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revenue now obtained from the tax on tea, coffee, and cocoa; and that this. 
Conference is of opinion that such a course of action on the part of the Home 
Government would be a distinct gain to Queensland and the other tropical and. 
sub-tropical colonies, and a step towards Imperial federation; and it would — 
therefore recommend that this motion be cabled by our Government to Sir 
Hugh Nelson, to be placed before Mr. Chamberlain.” 
In support of the recommendation, Mr. Lrny stated that he had been 
instructed to bring the matter up before the Conference, and pointed out that — 
tea, coffee, and cocoa were products which chiefly came from British colonies. 
A fact of a most startling character had been made known to him illustrative 
of the fearful competition which beet was offering. to cane sugar, and the 
pressure of this competition now experienced by West Indian planters will 
very shortly be felt by Queensland cane-growers. A planter in British Guiana 
was asked by a reporter of the Financial News whether it was not owing to the 
antiquated state of his machinery that he was unable to compete with beet 
sugar. In reply, the planter stated he had spent 250,000 in im provements, 
and had employed a French chemist at £2,000 a year to superintend his opera- — 
tions. This chemist went back to France, and his former employer meeting 
him asked him how much it cost him to produce a ton of sugar. ‘The chemist 
said £14: per ton, and although it only sold for £12 in the London market, yet 
they still made £2 per ton clear profit on it. This was, of course, due to the £4 
perton bounty. The present was an excellent opportunity to pass such aresolu- 
tion as that proposed. It was a British suggestion, and one that was made by 
Mr. Jager, a leading English financier. It had ‘also been supported by a 
committee that had lately been gathering information on the sugar question in 
the West Indies. The West Indian Sugar Commission, of which Sir Henry © 
Norman was chairman, had also gone into the matter, but he had not yet heard. 
what had been their opinion on it. He stated, however, that the London 
Pimes supported the idea. ; : 
Mr. E. Swayne (Mackay) said the bounty question was undoubtedly the 
most burning one in the sugar world at the present. There was no product — 
that had to meet such unfair competition as cane sugar. Beet sugar was pro- 
‘duced at a loss, and yet realised a profit to the manufacturer. The suggested 
remedy was that a counter duty should -be put upon all bounty-fed sugar, and 
it had been said that id. per lb. would be suflicient for this purpose. He 
would like to see the Conference support the motion. 
Mr. Tuynnu mentioned that at the Ottawa Conference which he had 
attended in 1894 the Canadian people were very anxious indeed to have a, 
system of preferential rights between all British possessions introduced, so that : 
British products from the colonies would have a preference or privileges in 
English markets, which were not allowed to similar productions from foreign — 
countries. A long debate and serious discussion took place on the proposal. 
At the time, he personally did not see how the proposition could result in 
anything practical, and he had declined to commit himself in any shape or 
form, A great difficulty which presented itself in this proposal to impose a duty 
in England on foreign beet sugar, was, that Great Britain was committed to 
treaties with certain Continental States not to put them inan unequal position, 
as regards trade, &c., with other countries, including the colonies. He did — 
not think the importance of the fact of the existence of these treaties had 
‘been fully realised by those, both in England and here, who were trying, to 
deal with this question. As far as he was himself concerned, his own 
natural caution would prevent him from committing himself to any resolution 
without first going deeply into the matter. Again, one name, however 
influential, was hardly sufficient to substantiate any doctrine on financial — 
questions. The resolution dealt with a very difficult point in fiscal economy, ~ 
and his own idea was that the matter should be allowed to stand over. To the 
Sugar Commission, of which Sir Henry Norman was the chairman, had been 
-deputed the very difficult and responsible work of investigating the whole-of 
the conditions of sugar-growing in the West Indies; and he might add that he 
