October i, 1882.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



283 



$0iiti^spandi3no^. 



To the Editor of the Ceylon Observer. 

 COFFEE ADULTERATION:— SHAMEFUL ATTI- 

 TUDE OF BRITISH OFFICIALS. 

 38 Minciag Lane, London, E.G. Hth July 1882. 

 Dear Sir,-^I beg to hand you a statement hastily 

 penned, showing the x^resent position of the coffee 

 adulteration question, and the shameful way in which 

 the Government appear to be withdrawing from their 

 pledges and promises. I have no doubt that thia 

 breach of faith M'ill arouse a deep feeling of indig- 

 nation throughout the colony, and I hope that the 

 coffee planting interest in Ceylon \vill strengthen our 

 hands in the fight, which we have no intention what- 

 ever of giving up, to obtain redress in a righteous 

 cause and the reversal of legislation, which is a scandal 

 and a disgrace to this country. — I remain, dear sir, 

 yours faithfully, H. PASTEUR. 



38, aiiKCiXG LAi^E. London, 14th July 1882. 



On the 20th .Timuary last the Treasury, at tl\e request of the 

 Board of Trade, and against the strongly-expressed opinion of 

 the Board of Customs, issued a minute sanctioning the import- 

 ation of "coffee or chicory, roasted and ground, mixed, with- 

 out reference to the proportion of the mixture, aud of any other 

 vegetable matter applicable to the use of chicory or coffee." 

 This order led to an indignant protest on the part of the coffee 

 trade, whose memorial, signed by all the most influential firms 

 representing its various interests, was addressed to the Treasury, 

 followed by the urgent representations of its delegates, and of 

 the Council of the^London Chamber of Commerce, and the Fi- 

 nancial Secretary of the Treasury, promised that the obnoxious 

 order should be reconsidered. 



On the 24th of April, Mr. Gladstone, in his budget speech, 

 spoke as follows : — 



" The revenue derived from coffee in 1867 yielded £390,000 ; 

 the coffee duty was reduced in 1872 from 3d to 1^ pet lb., 

 and in 1874 it only yielded £207,000. But while the great move- 

 ment adverse to alcohol, which has been so eminently favour- 

 able to both coffee and chicory, has been at work siuce 1874-5, 

 it lias not produced the slightest rally in the revenue from 

 coffee, but on the contrary, during the last seven years, there 

 has been a further diminution in coffee. In 1874 the coffee 

 duty wa.^ £2o7,000; in 1881 it was only £189,000; and, although 

 the chicory duty had been slightly increased, it only increased 

 by £8,000, and did not make up the whole difference. When 

 we turn to tea, the case is very different. There it is not in 

 the tea houses, but the domestic itse of tea that is advancing 

 at such a rate that there you have a powerful champion able to 

 encounter aleobolio drink in a fair field and to throw it in fair 

 fio-ht The revenue on tea, which in 18(37 was £3,350,000, had 

 riseu in 1874 to £3,875,000, aud in 1881 to £4,200,000. The in- 

 croMe of tlie population during that period of 14 years was 

 4,900.000. Bvit there was no corresponding augmentation in the 

 revenue from coffee and chicory. I am bound to say there is a 

 peculiar state of the law to which I ought to invite the House 

 to apply a remedy, aud I shall lay a resolution on the table 

 of the Committee this very evening with that view. At present 

 every description of admixture with coffee is permitted and we 

 have long proceeded on the principle that the admixture of 

 chicory with coffee was not adulteration — that it was an admix- 

 ture rooted in the habits of many countries so that people 

 woidd not drink coffee without it. But of late a practice has 

 growni up of producing all kinds of substitutes imder the name 

 of coffee, and that, I cannot but think, must in some degree ac- 

 count for the strange and singular state of the figures that I 

 have laid before the Committee. We shall not attempt to in- 

 terfere with the admixture of chicory with coffee, but we pro- 

 pose that it should not be allowed to introduce other miscellane- 

 ous admixtures with coffee." 



Mr. Gladstone, that same evening, laid on the table of the 

 House the following resolutions, viz:— 



1 "That the Duty of Excise on vegetable matter growii in the 

 United Kingdom applicable to the u^es of chicory or coffee (other 

 than chicory) shall cease to be payable, and the sale or exposure 

 for sale of any such vegetable matter in imitation of, or mixed 

 with, chicory or coffee shall be rendered illegal. 



2 "That the Duties of Customs on vegetable matter applicable 

 to the uses of chicory or coffee (other than chicory) shall cease 

 to be payable, and Uie importation as merehandise of any such 

 vegetable' matter mixed with coffee or chicory shall be prohibited. 



3 "That it is expedient to amend the law relating to the In- 

 land Revenurt and the Custom.-;." 



A fews days later the Customs and Inland Revenue Bill wa3 

 printed; that Bill, prepared and brought in by Mr. Playfair, the 



Chancellor of the Exchecjuer, a nd Lord Frederick Cavendish, 

 coutains the following clauses : — 



3 "The Duties of Customs on vegetable matter (other than 

 chicory) applicable to the uses of chicory or coffee shall cease 

 and determine. 



4 '-Tlie importation of any article or substance whatsoever 

 prepared in imitation of chicory or coffee, and called by any 

 name of or mixed with chicory or coffee is hereby prohibited, 

 and such preparations or mixtures shall be forfeited and may be 

 destroyed or otherwise disposed of as the Commissioners of 

 Castonis shall direct. 



