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THE TROPICAL AGElCUttORIST. 



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beitish-CtEown teas. 



We lake the following account of the meetmg 

 ^'here Mr. J. L. Sliand read his paper, from tlie 

 Home and Colonial Mail : — 



In the Oonfereuce Room of the Oolonial and Indian 

 Exhibition, Mr, .J. L. Shand, of the Ceylon Court, on 

 Wednesday, June 9th, read a paper upon " British- 

 grown Teas," The meeting was presided over by 

 Mr. A N. Birch, c.M.G., Executive Commissioner for 

 Ceylon. 



The Chairman, in a brief speech, introduced Mr. 

 Shand, whom he said would give thoroughly good and 

 reliable information. 



Mr. .Shand opened his paper with a reference to the 

 (piestion whether the tea-plant was indigenous in 

 China or was introduced from India, and said it had 

 fiLaily been decided that it was introduced at a very 

 remote period from India. It was not known when 

 tea first became iin article of diet, but its properties 

 quickly received recognition in China, and a thousand 

 j'ears ago it had become the national beverage tliere. 

 Early in the seventeenth century, tea was introduced 

 into Europe by a Dutch company. It gradually gained 

 ground, and in the domestic history of England there 

 was nothing more remarkable than the hold which tea 

 had taken of the people. A hundred years ago 

 18,000,000 lbs. of tea came to Europe, of which two- 

 thirds was taken by Great Britain. Every reduction 

 of duty in this country was accompanied by a propor- 

 tionate increase in the consumption, so that in 184,"), 

 when a further reduction of duty was contemplated. 

 Parliament was informed on high official authority 

 that, the imports of tea liaving reached 40,000,000 

 lb., it was probable that the limit of consumption 

 had been touched, and that a fresh reduction could 

 only be followed by a loss of revenue. That was 

 in 1845, and, though there was now a tax of (Jd per 

 lb. on tea, equal to an ad r.alorciii, duty of more 

 than 50 per cent., the consumption in 1885 was 

 180,000,000 lb., or within a jfraction of 5 lb. per 

 head of population. What but a few years ago was 

 used as a luxury by a few, had become an article of 

 daily consump'ion in almost every household ia the 

 kingdom. (Hear hear.) To show the importance 

 of the suljject, he might mention that the tea duty 

 last year brought into the Exchequer ,-64,79.5,000 — 

 nearly four times as large a sum as the duty on wine 

 produced — and that the tea industry was the agencj' 

 by which countless thousands in the IMother Country 

 and in the Colonies earned their livelihood. Enterjwise 

 had developc il in India and elsewhere, food supplies 

 hitherto undreamt of, and, as visitors to the Jjlxhibi- 

 tiou had an opportunity of learning, England had at- 

 tained a position never touched by any nation before, 

 for in her dominions she had the power to produce 

 every requirement and every lusui-y of life, and, if it 

 were necessary, could be independent of the markets 

 of the world. (Applause.) The discovery that the tea 

 plant was indigenous in the Indian forests was made 

 sixty-five years back, and a committee was soon aftcr- 

 ■ wards appointed to consider the best methods of cnl- 

 t'vating the plant in India. Great difficulties v/ere 

 encountered, many of them being placed in the way 

 by the Chinese; hut gardens were formed, the en- 

 terprise grew, and British-grown teas, which in 18(35 

 formed but 3 por cent, of the total quantity consumed 

 in the United Kingdom, amounted to 16. per cent. 

 in 1875, and to 33 per cent, in 1885. India had 

 250,000 acres under tea cultivation, and produced 

 70,000,000 lb. of tea; the capital invested in the 

 industry was £16,000,000 ; and a quarter of a million 

 of her Majesty's subjects who iudu-ectly contributed 

 to the income-tax of Great Britain, were engaged in 

 it. (Hear, hear.) The tea plant was introduced to 

 Ceylon from China about the year 1842, but it was 

 not till coffee was stricken by disease that attention 

 was generally directed to the cultivation of tea in 

 Ceylon. In 1873 a small parcel of •231b. of tea 

 was exported from ^Ceylon. This year O^0i)O,(W) lb. 

