Sugar.

The production of sugar in New Zealand has already been referred to as too remote a contingency, considered as a commercial speculation, to be treated practically within this essay. Five Government bonuses, offered between November, 1872, and page 30 May, 1881, lapsed; and for only one of them were there any applicants at all. Sorghum has been successfully grown as an experiment; and sugar-refining works exist at Auckland, from which an excellent article is turned out. But the colony is still a great way from sugar-producing, though the results, if any, of "The Beetroot Sugar Act, 1884," will be awaited with much interest. Under that Act a bonus of ½d. in the pound is offered on 1,000 tons; but there is at present little reason to suppose it will be taken up. It is believed by many that beet-root sugar could not be profitably manufactured in New Zealand without the distillation of spirit from the refuse were permitted to attach to it. This the colony is not in the least degree likely to permit. Accounts of the beet-root sugar industry, even where carried on in Europe under the most favourable conditions, and with the cheapest labour, have not been encouraging of late.