March i, 1885.] THE TROPTCXL AGBTCTJLTURIST. 



679 



perienced throughout the manufacturing season ; this being 

 the second year of short rainfall. The sales to date have 

 comprized 182,405 tb. of tea, which have realized a gross 

 average price of Is 2Jd per lb. (against 177,315 It), sold to 

 this date last year at an averge of Is 3Jd), which, consider- 

 ing the recent fall in value of Indian teas, may be con- 

 sidered fairly satisfactory. In view of the unprecedently 

 low market, the directors have not felt justified in pay- 

 ing more than 24 per cent as an ad interim divivdend. 



Mungledye Tea Company, Limited.— The season has 

 closed with a crop of 277,399 lb. of tea, against 

 431,059 lb. last year— a difference of 156,660 lb. This 

 large decrease is partly due to the remedial treatment for 

 strengthening tho plants, deemed necessary by Mr. Boyle, 

 of which lighter plucking for one season was an important 

 detail ; and also to the protracted and severe drought 

 which has prevailed throughout the season. The quantity 

 sold to date has been 121,894 lb., at an average price of 

 Is 3d per lb., against an average for sales to same period 

 last year, of Is OJd per lb.— showing considerable improve- 

 ment in quality. The superintendent is confident that the 

 measures he is carrying out for the improvement of the 

 property will prove successful, and be followed by 

 increased outturn as well as a higher class of produce. He 

 is also introducing charges in the mode of working, which 

 will tend to lessen the cost of production ; and though the 

 outcome of the past season cannot fail to be disappointing 

 to all concerned, the directors share the superintendent's 

 hopeful anticipations as to the future. — H. % C. Mai!. 



SEASON REPORTS FROM SOUTHERN INDIA. 

 Read the following telegram from Collector of Tanjore, 

 to Secretary to Government, Revenue Department, dated 

 5th Januarv 1885 :— Rice 11-51 ; cholum 20 69; ragi 22-22; 

 cumbu 21-51. Rainfall: Shiyali 25 ; Tiruturaipundi 010 ; 

 no rain in twelve stations; report not received from two 

 stations. For week ending 27 th December 1884— Vedara- 

 niem 1-50. Rivers two to five feet. Crops good, except in 

 parts damaged by the late floods and rain. Harvest: 

 paddy, ragi, outturn below average. 571 deaths from cholera ; 

 in other respects, health of people and cattle generally 

 good. 



The following report from Collector of Trichnopoly, 

 to Secretary to Government, Revenue Department, dated 

 5th January 1885:— Rice t second sort) 1176 ; cholum 

 19-60; ragi 2196; cumbu 19 85. Health: Cholera in- 

 creasing and smallpox slight. Cholera attacked 425, died 267. 

 Crops good, except in parts damaged from the recent 

 rains and flood. Agricultural operations— Sowing, trans- 

 planting and weeding continue in parts ; paddy, cholum, 

 cumbu and samai were harvested in Musiri and Kulitalai 

 taluks, with outturn between 8 and 12 anDas. Water- 

 supply— The Oauvery is gradually falling ; the river-chan- 

 nels ill general have a fair supply ; there is a sufficiency 

 in rainfed tanks in dry parts for both irrigation and drink- 

 ing purposes. Rainfall nil throughout district and Pudu- 

 kota. 



The following telegram from Collector of Madura.to Secret- 

 ary to Government, Revenue Department.dated 5th January 

 1885:— Rice 11-14, cholum 1917, ragi 23-25, cumbu 21!. No 

 rain : number of stations where there is no rain, or from 

 which no reports have been received. 9. Previous week — Ti- 

 rushuli 0-25, Usilampatti OS, Tirupatur 025, Morekulam 

 1-87, Vattanam 0'85, Ramnad 0-55, and no rain at the re- 

 maining five stations. Health of cattle good, and of people 

 not satisfactory; cholera throughout; fever prevalent (total 

 deaths 316). Water-supply sufficient. Pasture fair. Pro- 

 spects doubtful. Flood in Vaigai subsiding. 



