220 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF TEA. 



I believe all the above would certainly follow on a general well- 

 combined movement on our part ; but let us take the worst view. No 

 one can deny that they might do so. Would Rs. 120 be a large stake 

 from each garden for even the chance ? Let us begin thus : Open a 

 list in your office for the names of those gardens willing to join. One 

 year's subscription, at Rs. 10 per month, should be the limit from each 

 garden. When enough names are collected to warrant further move- 

 ment, call a meeting in Calcutta, and let the next steps be decided on, 

 and in the interval agitate ; I will help to the best of my power, and 

 collect opinions from all sides. 



Open the list with the names of the three gardens I represent (as 

 per enclosure), equivalent at once to a subscription of Rs. 360. 



Now, as to the question how to do -it ? I give you my views, but 

 let them be criticised and discussed. We want to do it, and to do it 

 the best way. 



What I have been suggesting for months in the Tea Gazette, as the 

 best thing to do in India viz., to sell Tea by auction in convenient 

 forms as to quantity for native consumption is really what I advise for 

 England. I am quite at one with Mr. Drews on this point. (I wish 

 you would reprint his valuable letter above, and then my allusions to 

 it would be understood.) Retail shops and all they would entail, viz., 

 intricate supervision, rents, establishments, and what not, necessitate 

 details quite outside our legitimate sphere as producers. No organisa- 

 tion we could devise would carry on successfully two or three hundred 

 shops at home. We (that is, the company or the association) could 

 not efficiently superintend such a complicated business, and we should 

 be cheated right and left. But let others, I say, do the work for us at 

 their own risk, as follows : 



Sell Teas in whole, half, and quarter chests, in tins of 10, 5, and 

 i Ibs., in packets of 8, 4, and 2 ounces once a week (the market day) 

 in country towns ; daily, in different localities in London, Birmingham, 

 Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dublin, and such like cities all by auction to 

 the highest bidder for cash, in lots which would suit both retail dealers 

 and retail purchasers. Nevermind if there be a loss at the commence- 

 ment ; the quantities sold, till we felt our way, need not be large. 



What would be the result ? Retail dealers would shortly sell as 

 much Indian as China Tea, if they could get it. Our Teas would go 

 into thousands of houses where it has never been tasted yet. The 

 demand would increase on all sides ; prices in Mincing Lane, and con- 

 sequently in Calcutta, would rise, and no fear of a glutted market 



