SUGAR GROWING AND ITS MANUFACTURE. 135 



was granted, sliurtly before his deatli, a small jK'usiuu Ly Parliament. 

 Mr, Scott was the first and only person for many years tu send haiiauas 

 to the Sydney market. 'I'hese were produced at Brisbane Water. 



About the year I8O0 much public attention was directed to the 

 possibility of cultivating sugar-cane profitably in this colony, and 

 experiments on a considerable scale were carried out on the Clarence, 

 the Hastings, and the Manning Rivers, and in 1807 fairly large areas 

 were planted with this crop on these rivers, and arrangements were 

 made for the erection of sugar mills on the Clarence and Macleay by 

 the Colonial Sugar Refining Company, and on the Hastings by Mr. 

 Morrison, in conjunction with the late Mr. Thomas Mort. In 1809 the 

 last-mentioned mill was worked for a considerable time, and that year 

 two of the Sugar Company's factories were completed ; but it was not 

 until the following year that any considerable quantity of cane was 

 crushed at these mills. In 1870 the Company's two mills at Southgate 

 and Chatsworth on the Clarence were worked through the whole of the 

 season. During the same year the mill at Darkwater, on the Macleay 

 River, was at work during the season. The returns to both producers 

 and manufacturers were, however, very unsatisfactory on account of the 

 extremely wet season and the want of knowledge of those concerned in 

 the industry. The results, however, justified further experiments and 

 expenditure, and from that time onward there was a steady increase 

 in the area of cane planted on the Clarence ; but the cold winter that 

 followed 1870 showed that sugar-cane could not be profitably grown 

 either on the Hastings or the Macleay, and in 187-3 the Colonial Sugar 

 Company removed their mill from the latter river to Harwood, on the 

 Clarence, while the industry was abandoned on the Hastings. For 

 some years the three mills erected by the Company were worked with 

 success, and in consequence a number of farmers erected small mills 

 for the manufacture of sugar from their own cane and that grown by 

 their neighbours. 



For many years the chief industry on the Clarence was the produc- 

 tion of maize for the Sydney market. At one time this was a very 

 profitable crop ; but, by degrees, as the area under maize was increased 

 in other places, the industry apparently became less profitable. The 

 farmers, therefore, gladly welcomed a new crop which seemed likely to 

 become a reliable one ; and for many years, and until comparatively 

 recently, the growing of cane has proved a good investment of labour, 

 and should continue to do so as long as the present prices paid by mill 

 proprietors continue. 



In 1879, the Colonial Sugar Company's large mill at Southgate, on 

 the Clarence, was worked for the last time, and four yeai's later the 

 machinery at Harwood and Chatsworth was amalgamated in one large 

 factory at the former place. This Company has at the present time 

 only three large mills at work in the Colony, instead of five, as before ; 

 but the capacity of these three mills is much in excess of the former. 



The rich alluvial land on the banks of the Tweed River caused 

 considerable attention to be directed to the locality as being a very 

 suitable one for cane-growing. 



The Tweed is the most northern river in New South AN'ales, and 

 an exceedingly beautiful one, being adorned in many places with rich 

 tropical vegetation, and backed up by an elevated and rugged range of 



