British    East India and   Total of B.P. 
Years.     Plantation    Mauritius        E.I. and       Consumption
tons.          tons          Mauritius         tons.
1838-39    176,033        54,017          230,050         195,483
39-40    141,219        60,358          201,577         191,279
40-41    110,739        52,232          162,971         179,741
41-42    107,560        97,792          205,352         202,971
42-43    123,685        80,429          204,114         199,491
43-44    125,178        78,943          204,121         202,259
44-45    122,639        81,959          204,598         206,999
45-46    142,384       102,690          245,074         244,030
47-48    164,646       125,829          290,475         289,537
48-49    139,868       107,844          247,712         308,131
49-50    142,203       121,850          264,053         296,119
50-51    129,471       119,317          248,788         305,616
51-52    148,000       110,000          258,000         312,778

—­The above figures refer to raw sugar only.

At these periods, calculating from 1838-39, the duty on British sugar ranged from 24s. down to 10s. per cwt., and foreign slave-grown sugar from 63s. down to 14s.  The greatest impetus was given to foreign sugar when the duties were reduced, in 1846.

The extension of sugar cultivation in various countries where the climate is suitable, has recently attracted considerable attention among planters and merchants.  The Australian Society of Sydney offered its Isis Gold Medal recently to the person who should have planted, before May, 1851, the greatest number of sugar canes in the colony.  I have not heard whether any claim was put in for the premium, but I fear that the gold fever has diverted attention from any new agricultural pursuit, and that honorary gold medals are therefore unappreciated.  Moreton Bay and the northern parts of the colony of New South Wales, are admirably suited to the growth of all descriptions of tropical products.

The Natal Agricultural Society is also making great exertions to promote sugar culture in that settlement.  Mr. E. Morewood, one of the oldest colonists, has about 100 acres under cultivation with the cane, and I have seen some very excellent specimens of the produce, notwithstanding the want of suitable machinery to grind the cane and boil the juice.  Many planters from the East Indies and Mauritius are settling there.  His Royal Highness Prince Albert awarded, through the Society of Arts, a year or two ago, a gold medal, worth 100 guineas, to Mr. J.A.  Leon, for his beautiful work descriptive of new and improved machinery and processes employed in the cultivation and preparation of sugar in the British colonies, designed to economise labor and increase production.

The centrifugal machines, recently brought into use, for separating the molasses from the sugar, more quickly than the old-fashioned method of coolers, have tended to cheapen the production and simplify the processes of sugar making.  The planters object, however, to the high prices which they are charged for these machines, so simple in their construction; and that they are not allowed, by the patent laws, to obtain them in the cheaper markets of France and Belgium.