8 TEA 



among our cousins gives hope to the Eastern planters 

 of the creation of a new market of the greatest value. 

 Australia, like the rest of the world, is changing her 

 taste in tea. Formerly, her supplies were largely 

 obtained from China, but the imports from that country 

 are steadily diminishing. Although considerable quan- 

 tities of tea are now taken from Java, the real fight for 

 the Australian market lies between Ceylon and India. 

 At the present time the advantage lies with Ceylon, 

 whose exports to the Southern Kmpiiv have increased 

 during the last ten years from ten to twenty-four million 

 pounds. 



Great efforts, attended with considerable success, 

 are being made to develop the Asiatic trade in British- 

 grown tea, and Persia is now the fourth largest consumer 

 of the Indian product. The preparation of brick tea 

 for Tibet is also receiving much attention at the hands 

 of Indian planters, who have voluntarily submitted 

 to a self-imposed tax to be devoted to pushing their 

 production among the Tibetans. 



Austria, Belgium, Sweden. Holland, Turkey, Fnr 

 and Russia are all advancing in their tea imports. Much 

 of the tea taken by Holland naturally comes from their 

 colony of Java, but the increase in the Russian import 

 nearly all comes from British sources, to the loss of the 

 Chinese merchant. 



Although one of the most striking facts in connection 

 with the tea export trade is the practical loss to China 

 of some of the most important of the world's markets, 

 it must not be supposed that the tea industry in China 

 is ruined. As a matter of fact the area under cultiva- 

 tion has not diminished to any appreciable extent during 

 the past forty years ; for the Chinese grower has a vast 

 local market, and immense quantities of inferior tea are 

 converted into the " brick tea " for Tibet and Russia. 



