132 



SUGAR. 



sugar and 2,860,776 of refined, besides 768,410 cwts. of molasses 

 and 237,997 cwts. of liquid glucose, or starch sugar; and of this 

 quantity only 750,944 cwts. were re-exported. Of the total imports, 

 however, only about one-third came from our own possessions, namely, 



from — 



Cwts. 



South Africa 29,376 



Mauritius 585,395 



British India 430,772 



Straits Settlements 116,664: 



British West India Islands ..3,532,426 



British Guiana 1 , 210 , 193 



British Honduras 34,615 



Total 5,939,641 



The short table of proportions per cent, following shows the change 

 that is taking place in the taste for raw sugar : 



Home Consumption. 



1 1869. 



1870. 



1871. 





1 -95 



2-54 



3 



63 





20-03 



29-72 



30 



11 



Third „ 



1 26*82 



26-34 



23 



53 



51-94 



41-42 



42 



73 



The proportion of refined used to raw has also risen. 



The following figures, giving the official consumption per head of 

 the population at decennial periods, show that we are the largest con- 

 sumers of sugar of any nation on the globe : 



Year. 



Eaw Sugar, 



Refined. 



Total. 





lbs. 



lbs. 



lbs. 



1855 



29-22 





29-22 



1865 



37-05 



2-73 



39-78 



1875 



53-97 



8-88 



62-85 



Of late years, owing to the bounty given by the French, we have 

 been receiving large quantities of beetroot sugars vearly; thus, in 

 1874, 188,800 tons, and in 1875, 102,300 tons, principally refined 

 beet sugar, were imported from France and Belgium. Good cane- 

 sugar has been driven out of the market by inferior beetroot sugar, 

 which for household purposes is 80 per cent, inferior, as every house- 

 holder may know by filling two large cups of tea and putting in each 

 precisely the same weight of cane and beet sugar, and testing the sac- 

 charine difference. 



Until within a few years ago British Guiana was the only British 

 colony besides Mauritius in which vacuum-pan sugar was manu- 

 factured, and Demerara alone made sugar suited to the wants of the 

 British grocers. Kow, Barbados, Jamaica, and some other of the 

 British West India islands, have carried out this improvement. 



