Jak. I, 1887.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



465 



THE 



ASSOCIATION 

 EXHIBITION. 



AND 



PLANTEES' 



" COLIND " 



Ceylon Ooiumission, Oolouial and Indian Exhibition, 

 South Kensington, S.W., 19th Nov. 1886. 

 The Secretarj-. Planters' Association ol Oeylon, Kandy, 



Oeylon. 



On 9th November I was askfd to attend a mpeting of 

 those interested in the coffee adulteration and ad- 

 niixtiiie question, and I was appointed one of a pro- 

 vi^^lllli•*l Counnittee the other members being Messrs. 

 Clifford and Pasti'Ur, and Dr. Watt (India) to draw up a 

 scheme f>ir the furmatinn of an Association. Ceylon 

 and the Planters' Associaticu have always been in the 

 van in the discussion of this question and though 

 it ia unfortunately now but of secondary import- 

 ance, I felt that I could not ignore it. My hope 

 is that as soon as coffee has been placed on 

 an equal footing with tea a joint Association 

 for the trade protection of boti^ articles may be 

 be formed. To those interested in the question, ttie 

 P. A. report for year ending 17th February 1883, 

 conveys much information and further analyses and 

 the reports of the local Government B'ard and the 

 Board of Customs have greatly strengthened our 

 case. The Mys ire P. A. have placed £1(^0 at the 

 disposal of their London representative towards the 

 expenses required, and I think a Bill will be intro- 

 duced during next session of Parliaaient. Should the 

 parent Association or any of the braiiehfs see its 

 way to contribute moral or pecuniary support, the 

 representation of the case and the chance of success 

 will be strellgthen^d thereby. 



I attended by invitation an interestitig meeting of 

 the Pnai maceuiical Society on 17th instant, where a 

 paper was read upon the drugs in the Exhibi'ion by 

 Mr. Holmes. There were several references to Cey- 

 lon drugs but I wab. too late to hear what the speaker 

 had to say about cinchona. In remarks which 1 was 

 called upon to make, I pointed out how much the 

 growers suffered by the mainti nance of high price of 

 quiuine by retail dealers and how much consumption 

 must be checked in consequence. 



The Bark market has risen a little lately, but there 

 are large stocks, and a broker lold me a few days 

 ago he had sold 2,000 bales of S. Americ-m at 9d per 

 lb. for which 5s per lb. had been refused two years 

 ago. Coffee is very firm and rising steailily, and a 

 continuation of good prices may be looked for. "Cey- 

 lon teas remain firm and are much wanted," is M'-s.srs. 

 Gow, Wilson and Stanton's repoit of Itjth. My firm 

 yesterday purchased Nahalma, Hardenhuislj, and 

 Avisawella teas: all good teas, and at prices which 

 must be pleasant to the seller. When I write to you 

 next I expect to be able to tell you that I have 

 wound up the Exhibition work. — Faithfully yours. 



(Signed) J. L. Shand. 



JP. S. — I enclose an explanatory letter from Messrs. 

 Davidson & Co. on the subject of ''The Tea Plucker," 

 and 1 heard yesterday Irom the Patent Office that 

 my app.icaiion had been refused. Messrs. H. S. King 

 & Co. have converted the goo J wi 1 they gained at 

 th<- Exhibition into a Company for the sale of Indian 

 and Oe>lon teas and coffees, and have opened new pre- 

 iLises iu Gracechurch Street. Other new Companies 

 are springing up all round.— (It itialed) J. L. S. 



Sirocco Works, Belfast, 8th Nov. 18SG. 



J. L. Rhaud Esq., c/o the Ceylon Commission, Colonial 

 Exhibition, South Kensii gtion, London, S. W. 



Dear Sir,— Your favour of Srd iuatiaut was not receive! 

 here before we left off business on Saturday, 6th instant. 

