106 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Ave., 1898. 
own doors. The whole bounty system appeared to be a very unjust form of 
competition altogether, but, as Mr. Lindeman had said, with co-operation 
amongst the agricultural societies throughout the length and breadth of the 
colonies, a good many difficulties of this kind, not only in sugar or in wheat, 
but in fruit and every other branch of the farming industry, could be fought 
and dealt with. He had trusted something in this direction would have been 
done at the present Conference, and that meetings, apart from the regular 
business, would have been held to see if certain lines of action could not have 
been determined. He was afraid, however, that time was’ now too short to 
allow of it being done, but in the meantime he hoped all the societies there 
represented would heartily take up the matter brought forward by the sugar 
delegates and render them every assistance possible. 
Mr. E. Byruzway (Gympie), while complimenting Captain Henry and 
his, supporters on the way they had brought the bounty question forward, still 
thought they had treated it from rather a one-sided point of view. It was all 
right to ask the British Government to place a countervailing duty on bounty- 
fed sugar, but there were other points to be considered. A considerable busi- 
ness had been built up in England in the manufacture of confectionery, sweet- 
meats, jams, lollies, Gc. Continental sugar was sent over to England at cheap 
rates, and returned in a manufactured state to both Germany and France, and 
in his opinion he thought it would be a most unfair thing to ask the British 
Government to place countervailing duties on continental sugar unless this 
colony was prepared to say that it would be willing to allow British manu- 
factures into Queensland at a lower rate than the continental. It was scarcely 
right to ask for a concession unless they were prepared to give one in return. 
Mr. Wat. Deacon (Allora) still held the opinion that he held last year, 
and that was that if there was any system invented down below and matured 
there, it was the system of sugar bounties. It was one of the most abominable 
systems in the world, and as an attempt at monopoly, it had been rightly 
described by Captain Henry. Its originators wanted to crush the cane 
industry so as to get a monopoly for beet sugar in the markets of the world. 
It had been said that it was useless approaching England, but the anti-bount 
cause was a just one, and any just cause was worth fighting for. Still, he had 
to confess that he doubted whether much satisfaction could be got from 
England at the present time. England was now, so he had seen stated, the 
manufacturer of confectionery for the world, and as they knew, sugar entered 
very largely into all departments of thisindustry. There was jam, for instance, 
once a luxury, but now a common article of food in Hngland. It appeared, 
however, that this bounty-fed sugar was coming to Australia, and not only 
was it bounty-fed, but it was coming in bounty-fed ships, and there at any rate 
they might be able to have influence to have an extra duty imposed on such 
sugar. With regard to what Mr. Bytheway had said, he instanced the United 
States, a country which knew how to deal with such questions as they were 
then discussing. Supposing there were a duty on sugar, and if sugar came 
from a country that gave a bounty for export, the United States imposed the 
same bounty as an additional duty to the ordinary impost. In concluding, he 
(Mr. Deacon) thought if they made some attempt for securing fair play, if 
they only kept knocking at the door, they would perhaps succeed in the end in 
getting some concession. The leading men in England wanted to consolidate 
the colonies, and to build up an Empire, and to do this it would be necessary for 
them to ccnsider the whole of it. He would suggest that the sugar-growers of 
Queensland communicate with the other British sugar colonies, say Demerara 
or Mauritius, and let them all work together. If they did this, they would 
probably get some redress. At least, he hoped so. Mr, Chamberlain at any 
rate would support them, if the Liberals would not, or the Tories dared not. 
Mr. A. Macrarnanr (Rockhampton) said that personally he would rather 
pay more for his sugar than see the British sugar colonies ruined by continental 
monopolists, but he would like to have some information on the magnitude of 
the confectionery business in England. Would the countervailing duties affect 
this industry ? 
