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Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 330, 27 July 1889, Page 4

Mr JuleS Joubert writes as follows to the Dunedin Star “ Considering that the province of Otago, under proper and intelligent tillage, could become within twelve months independent from foreign importation, I marvel to see that sugar should be procured from other parts of the world. I find that within the last twelve months 12.000 tons of sugar have paid duty in Dunedin alone—that quantity of sugar has caused £360,000 of hard cash to be sent out of the province—and that there are 103,003 acres of land under wheat crop alone in Otago. If the farmers who cultivate the said land put in a crop of Silesian beet, which could readily be matured between the wheat crops--admitting that the yield of sugar be taken at the very lowest average of two tons per acre—it would produce 208,180 tons of sugar annually, and supply New Zealand and Australia with a commodity Which is protected by heavy duty, freight, etc., besides keeping in the country the large sum of money now sent abroad. I may add that the mode of treating beetroot is now an easy matter, and the outlay for plant, and machinery and skilled labor would not cost mooo.”