TEA AND SILK FARMING IN NEW ZEALAND. 199 



however, is, not what should be the cost of producing tea in 

 India, but what does it actually cost ? This query is answered 

 by a reference to the published accounts of the great Assam 

 Company (rightly regarded as the largest producer of tea for a 

 single firm in the world), where in 1879 the cost of the crop, 

 including every charge, is set down as Is. 4d. per lb. From 

 these quotations it will be evident that the real outlay incurred 

 in preparing tea for the market in India greatly exceeds the 

 cost in China. This is owing partly to the expensive European 

 staffs maintained in the former country, partly on account of so 

 much imported labour being required, partly by reason of tea 

 production in India being comparatively a modern industry, and, 

 therefore, for some years at first but little understood, and partly, 

 no doubt, to the crushing incubus of interest payable on early 

 expenditure for land, plant, and unprofitable experiments. 



We have referred already to the estimate of cost of Kangra 

 tea in 1851 and 1853, by Fortune and Jenkinson, as from 4d. to 

 6d. per lb., in more modern times, and as applicable to a different 

 part of India, we find the opinions of these gentlemen corro- 

 borated by Lieutenant-Colonel Money, whose work on tea 

 cultivation in that country has not yet been superseded. Excep- 

 tion has, it is true, been taken to some of this officer's statements 

 by critics in India, Ceylon, and elsewhere, but on the subject of 

 tea cost we are not aware that his fi^^ures have been challenf^ed. 

 Having been himself a practical tea planter for many years, and 

 amassed great experience, we think tliis gentleman's observations, 

 particularly in regard to the cost of producing tea, are entitled 

 to every respect. At pages 157 to 159 of his manual (1878 ed.) 

 a table is given, exhibiting in detail the various items of outlay, 

 including the manufacture of Indian tea, sorting, packing, trans- 

 port to Calcutta, with broker's or agent's charges there, the 

 whole amounting to IG rupees 9 annas per maund of 80 lbs., 

 whicli, if our sum of reduction be correct, shows a cost of 4Jd. 

 per lb., or one halfpenny per lb. less than tliat given as the 

 probable cost of producing black tea at a shipping port in China. 

 It may be said, of course, that if Colonel Money sometimes 

 acted as his own broker in Calcutta, he would save a very im- 

 portant item of outlay ; and so he would if many of the agents 

 there have been in the habit of charging 12 per cent, on the 

 gross proceeds of all teas passing through their liands, according 

 to statements in the Ceylon Observer of 19tli ^larch and 10th 

 April 1880. 



Coming now to the experiences of some of tlie other tea ])lant- 

 ing firms in India, we find the foHowing list of gardens at present 

 in operation given in the IwU(ui Tea Gazette of May 1879, which 

 will be found useful as furnishing some interesting details con- 

 nected with the industry, as well as illustrative of the variations 



