WEIGHING AND BULKING OF INDIAN TEAS. 279 



The Indian Tea Districts Association having failed to 

 move the Customs, have quite lately addressed the following 

 Memorial to the Secretary of State for India : 



To THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE EARL OF KIMBERLEY, HER 

 MAJESTY'S SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA. 



The Petition of the Indian Tea Districts Association sheweth 



That your Petitioners are a body representing the interests con- 

 nected with the cultivation of Tea in British India, in which enterprise 

 British capital to the extent of over fifteen millions sterling has been 

 invested. 



That the industry dates from the year 1838, when the first con- 

 signment of Indian Tea, consisting of 456 Ibs., reached the London 

 market. 



That the imports of Indian Tea for the year ending 3oth June, 

 1882, were 49,503,000 Ibs., having a value of more than 3,300,000 

 sterling; while the estimated importation for the current season is 

 upwards of 55,000,000 Ibs., or fully one-third of the entire consumption 

 of the United Kingdom for the year. 



That the contribution to the Revenue accruing from Customs' 

 import duty on the above quantity of Tea will exceed a million and a 

 quarter sterling. ^ 



That the whole of this large quantity is manufactured and packed 

 on between 2,700 and 2,800 separate estates, situated on various parts 

 of H.M.'s Indian dominions. 



That the boxes in which the Teas are packed are in great part 

 made of such wood as can be obtained on the several estates, or pur- 

 chased from the neighbouring Forest Department, and it is very 

 important on economic grounds, as also in the manifest interests of 

 the districts, that this should be exclusively the case. 



That it has been found, under these conditions, practically im- 

 possible to meet the imperative Custom-house standard of close 

 uniformity of tare weight when the chests reach the Bonded Ware- 

 houses here. 



That your Petitioners have reason to complain of the system of 

 weighing the Teas in the said warehouses for the purpose of levying 

 the duty. 



