2 34 



tHE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[Aug. 2, 1886, 



the huiidreci. This will j,dvc one au idea, with the 

 number of fans «scd iu the interior of Japan, of the 

 real importance of the industry witli fans and screens. 

 The handles and frames of umbrellas are made of 

 bamboo, the latter covered with paper oiled with the 

 Cnt-i/ic. There is a large trade in these, as also of 

 lanterns, mats and window-blinds made with plaited 

 bamboo. Another well executed industrj- is that of 

 cups and saucers in porcelain, covered outside with 

 finely woven bamboo ; these porcelains are principally 

 met with in the Province of Suruga. Ornamental 

 furniture is also covered with fine woven bamboo. 

 It is in that provmce (Suraga) w^e find the best 

 executed works iu bauiboo. 



Many other uses are mentioned. We can only 

 repeal our conviction that India, and we may add 

 Ceylon, owe much to the Society whose career 

 and operations we have glanced at. 



CEYLON TEA IN ENGLAND. 



It is impossible to read without some feeling 

 of alarm, the remarks made by our London Cor- 

 res^jondent iu his last letter relative to the quality 

 of the island tea now being vended in London. 

 It has been repeatedly pointed out how essential 

 it is that our planters should endeavour to secure 

 quality and not quantity alone in the outturn of 

 their estates. We believe that that caution has 

 been taken well to heart, and whatever may be said 

 of the complaints from Mincing Lane, the faults 

 referred to in our London Letter are referrable, 

 not to any shortcomings on this side, but to the 

 conditions which prevail on the other side of the 

 water. But it is of comparatively slight importance 

 with whom the blame rests that so-called "Ceylon" 

 teas of such markedly inferior quality are supplied to 

 the English consumers. The fact remains, and 

 it is one which, if not grappled with, must largely 

 and seriously affect the prosperity of our growing 

 industry. 



We were well prepared to hear that ordinary 

 retailers in London and other English cities and 

 towns resorted to discreditable means for lowering 

 the standard of Ceylon teas sold by them in ac- 

 cordance with their practice with so many other 

 articles of consumption ; but we were, until re- 

 cently, quite unprepared to hear of charges of a 

 similar character brought against firms of known 

 reputation who have made the supply of such 

 teas their speciality, and have boasted of the 

 good they were doing to our planters and 

 our young but promising staple planting in- 

 dustry. It is dangerous, indeed, to find our 

 enemies among those of "our own household." 

 If we cannot rely upon such men to deal honour- 

 ably, how little can we feel reliance or expect 

 higher dealing, among the class of retailers to whom 

 we have just referred? We shall have to consider 

 in such a case how we may best be assured against 

 a course, the result of which can only be to arrest and 

 destroy that appreciation of our island teas which 

 has so grown within the last few years in Eng- 

 land. We thought the question " Where can we 

 be sure of obtaining pure Ceylon tea?" had been 

 fully and satisfactorily answered, and it is most 

 regrettable to find that our English friends con- 

 stantly discover that their reliance has been 

 misplaced. It will be of no avail to go on largely 

 increasing the area of the cultivation of tea in 

 this island if its reputation is ultimately to sink 

 in the consuming countries to the level of that 

 of those inferior growths so largely of late years 

 imported from China. We have all seen the results 

 of such exports from the last-named country. 

 We have seen the China tea exports fall off 

 in quantity year by year until there seem to be 

 attoixii bi^'Ub that the great tea trade ol the 



celestial Empire is permanently on the wane. There 

 is no room to doubt but that this has been due 

 to the competition of the superior qualities hitherto 

 furnished from the tea producing districts of India 

 In that competition Ceylon is now sharing, and 

 so successfully that even India herself is feeling 

 the pinch of it. Are we to go back from that 

 position ? Manifestly we must do so, if complaint'! 

 such as are now made to us from consumers at 

 home are allowed to continue. It is vital to the 

 best interests of this colony to prevent there being 

 any good reason for these complaints ; and means 

 should at once be considered and adopted for checking 

 the dishonesty or carelessness of those by whom 

 our teas are distributed in England. Ilow this 

 may best be done is therefore the question to 

 which we desire to call the urgent attention of 

 those interested. Its solution is of juiblic import- 

 ance, and we greatly doubt if it can be arrived at with 

 out public action. 



It is suggested to us from ho)ne that there 

 should be established in London a confederation 

 of our leading tea growers and exporters which 

 shall, by advertisements, make itself widely known 

 throughout the United Kingdom and other consuming 

 countries, and which shall adopt such a system 

 of guarantee for all teas imported under its auspices 

 that their quality may at all times be relied upon. 

 The gentleman who makes this suggestion, adds : 

 ^" I fear you may be unwilling, indeed be most 

 averse, to any course which may seem to tend 

 to set public action against individual enter- 

 prize. Buc the matter is too grave in its ultimate 

 bearing upon the revival of prosperity in your 

 island to permit of our setting such considerations 

 too prominently forward. If you feel you cannot 

 rely upon such individual enterprize, 3'our planters 

 must plan some method to save themselves, and 

 so some course akin to the suggestion I make, 

 must necessarily be adopted." 



Our friend was. of course, not aware when he 

 wrote, of the proposal on this side for a " Ceylon 

 Tea Syndicate," nor of how fully the very subject 

 he dwells on, had been discussed and action matured 

 with reference both to the United .Kingdom and 

 other tea-consuming countries. We are still of 

 opinion that America (the United Slates and Canada) 

 present the most promising field for an extension 

 of the consum2Jtion of our own and Indian teas ; 

 but certainly a most important part of the work 

 of the Syndicate, must now be the establishment 

 of an agency or agencies in the Mother Country 

 where consumers of Ceylon teas can be quite cer- 

 tain of always obtaining the genuine article. 



That the result must prove inimical to the 

 success of those who have hitherto been endeavouring 

 to establish a special business in England in 

 Ceylon teas must of course follow. But how can 

 the Ceylon planters help this when so many persons 

 have continued to act so as to justify charges 

 such as those to which our London Correspondent 

 has given iniblicity ? It would never do for the 

 producers to sit quietly looking on. while all their 

 best efforts are negatived by the want of proper 

 care — to use the mildest phrase — of those in whom 

 they have hitherto trusted. The demand for Ceylon 

 tea at the India and Colonial Exhibition is a proof 

 of how it is appreciated by the English public 

 when and where its purity can be guaranteed. Are 

 we to see the prospect of such appreciation re- 

 ceiving fuller development, sacrificed to the interests 

 of a few individuals, or to that dishonesty of the 

 relating class, which has, unhappily, become prover- 

 bial? The answer to this question will no donbt 

 be afforded after a very practicablf fashion by the 

 CcyloQ Tea Syadioate, 