 We wrote you on that day to know if a letter addressed to 

 the Ceylon Court would find you a we wished to communi- 

 cate with you in reference to the subject of the "Leaf- 

 gatherer " trade mark. We are very .sorry that our having 

 adopted this mark lias in any way conflicted with the 

 interests of your Syndicate but we do nut see thai it is 

 possible to abandon ihe "Leaf atherer" as our mark (having 

 used it no.v in our extensive tea business for a year and a 

 half) while it is quite possible for your Syndicate to adopt an- 

 other one for theirs. We received the Photo from a friend 

 who arrived home from India in January 1885. It wa.s simply 

 one of a large cuUeution 6£ similar subj.'Ct purchased and 

 brought home by the gentleman in question. At this time 

 69 



•ur retail tea business was just developing into pretty con- 

 siderable dimensions ; and as we considered a trademark, 

 which would be illustrative of some process in the manufacture 

 of tea desirable on our packets, we applied iu April 1885 to 

 the Patent Office to have registered as our trademark a 

 representation of a girl plucking leaf from a tea bush, and 

 the sketch which we handed in with our application was, iu 

 fact, copied from the photo above referred to. There wiis no 

 name, or description on the photograph as to where, when 

 or by whom it had been taken, and it had no intimation 

 whatever on it as to copyright or other reservations, so that we 

 considered ourspfves at perfest liberty to illustrate the subject 

 as our re^ristered design, by copying this photograph. Had we 

 had the slightest idea that it was private property, or yours in 

 particular, we would have com" unicated with you bo- 

 fore copying it for our illustration. > ur application, 

 however, was in the first instance refused by the Ex- 

 aminer at the Patent Office, owing to a Mr. John 

 Stalkart of Darjeelmg having previously register- d as 

 his trademark a "representation of tea plucking," and 

 as ours was a similar subject ; the Examiner informed 

 us it could not be allowed unless Mr. Stalkarfe consent 

 was obtained to our registration of this trade mark, and 

 provided ''r. Stalkart was not actually using his. We 

 thereupon communicated with Mr. Stalkart, and as he was 

 not using his mark, he kindly gave his consent to our 

 adopting the design submitted to the Examiner. Wemay 

 here mention that Mr. Stalkart's design was as unlike 

 our sketch as it well corld be (to be classed under the 

 same heading), bu' a difference in the delineation of the 

 picture was, the Examiner said, of no importance in the 

 matter. Having obtained and produced Mr. Stalkart's con- 

 sent our design was duly passed and registered m August 

 1886, and we have been using it ever since on our tea 

 packets." 



We saw a picture in the Graphic some mouths back 

 entitled, we think, " Leaf gathering at Strathellie Tea 

 Estate, Ceylon" and at once saw the similarity between 

 it and our registered mark, but, until then we had no 

 idea as to what partion ar 1 lace the picture emanated 

 from. We are sorry that in this matter we should now 

 find ourselves in collision with the claims of any of our 

 plantmg friends, but trust the explanation above given 

 will be considered by you and the Ceylon Tea Planters' 

 Association as satisfactory. 



Our Mr iJavidson hopes to be in London by end of 

 n^xt week and would be pleased to meet you if you 

 would kindly let us know at what address he would 

 find you there.— We are, dear sir, yours faithtully, 



(Signed) Davidson & Co, 



CorrES Adultebation :— Draft Report or Provisional 

 Co.MMlTTEE. — Tlie P^ovl^ional Committee appointed at a 

 meeting of Coffee Producers, Merchaut-s and others, held 

 at South Kensington, on Tuesday, November 9th 1886, beg 

 to submit the following recommendations: — 



1. That an Association be formed to be called " The 

 Coffee A.ssocintion.'' 



2. That t 13 Assoi-iation be form^'d for no purpose of 

 trade whatsoever, and that nene of its members be allowed 

 to use its name, directly or indirectly, f«>r any such purp se, 

 but that it have for its sole end the protection of the coffee 

 producer and consumer. 



3. That with a view to these objects the aim of the 

 As.sociatioQ be to prevent the sale of adulterated coffee or 

 coffee admixtures, promote the consumption of pure coffee, 

 and compel \ endors to sell separately any chicory or other 

 ingredients which may be required by consumers. 



4. That having re^iard to the declining consumption of 

 coffee in the United Kingdom, and the consequent loss of 

 revenue a result attributed by the Board of Customs " iu 

 a great degree to notorious adulteration," such an Association 

 may properly claim the support of producers, merchants and 

 dealers; while the shameful frauds which are committed upon 

 consumers of coffee, especially among the poorer classes, make 

 the objects of this Association of public interest and ad- 

 vantage. 



5. That according to the annual reports of the Local 

 Government Board and the Board of Customs, the existing 

 law has been found wholly ineffectual to protect either 

 the consumer or the revenue, and, therefore, stands in urgent 

 need of amendment. 



6. That, besides endeavouring to amend the law in the 

 directions indicated, the efforts of the Association be 

 directed, through the various temperance organizations, or 

 otherwise, to stimulate the pu''lic taste for infusions from 

 pure coffee, and encourage attempts to supply cheap and easy 

 methods of coffee making. 



7. That representatives of India and the Colonies 

 now in this coui.try he requested to commiuiicate with 

 Planters and their various Associations, and invite co- 

 operation and subscriptions. 



8. That donations and subs.'riptions be also invited from 

 all other persons interested in the proposed Association, 

 All annual subscription of 1 guinea for each member, 

 and of 2 guineas for- each firm, or a donation of £0 54 

 to constitute membership. 



