COLONIAL SUGAR COMPANY.

Gisborne Times, Volume VII, Issue 404, 1 May 1902, Page 2

COLONIAL SUGAR COMPANY.

DIVIDEND OF 10 TER CENT. THE DIRECTORS’ AVAIL. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) Sydney, April 30. 1 At the half-yearly meeting of the Colonial Sugar Company tho profits wero shown to bo £100,096. x\. dividend of 10 per cent, was declared. Tho Chairman, in moving the adoption of the report, said that business was being affected by charges of duties on all material used, and tho attempt to substitute European for colored labor on the cane fields, which for some timo would be a cause of troublo in the cano districts. The expectations of a good crop in Australia this year were dispelled by the drought. Even if good rain came now, the ground lost could not bo fully recovered, whilo the continuance of drought had resulted in something like failure in parts of New South Wales and Queensland. Tho Fiji season was favorable, arid they could bo content with tho prospect there, were it not for the peristent efforts of tho New Zealand Premier to obtain control of tho group. “In our opinion,” states _the report, “ this change would not bo to tho advantage of the European settler, tho Fijian, or the coolies wo employ, and it is to bo hoped that Mr Seddon’s projects will not receivo the countenance of tho Colonial Office.”