer to now as a ' wasted heritage '. India, they say, is over- 

 populated, and this surplus population could very profitably 

 be employed on the sugar plantations of Queensland. By 

 this means not only would the population difficulty of India 

 be solved, but enormous supplies of sugar and other tropical 

 produce would be added to the wealth of the empire. 



On the other hand most Australians are passionately 

 attached to the opposite policy a white Australia. They 

 desire to keep their country for the white races only, and they 

 maintain that white men can endure the heat, and that sugar 

 and similar products can be cultivated by their labour 

 alone. 



The first plantations in Queensland were worked by coloured 

 labourers, Kanakas, brought in from the Pacific Islands, 

 mainly from the New Hebrides ; but in 1901 the Commonwealth 



