TEA AND SILK FAKMING IN NEW ZEALAND. 207 



leaves as his two hands can hold, working them into a ball 

 with considerable pressure, and rolling the mass about on the 

 table. It is then passed to the next man who gently bruises the 

 ball, rapidly twisting the leaves between the fingers and thumb 

 of both hands. Gathered up again by the next into a ball with 

 pressure and rolling, the original quantity passes from one to 

 another, undergoing the same alternate treatment, and is finally 

 rubbed between the hands of the last operator into a basket, 

 which, when full, is poured once more into the heated pan. 

 During this second roasting, wdiich is conducted under a less de- 

 gree of heat than the first, the general superintendent goes the 

 round of the pans and tables, and decides by the appearance of 

 the leaves upon their future treatment ; the larger leaves, accord- 

 ing to quality, being made into gunpowder, imperial and twankay, 

 whilst the smaller become young hyson, hyson, &c. Meanwhile 

 the furnaces are livened up and the pans heated just short of 

 redness, their contents being roasted, with continual motion, for 

 about an hour. When no more vapour arises, and the leaves 

 have assumed a fixed, dull green, they are considered safe from 

 fermentation if kept from damp, and may be permitted to remain 

 unfinished for twenty-four hours, or till all the pluckings on 

 hand have been similarly manipulated. Xext morning the tea 

 is classified after passing through the winnowing machine, gradu- 

 ated sieves, and been carefully picked by women and girls, when 

 the final grades are fixed and are roasted from one to four times, 

 the colouring pigment being applied at the second last panning. 

 It may be said in passing that the colouring of China green tea 

 is done solely to please the European eye. Xo tea for native use 

 is similarly treated, nor would a Chinaman use such if given him 

 as a present. The practice, however, enables him to palm off old, 

 withered leaves for those which ought to be young and fresh, 

 and so long as the people of this and other countries are willing 

 to be gulled, the Chinese manipulator is perfectly content to 

 furnish the sophisticated article. Fortunately there is nothing 

 deleterious in use for helping the colour of green tea, the ingredi- 

 ents being a very pure lime, soft indigo, and a little turmeric, 

 so that the old stories, at one time in vogue of the green colour 

 being produced by drying in copper pans or on hot plates, may be 

 dismissed as inapplicable now. 



The powder being in readiness, the workman scatters it over 

 the contents of the pan in the proportion of about one ounce to 

 fourteen pounds of tea, and the leaves not being yet quite dry, 

 and even slightly sticky, the pigment readily adlieres, and the 

 final firing fixes it. So far completed, the tea is thrown into 

 bins, where eacli sort or grade is kept separate until a sutli- 

 ciency of one kind is collected to form what in China is called 

 a " chop," and in this country a " break." The chop may consist 



