60 
Mr. Denaran said the difficulty with cane was that all work in connection 
with its cultivation and harvesting had to be done by hand. They had neyer — 
been able to get any suitable machinery for the work. This was where cané@ 
differed from maize, wheat, and many other crops. 
In reply to a question of Mr. Moulday, Mr. Denay said sugar could not 
be grown profitably in the North without black labour. 
Mr. Noakes (Bundaberg) furnished some information on the subject. 
Eyery islander landed cost the planter at least £30. He formerly used to 
employ ninety boys, but he had now leased all his land to farmers to grow cane, 
and had found this arrangement the most satisfactory. All these small farmers, 
however, employed Kanakas. 
The discussion then closed, and the delegates left the room to inspect the 
College silo, which had just been opened. 
‘he ensilage was, in the présence of the delegates, fed to the stock in 
troughs, and the eagerness with which they ate it, even from the hands of the 
visitors, was a sufficient testimony to its excellence. 
THIRD SESSION. 
Trunspay Eveninc, 7°30 p.m, 10tH JUNE. 
Mr. Luty said he hada small explanation to make. His district had arranged 
to be represented at the Conference by the Hon. A. 8. Cowley and himself, but 
circumstances had prevented the former gentleman from attending. Mr. Cowley 
had, however, handed to him a paper on sugar bounties, and had asked him to 
pend it at the Conference. With the permission of the President he would 
0 80. : 
The paper, which, according to Mr. Lely, represented the consensus of 
opinion of the sugar-growers of the Herbert River district, was as follows :— 
Tu West Indian sugar-planters are in dire trouble, and for those of Queens- 
land, trouble is looming in the distance, for we have glutted the Australian 
market, and will have shortly to compete in that of London with the cheap conti- 
nental sugars; while every season the supply of labour becomes scarcer than 
before. It is not my intention to deal at present with this latter difficulty, 
but to lay before you the suggestions of English economists with regard to the 
ruinous competition we meet with in the London market in connection with the 
bounty-fed German, French, and Austrian sugars; and these bounties are s9 
high that the German manufacturer can actually sell his sugar cheaper in 
England than hecan in Germany. The proposal of Mr. Jager and other British 
economists who have taken up the case on behalf of the colonies is, in his 
own words, as follows:—* Let tea come in free to England and puta duty upon 
sugar coming from foreign countries to make up for the loss which the revenue 
would ‘sustain by the withdrawal of the tax on tea. What can the freetrader 
say against this suggestion? To talkof freetrade while tea, which comes from 
our own colonies, is taxed, and sugar, which comes from forcign countries, 18 
free, is absurd. At the time sugar was made a freetrade article, nearly all of 
it came from our colonies, while nearly all of our tea came from China. Now 
the situation is entirely reversed. All our tea practically comes from India and 
Ceylon, while ail our sugar practically comes from foreign countries. Nobody 
would suffer by the change of taxation, as there are no industries based upon 
tea after it is imported into this country. If it did increase the consumption 
of tea, India and Ceylon would benefit by it, and at the same time the con; 
sumption of sugar would be increased, for the two go hand in hand. And 
further, if home-grown beet sugar were free from taxation, as well as our 
colonial sugar, the cultivation of beet would be fostered, to the great advantage 
of agriculture,” After the proposal I have just quoted was published in Eng- 
land, a further suggestion was made. that coffee and cocoa, both in the main 
produced in British colonies, should also be placed upon the free list, and it is 
to the proposal that England be asked to admit tea, coffee, and cocoa free and, 