6 "If any person shall keep for sale, or offer or expose for sale 

 any article or substance whatsoever prepared or manufactur&l 

 for the purpose of being in imitation of or in any respect to 

 resemble chicory or coffee, or to serve as a substitute for chicory 

 or coffee, or which shall be alleged or intended so to be, or shall 

 be mixed with or called by any name of chicory, or coffee, 

 such article, or substance, and any chicory or coffee with which 

 it is mixed, shall be forfeited, and may bo seized by any officer 

 of Inland Revenue, and the person preparing, manufacturiug, 

 or selling the same, or in whose custoiiy the same is found, shall 

 incur a fine of one hundred poivids," 



Evidently at that time Mr. Gladstone recognized the justice of 

 the complaints of the coffee trade against the recent Treasiu-y 

 minute, aud his speech and the clauses of the Bill show that he 

 also realized the gross injmtice aud unfairness of the unprincipled 

 adulteration which hail gra^iually been allowed to be practised in 

 that trade. The Customs and Inland Revenue Bill was, however, 

 set aside, under the exigencies of the Cloture resolutions, and 

 of the Irish and Egyptian questions. Still, relying on Mr. Glad- 

 stone's promises, the trade waited patiently for the passing of 

 the Bill, which was but on act of partial and tardy justice, 

 when, to the surprize and indignation of all, the new financial 

 Secretary of the Treasury, JVlr. Courtney, between 2 and 3 o'clock 

 in the raiirning on the 8th inst., in Committee of Ways and 

 Means, without previous notice, rose to propose on behalf of 

 Government the following resolution: — 



"There shall be granted and paid to Her Majesty, her heirs 

 aud successors, upon every half-jxiund weight of any article or 

 substance called by any name of ooffee or chicory, or prepared 

 or manufactured for the purpose of, being in imitation of, or 

 in any respect to resemble or to serve as a substitute for coffee 

 or chicory, which is sold or kept for sale in the United King- 

 dom, and also upon every half-pound weight of any mixture 

 of such article or substance as aforesaid with coffee or chicory, 

 which is sold or kept for sale in the United Kingdom, the duty 

 of excise of one penny." 



To the protests of one honourable member, Mr. Gladstone ob- 

 served that the Treasury were concerned with the collection of 

 the revenue, and not with adulteration. One is at a loss to 

 qualify such an extraordinary and arbitrary proceeding. In ord- 

 inary life it would be called a breach of faith ; on the part of 

 the Chancellor of the Exchequer who, in his financial statement 

 addresses himself in the name of Government to the whole country, 

 and to its colonies and dependencies all over the world, and, 

 bearing in mind the words of the Chancellor, and the terms of 

 the Bill embodjing his views and those of his Government, it 

 is a violation of a distinct pledge and promise, without one 

 single word of explanation. Mr. Gladstone does not even con- 

 descend to say that he has changed his mind since the 34th of 

 April ; he probably has not changed his mind, but is prevented 

 from doing what he considers himself as an act of justice, by the 

 pressiu-e of his friends of the Board of Trade, and of those 

 clever and industrious individuals who have been earning their 

 living by mixing rf^uy free malt, or ground date stones, or 

 dandelion root, or other rubbish, with aiity paying coffee, and 

 selling the mixture at the price of genuine duty paid coffee, 

 using the name of coffee, to which they tack on that of their 

 special pet article, so as to attract an unsuspecting public, 

 and realize profits which could not be secured if they attempted 

 to sell their manufacture under its real name. 



It is an unworthy excxise, or rather it is an evasion and not 

 an excuse, to reply, as Mr. Gladstone has done, that the Treas- 

 ury is concerned with the collection of the revenue and not 

 with adulteration, when he has stated himself in his budget 

 speech that "the practice lohick has yrmcu up of late of produc- 

 ing all kinds of sidistitutes vnder the name of coffee, must in 

 some degree account for tfie strange arid singidar state of the 

 figures tliat he has laid before the Committee^ and for which Jie 

 invites t/w /louse to apply a remedy," in other words, Mr. 

 Gladstone recognizes that owing to those adulterations the re- 

 venue from the coffee duty has decreased, and a remedy must 

 be applied to restore the productiveness of that source of re- 

 venue. Such, no doubt, is the duty of the Treasury, and such 

 would have been the effect of the clauses of the Customs aud 

 Inland Revenue Bill, which have just been thrown overboard 

 by Government to please their interesting friends and proteges 

 in the Clumnel Islands, Liverpool, Aylesbury, and other centres 

 of the industry of coffee mixtures 



Mr. Gladstone praises those valuable and Jtsefid institutions, 

 the Coffee Taverns and Tea Houses, which are encountering al- 

 coholic drink in a fair field, and may throw it in fair fight. 

 Tea has and always has liad all his sympathies, its sale ia 

 guarded jealously by rc;:ulations, no admixture whatever is per- 

 mitted ; woe to the offending retailer ! Tea has a fair field ; 

 it looked at one moment as if coffee woidd also have an equal 

 chance provided chicory was mixed with it, but now coffee is 

 not to have a fair field, but is to be handed over to the tender 

 mercies of manufacturers of horrible mixtures, and adulterations 



