1 Nov., 1897.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 401 
During the last three or four years the production of beet sugar has 
snereased fourfold. The Chief Department of Agriculture in the United 
States has lately supplied 20,000 farmers with seeds of sugar beets free of cost. 
‘When men like Claus Spreckles, the sugar king, and the American Sugar 
Trust have begun to push the industry, it is time for us here in Queensland to 
ask ourselves what the effect will be when America grows all her own sugar, 
and the Continental sugars are diverted to our markets. It means that our 
industry, with its expectations of future greatness, must go to the wall. It 
means the ruin of hundreds of deserving colonists—ruined to make a German 
holiday. And what industry is to take its place? What is to become of 
the thousands of workers who derived their means of livelihood from this 
industry ? 
These are questions I cannot answer. I hope they may never require an 
answer. I hope the remedy may be applied before it is too late. 
Supposing by the shutting out of bounty-fed sugar the consumer has to 
pay 3d. per lb. more for his sugar, what is it? Assuming the average 
consumption per head at 80 lb. per year, gd. per lb. is only 3s. 4d. per 
year per head. Surely a trivial payment in comparison to the loss of a great 
agricultural industry. 