 would ne exported, and, estimating from tlie acre- 

 age now planted with tea, the export iu ISDO would 

 1(5 



he 40,000,000 lb. There were 120,000 acres planted 

 with tea, which gave employment to a considerable 

 number of Britons and 150,000 Briti.sh .subjects, and 

 the area was being rapidly increased, In the Exhib' 

 ition there was also tea from the Fiji Islands, Natal, 

 and the Straits SottleSients, The cultivation of tea 

 had been successful in Natal, and a large quantity of 

 land was being taken up for that purpose. The teas 

 of Natal, as well as those of Fiji, would eventually 

 find a market in Australia, but it was to India and 

 Ceylon that the people of England must look for a 

 pure tea produced by their own fellow-subjects. 

 Mr. Shand then gave some particulars about tlie 

 growth and preparation of tea in India and Ceylon, 

 and went on to say that the people of Australian 

 colonies were the greatest consumers of tea in pro- 

 portion to the population. The consumption per 

 head of the population was as under : — Australian 

 colonies, 706 lb.; New Zealand, 7'23 lb.; (iireat Britain, 

 4-90 lb.; Newfoundland, Canada, and Tasmania, fol- 

 lowed closely ; various British possessions, 1-66 lb. ; the 

 United States, 130 ib.; Holland, the largest European 

 consumer next to Great Britain. 1'05 lb. In Spain 

 which was the lowest on the list, the consumption 

 was only '01 lb,; in other words, the Englishman 

 drank 490 cups of tea for every cup taken by the 

 Spaniard. Tea was said to be a source of nervous dis- 

 ease aiul no doubt it contained properties which, if 

 misused, might become injurious ; but the table he 

 had quoted from showed that the English people at 

 home and abroad were by far the largest consumers 

 of tea in the world, and probably they were the least 

 nervous race : It was unfair that there s hould bo 

 such a high duty on tea. The duty on sugar had 

 been removed, but that on tea remained, because the 

 tea interest had not such a preponderating Parlia- 

 mentary influence as the sugar interest. Tea and sugar 

 might be said to be equally necessaries of life and 

 yet, while the former yielded '2s Gd per head of the 

 population, the latter was vmtaxed. Tea was year ily 

 year being more largely produced by our.selves, wlibc 

 sugar was being more and more poured into our 

 markets from other countries. In such light 

 esteem was sugar held by the trade, that frequently 

 the purchaser of a pound of tea was presented with 

 a pound of sugar. Suppose the duty on tea wcro 

 reduced to 3d per lb., and a duty of :i^d per lb. were 

 IDlaced on sugar, there would be a considerable margin 

 left in favour of tlie Exchequer. The British sugar- 

 grower and reiiuer would benefit, because the 

 cheap Continental sugars would feel the tax most ; 

 the average consumer would suffer only in au im- 

 perceptible degree, and a groat stimulus would be 

 given to the consumption of tea. Proceeding to con- 

 sider why British people should drink British-grown 

 teas, Mr. Shand said that those teas came into the 

 London market pure. There was no recorded evid- 

 ence of adulteration having ever been discovered. 

 The adulteration of China tea, on the other hand, 

 had been the subject of several volumes, and of 

 special legislation. Tlie purity of Indian and Ceylon 

 teas made them more sensitive than the ordinary 

 China mixtures. It was not necessary to put such 

 large quantities into the teapot, but it was all the- 

 uiorc necessary that the water should be boiling, 

 and that the tea should not be allowed to stand 

 too long. Disappointment should not be felt be. 

 cause the liquor was not black; that was in conse 

 quence of the tea being quite pure and unmixed 

 with black-lead or indigo. If Indian and Ceylon tea 

 were fairly tried and carefully treated, they would 

 be found more economical than China teas; they 

 placed withiu the reach of all a beverage economical- 

 pleasing, aud nourishing. Though the grower sent his 

 teas to Loudon pure, they generally had to pass through 

 the hands of the retail dealer before they reached the 

 public, and the temptation to use up cheap China teas 

 by mixing them with the pure Indian and Ceylon pro- 

 ducts was so great that it had become the custom of 

 the trade to make the mixture, and much tea was be- 

 ing .sold labelled Induin and Ceylon which contained 

 but a very small proportion of those teas. Another 

 reason why British-grown teas should be consumed by 