The following telegram from Collector of Tinnevelly, to 

 Secretary to Government, Revenue Department, dated 5th 

 January 1885:— Rice 11-28, cholum 18-2, cumbu 19-68, ragi 

 2466. No rain during the week. Height in Tatnbrapaani 

 reduced to 2 feet. Cholerain oil taluks, severest Sirvilliputur 

 (attacks 420 and deaths 340); all other taluks attacks 1,414 

 and deaths 1,125; efforts to check it continued; cattle- 

 disease slightly prevalent in nothern taluks. Tanks generally 

 full. Cultivation proceeding almost everywhere. Crops in 

 many places blighted by late heavy rains. Harvest of dry 

 crops going on Sankaranainarkoil, Sirvilliputur. Satur, 

 Tenkarai, outturn average in Sankaranainarkoil below 

 average in others ; wet harvest Tenkarai, outturn average 



The following telegram from Dewan of Travancore, to 

 Secretary to Government, Revenue Department, dated 5th 

 January 188-i : — Season telegram, Trivandrum — Paddy ripen- 

 ing. Price — Madras second-sort rice 9*6 and paddy 23 '9 

 seers per rupee. Three deaths smallpox, Trivandrum ; 

 smallpox, cholera still prevalent in several parts ; fever 

 lingering. No rain. 



♦ 



INDIAN TEA IN AUSTRALIA. 

 Redmyre, Sydney, N. S. W., 29tb Dec. 1884. 

 I lectured on Indo-Australian Trade with a special lecture 

 on tea in the great hall of the Technical College here, the 

 course comprising six lectures, prepared with considerable 

 pains, and the audiences overflowed the seats, and both 

 the public and the press testified in the most emphatic and 

 complimentary manner their interest in my subject, and 

 their apprecation of the discreet and impartial way ill 

 which I handled it. 



It is well-known here, albeit Mr. O'Oonor may dispute 

 tho fact, that the services of Mr. Moody, myself and other 

 friends of Indian tea have had at least this effect, if no 

 other : the importation of low class Chinese rubbish has 

 been checked. Those interested in Chinese teas saw quick 

 enough that the Indian tea only wanted "free course " to 

 sweep all before it, if better quality was not sent down 

 from China. And since the Sydney and Melbourne 

 Exhibitions, it is notorious that better grade teas have 

 been sent from China than was formerly the case. So 

 much may the Australian tea drinker be grateful to India for. 

 The " tact and discretion " of the colonial tea dealer 

 may find illustration in such a case as this, by no 

 means an unfrequent one. A very old firm, high in 

 position, formerly one of the largest importers of Chinese 

 low class rubbish, sold to a young firm in this city some 

 two or three thousand pounds worth of cheap Chinese 

 tea : the tea was sold by sample, and the sample was a per- 

 fectly sound flaky broken tea, and suitable for certain re- 

 quirements. Deliveries at first were up to sample ; then 

 another totally different shop mark, an older and inferior tea, 



BUT HAVING THE SAME SOET OF MATS OUTSIDE, THE SAME OUT- 

 SIDE labels and marks, began to be mixed up with the tea 

 as originally sampled and purchased. "When complaints be- 

 gan to come in from customers, suspicion wasaroused. The 

 fresh untarnished mats and labels on an old tea was alone 

 sufficient, and a searching enquiry was instituted. A 

 survey was held, experts were called in, and it was proved, 

 beyond a doubt, that a much inferior tea to that sampled, 

 a tea rotten, and damaged, and unmarketable, saturated in 

 some cases with oil, stained with salt-water, had been palmed 

 off as good tea on the unfortunate purchaser. The old mats 

 had been taken off, and new mats and frksh labels, pre- 

 sumably kept in reserve for this nefarious purpose, had been 

 substituted. This rotten muck had been in stock for 

 some years, but had been forced out of consumption by 

 the superior standard set up by the introduction of 

 pure Indian tea. 



Another man writes from upcountry to a firm in town : 

 " I have taken a large contract to supply tea to the 

 blacks. What is the cheapest stuff you can sell. Any- 

 thing will do, so long as it Is like tea." That speaks 

 for itself. Would Mr. O'Conor like to taste some of the 

 so-called tea served out to shearers, to bushmen ; iu the 

 forecastles of coasters by potty contractors, &c. ? Are 

 all the descriptions of "lie tea, " of " maloo mixture, " 

 of green deleterious teas, of adulterated and twice 

 used leaves, " packed up " by Chinamen ? Are all 

 these fables, myths, inventions of the enemy, myself 

 and Mr. Moody ? 



My own opinion, to which in my lectures 1 have always 

 given expression, is, that, for many years yet, Indian tea 

 will be chiefly used as a blending medium, to fortify weak 

 China teas ; and that under any circumstances, at present 

 at least, the best drinking tea is a blend of pure Indian 

 and good China. The use of Indian teas is becoming now 

 almost universal in blends, and I am quite certain that a 

 big market will yet he found in Australia for the subject 

 of my lectures, and Mr. Moody's straightforward, pains- 

 taking and instructive analyses. 



As I am on this subject you may pardon me if I just 

 occupy your space a few inches more. In May of last 

 year I received from the Under-Secretary to the Gov- 

 ernment of India, in the Department of Revenue and 



