§ Mr. OUTHWAITEasked the President of the Board of Trade what Import Duty upon sugar is imposed by the Common-wealth of Australia for the protection of the local sugar growing and refining industries?
Mr. HARCOURTThe duties at present leviable on sugar imported into the Commonwealth of Australia from all countries, except South Africa, are as follows:—
687W Under the Customs Tariff (South African Preference) Act, 1906, the rates of duty leviable on sugar imported from South Africa are:—
Sugar: Per cwt. The produce of the sugarcane 6s. Invert sugar and invert syrup, including brewers' priming sugars 6s. Glucose 8s. Other sugar 10s.
Sugar: Per cwt. The produce of sugarcane— Produced solely by white labour 4s. Produced wholly or partly by black labour 5s. [NOTE.—The importation of all sugar into the Commonwealth is at present prohibited, except with the consent of the Minister of Trade and Customs (Proclamation of 7th September, 1915).]
§ Mr. OUTHWAITEasked the President of the Board of Trade whether he can state the wholesale price of sugar in any one of the chief cities of Australia at any date in 1913, and the price at the same date of that year in London, and in any chief city of New Zealand?
Mr. HARCOURTI am afraid it is quite impossible to give quotations which would show the relative value of sugar of absolutely identical quality in the three countries. I find, however, that No. 1 White Sugar in Brisbane varied in price in 1913 from £21 to £23 15s. per ton; that No. 1 Auckland Refined Sugar at Wellington was quoted at £18 11s. per ton in the same year, and that No. 1 Tate's Cubes were £18 5s. per ton in the middle of August, 1913, in London.