ANNUAL ADDRESS. XIX. 



sold against that produced in Germany, on which a considerable 

 export bounty is paid. Attention has, of late, however, been 

 directed to the value of molasses as a food for stock, and I am 

 informed that it is being largely used in the tropics as a sub- 

 stitute for grain in feeding draught horses, while a demand for 

 it is setting in for giving a relish to the dry fodder on which 

 sheep are unfortunately only being kept alive in a large part of 

 New South Wales at the present time. Arrangements are also 

 being made for burning this molasses in special furnaces to 

 secure the large percentage of potash which it contains, and there 

 is thus a prospect of its value being increased. It is, however, in 

 the diminutions of the waste sugar in the manufacture and in the 

 increase in the capacity of the factories that a great advance has 

 been made of recent years. I understand that since the Sugar 

 Company adopted the system of chemical check on this work the 

 waste of sugar which takes place in extracting it from the cane 

 has been reduced by more than two-thirds, while the working 

 capacity of the factories has been raised by probably fifty per 

 cent. ; these improvements being forced on manufacturers here as 

 in Germany by the extraordinary and continuous fall in the value 

 of this product, which has amounted to about £15 a ton in the 

 last fifteen years. There has been no change of importance in 

 the rates of wages to produce this effect, but it has been brought 

 about by the application of brains, so as to obtain the maximum 

 yield from the manual labour employed, by improving the 

 arrangements of the factories and the condition under which the 

 work was carried on. Indeed the only change of importance in 

 the plant has been the tendency to increase the number of times 

 that the steam is required to do evaporation duty from three to 

 four, and even five, with a consequent material saving in fuel. 



Another illustration can be found in the meat export trade. 

 About thirty years ago the hides and tallow were all that were 

 obtained from the surplus cattle and sheep, the advance was then 

 made by turning some of it into canned meat and some into 

 extract of meat, still leaving a large amount of waste product; now 



