SUGAR 89 



Parliament passed a law saying that these men were to be 

 sent back to their homes, and from that time forward the sugar 

 produced in Queensland has been produced almost entirely 

 by the labour of the white man. The idea is, instead of 

 enormous plantations worked by gangs of unskilled, poorly- 

 paid coloured labourers, to have small estates worked by their 

 owners and a few highly- skilled well-paid assistants. 



Queensland has an area of 688,000 square miles (i. e. it is 

 more than five and a half times as large as the British Isles). 

 Two-thirds of it lie within the tropics. From south to north 

 her coast extends for nearly a thousand miles, and ' at intervals 

 along this great distance are large areas under cane, and 

 a number of considerable towns almost entirely dependent 

 on the sugar industry '. Mackay, between Rockhampton 

 and Townsville, is called the sugaropolis of Australia. 



In 1903 over 2,000,000 tons of cane were harvested, from 

 which were obtained over 200,000 tons of sugar. Scarcely 

 any coloured labour was employed, and the adherents of the 

 White Australia policy look forward to a time when they will 

 be able not only to supply all the sugar which is required in 

 Australia, but also have large quantities over to export to 

 other countries. 



Union of South Africa. There is a narrow belt of tropical 

 country on the coast of Natal where sugar is grown, but at 

 present most of this is either used at home or exported to 

 other parts of South Africa. Indian coolies work on the 

 plantations. 



In the low-lying veld of the Transvaal, too, the soil and 

 climate are suitable and some sugar is grown, but the supply of 

 labour is a difficulty. 



Fiji. These islands are situated in the Pacific Ocean in 

 latitude 20 S. They are remarkably fertile, and sugar is one 

 of their most important crops, but we import very little from 

 them. 



Kenya Colony. Sugar is grown here only to a small 

 extent at present, but there are rich alluvial lands in the 



