The Government takes over the Sugar Mill
The Moreton
Central Sugar Mill in its early years.
Photograph courtesy Sunshine Coast Libraries
In that first season in 1897, the
Moreton Central Sugar Mill Company had not made a profit, and now it began to
get into deep financial trouble. They had expended all of their credit
in the purchase of land and construction of capital works including tramways,
and growers were not happy with the amounts they were being paid for their
cane. The Manager, Working Engineer, and Cane Inspector all felt that they
were being underpaid and at various crucial times threatened to resign if they
were denied an increase in salary. All new construction that was in progress
on the Mill’s tramlines stopped.
During that first year, public
dissatisfaction with the interference of the Board
of Directors in the day-to-day operations of the Mill steadily grew. Some
shareholders had seen the Mill as a means to quick prosperity, and had not
understood the difficulties and expense of setting up the enterprise. Now it
was going bankrupt. These shareholders called an Extraordinary General Meeting
in August 1898, and demanded that the members of the Board resign. The Board
held firm though, and all Directors retained their positions.
This
was only postponing the inevitable, however, and the dissatisfaction of the
shareholders came to a head at the Annual General Meeting of 25th February,
1899. The members of the Board came in for strident criticism, some of it
justified, some not. Chairman of the Board John Currie tried to explain that
the Mill's financial woes had been largely caused by the difficulties
experienced in the building of the Dulong Tramline. He chose not to say that
the lack of money could also be blamed on those Dulong farmers who would not
surrender their deeds to the Company and so restricted the amount of
Government loan money available.
The
new Directors found that all avenues of credit appeared closed, and the Mill
was as good as insolvent. They advised the State Treasurer of the Company's
dire financial position, and Mr Bury requested the Minister for Agriculture Mr
J. V. Chataway to take over the liabilities and management of the Mill.
The
Mill at Nambour was by no means alone in being beset with financial
difficulties at this time. A prolonged drought, poor crops and high capital
expenditure had forced a number of other sugar mills to request a similar Government
takeover in order to survive. Such mills became known as 'Guarantee
Mills', and included those at Nerang, Gin Gin and Proserpine.
In
examining the operations of the Moreton Mill, Dr Maxwell found that at no time
had the supply of cane been sufficient to work the Mill at more than half its
capacity. The reason for the lack of supply was that, apart from poor seasons,
the Board had failed to utilise all the cane-growing land that was available
to it. He recommended that the Mill should aim at reaching maximum potential
by encouraging more Dulong farmers to grow cane, and the best way of doing
that was to extend the tramway up to their farms. He therefore made a strong
case for the Government to begin building the tramway up the Highworth Range
from Murtagh's farm to the summit, and then on to Dulong.
He had other suggestions to make, some of which displeased the local farmers. One of these was that Yandina growers should send their cane to the Mt Bauple Mill (between Gympie and Maryborough), instead of to Moreton Central, and they refused to comply with it. One can only guess at why he thought that this action would help the Moreton Mill, but maybe he thought that Mt Bauple's need was greater.
Despite the financial difficulties that the Mill was experiencing, it produced sugar of excellent quality, and at the Greater Britain Exhibition held in London in 1899, its product competed with sugars from mills around the world, including six other Queensland mills. The sugar from the Moreton Mill was awarded a 'Diploma for Gold Medal'.
