A PEEP AT RIVAL CANE-LANDS 77 



" Australian sugar " is commonly understood to mean 

 Queensland sugar. 



In its initial stage, the Queensland sugar industry 

 was developed on the plantation system, whereby a 

 wealthy capitalist is planter, mill-owner, and manu- 

 facturer. This system worked satisfactorily until 

 about 1884 ; then, following on a boom in the Colony 

 as a sugar-growing country, came a period of depres- 

 sion, and in 1885 the industry seemed to be on the 

 verge of annihilation. 



At this juncture the Legislative Assembly voted a 

 large sum to be lent for the purpose of establishing 

 central mills. Two mills were experimentally worked 

 on the new system, with such successful results that in 

 1893 an Act was passed with a view to encouraging 

 the development of the Central Factory System. 

 Under this Act, a number of farmers could combine to 

 form a co-operative company, and obtain capital to 

 erect and equip a central mill by mortgaging their cane- 

 lands to the Government. The agreement made over 

 such mills to the companies as their own property upon 

 repayment of the Government loan. 



The " White Labour " movement threatened more 

 than to counterbalance the beneficial effects of the new 

 system, according to the sugar-producers' criticism of 

 the popular agitation against the employment of 

 Kanaka labour from the South Sea Islands. However, 

 soon after the inauguration of the Commonwealth, the 

 Federal Government passed an Act banishing black 

 labour from Australia : but about the same time a duty 

 was levied on foreign cane-sugar produced by coloured 

 labour, as an offset to the higher wages which Australian 

 sugar-planters had to offer to obtain white labourers. 



