34 PBOGBESS IN OTHEK COUNTBIES 



but not least, Formosa sugar has free entry into Japan 

 where the sugar of other countries is subjected to an 

 import duty of Es.80 per ton. By these measures 

 the desired result has been produced. From 50,000 

 tons of sugar in 1902 production was steadily in- 

 creased till in 1910 it reached the estimated figure of 

 250,000 tons. It was contended that the measures 

 taken were in the interests of the farmers, the mill- 

 owners and the Government alike. In former times 

 the Chinese farmer had produced a small yield of 

 inferior cane to the acre, had obtained a poor extrac- 

 tion of juice with his primitive stone mills, and had 

 produced a very low grade of raw sugar by his crude 

 methods. It was argued that with better cane and 

 effective handling by means of modern machinery the 

 profits of every one concerned would be increased. So 

 far as Government and the mill-owners are concerned, 

 these predictions have been justified. The consump- 

 tion tax levied on the sugar manufactured by the 

 Formosan mills amounts to as much as Bs.180 lakhs 

 (£1,250,000) in a good year, and the export trade in 

 sugar which was formerly in the hands of Chinese and 

 British merchants has now been diverted entirely into 

 Japanese hands, while the thirty large and numerous 

 small mills have paid very good profits. The case of 

 the Chinese farmer is different. With good cultivation 

 and manuring, a sugar company which has its own 

 plantation can grow 30 tons of cane to the acre from 

 new cane, but the average production on the farmers' 

 fields does not amount to more than 12 tons to the 



