198 TEA AND SILK FARMING IN NEW ZEALAND. 



4. In Darjeeling at the end of 1879 the daily rate of pay was 

 about l@d. 



5. Paying by results and contract may yield a daily wage 

 of from lOd. to Is. 2d., average Is. 



Average of the examples quoted slightly over 8Jd. 



The next inquiry necessary is that of the cost per lb. of pro- 

 ducing tea. Mr. Rhind, in his Commercial Prochids of the Vege- 

 table Kingdom, at page 393, say — " In order to afford some idea 

 of the labour of tea manufacture, the following statement has 

 been given : — To manufacture 80 lbs. of black tea per day 25 

 gatherers and 10 driers and sorters are required. To produce 

 92 lbs. of green tea 30 gatherers and 16 driers and sorters.'* 

 With this information as a text, by a simple calculation it will 

 be found that in the Chinese districts the cost of making black 

 tea should be a shade above 3|d. per lb., and of turning out 

 finished green tea 4Jd. per lb. precisely. These figures correspond 

 fairly well with separate and independent statements made to 

 the writer by Chinese and others, at different times, and at 

 places in the empire widely asunder, which were that the cost 

 is usually about 4d. per lb. for black tea, and 5d. per lb. for 

 green. But there is another important allied item of cost, the 

 outlay for conveyance to a shipping port. According to one of 

 Mr. Fortune's calculations, which we consider reliable, the aver- 

 age distance that tea is transported in China is about 620 miles, at 

 an expenditure of 1359 tael cents per picul (133^ lbs.), or, say, 

 l^d. per lb. Thus the bare cost of China tea laid down in 

 Shanghai or other shipping port, exclusive of the middleman's- 

 profit, barrier exactions, commissions, and export duty, may 

 average 6^d. per lb. for black, and 6^d. per lb. for green tea. 



In marked contrast to these comparatively moderate figures 

 were those given at the discussion on Mr. Fielder's paper,, 

 already alluded to, by a Mr. Bainbridge, who said — " Coming 

 now" to Upper Assam, the result of my experience is, that taking 

 the whole of the charges in the province connected with the 

 manufacture of tea, they could not be put, in a large concern,, 

 at under Is. 3|d. per lb. . . . Taking the case of Lower 

 Assam, where local labour was obtained without importing it, 

 the expenses were Is. per lb." Major-General Clarke, another 

 speaker on the same occasion, said — " Mr. Bainbridge had told 

 them that the cost of producing tea would be Is. 3d. per lb. 

 He did not presume to contradict that. . . . Mr. Fortune 

 estimated in 1851 that tea could be grown for from 4d. to 6d., 

 and in Kangra, Dr. Jenkinson made the same estimate as to the 

 cost of production. He did not know" whether it could be grown 

 for so small a sum, but the opinion at which he had arrived, 

 from the best information he could obtain, was that it could be 

 produced very well for 9d. per lb." The question of the moment. 



