176 TEA AXD SILK FAEiMING IN NEW ZEALAND. 



yet — for a thorough tea education. Travellers through China, 

 such as Lettsom, Ktempfer, Hue, Ball, Jacobson, Ehind, Williams, 

 Fortune, and others, had doubtless already published their im- 

 pressions regarding the tea industry there and in Java, and one 

 or two of these gentlemen did good service in connection with 

 the infant enterprise in various parts of Hindustan, but with 

 those exception!?, and probably a few of their readers, the pre- 

 vailing degree of knowledge on the subject, extant at the time 

 referred to, was of the most meagre description. Indeed, so far 

 from many of the early tea planters of India being practical 

 men, they were mostly retired officers and soldiers, civilians who 

 had failed at other occupations, and chubby youngsters, sons of 

 shareholders in tea gardens or owners of land, fresh from school 

 or college, who, amidst the predominating ignorance of the 

 period, were reckoned as likely to produce good tea, as if they 

 had been trained for long j^ears to the calling. Thus in 1864 

 the Indian tea enterprise was suffering from inadequate infor- 

 mation and defective management, as well as from financial and 

 other causes. There appeared to be an opening for some one 

 with practical experience to improve matters, so the writer, 

 having already acquired all the information possible in this 

 country, determined to spend some years in China in an endea- 

 vour to accomplish the rest. 



It would be out of place in an essay of this kind to chronicle 

 the various odd incidents and adventures which occurred during 

 the three years which w^ere spent in various parts of the Chinese 

 empire. Yet one little scene may be noted as illustrative of 

 the intense desire for information about European habits and 

 inventions which characterises the well-educated among the 

 commercial classes of China, and to show some of the difiiculties 

 which beset the searcher after truth even in the houses of the 

 wealthy. 



The writer having been strongly recommended to visit, and if 

 possible s]3end some time at, a particular tea farm in Hounan, 

 on account of the admirable system upon which it was conducted, 

 and the fine quality of the produce, went. It involved a journey 

 of nearly one thousand miles by steamer, junk, and coolie car- 

 riage, and occupied some time. When nearly at his destination 

 he sent forward his native lettsrs of introduction, and nothing 

 could have been kinder than his reception. He was cordially 

 invited to spend weeks, months, all his spare time in fact, at 

 several different hongs ; but as this was impossible, he took up his 

 quarters with the farmer to whom he had been specially recom- 

 mended, who declined, indeed, to part with his guest during the 

 period of his stay, and who also lodged and fed his five coolies. 

 After each day's visits had been paid to the adjoining farms and 

 manipulating houses, and the necessary notes and sketches com- 



