and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society. 



which an appreciable revenue is expected to bo 

 derived. A freehold purchase has also been 

 made cf the island of Tetipari, or Montgomery 

 Island, estimated at about 40 square miles 

 (25,000 acres), with about 8,000 to 10,000 acres 

 suitable for coconuts, and the balance forest 

 country, containing much valuable timber, to 

 be exploited at a convenient time. Other free- 

 hold purchases of land are being negotiated at 

 suitable spots. In offering these properties for 

 flotation the Provisional Directors wish to state 

 that everything being offered at actual cost, no 

 profit whatever is made by anyone in the forma- 

 tion of the Company and the Shareholders will 

 reap the full benefit of the cash purchases made 

 and of the application for lands now under 

 consideration by the British authorities. 



The Provisional Directors are : — Col. James 

 Burns, Hon. James lnglis, Adam Forsyth, Esq., 

 and Walter Lucas, Esq. 



THE CHINA TEA CAMPAIGN. 



Paragraphs have appeared in some of the papers 

 to the effect that "the imports of Indian tea 

 during the past eight months seem to have dimi- 

 nished about 9 per cent., while Chira tea has 

 more than doubled as compared with the cor- 

 responding period of 1906-7." On this subject 

 Messrs. McMeekin and Co., .Lime Street, send 

 the following statement, which explains the 

 position : "The imports of 'old-fashioned China 

 Congou ' are insignificant in volume. It is true 

 that the imports of what is in the statistics 

 termed ' Congou' from China were nearly double 

 during the last eight months, as compared with 

 the corresponding eight months of the previous 

 year, but the tea embraced in the term 

 ' Congou ' includes large quantities of 

 exceedingly low quality, which is at 

 the present moment almost unsaleable. 

 While the lowest qualities of Indian and 

 Ceylon teas havobeen realising in public auction 

 about 7^d. per lb., it has been almost impossible 

 to dispose of the commonest grades of China 

 tea at 4d. per lb. The consequence is that 

 stocks in the bonded warehouses of this class 

 of tea have materially increased. The impor- 

 tations have no relationship to the duty collected 

 by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, as the teas 

 go into bond and duty is only paid upon de- 

 livery therefrom for home consumption. The 

 increase in the amount of duty collected from 

 China tea of every kind during the year 1907, as 

 compared with the year 1906, amounted to about 

 £77,000 (out of a gross total of £5, 700, 000). The per- 

 centage which China tea of all classes showed 



281 



to the total consumption within the United 

 Kingdom during the last five calender years is as 

 follows : 1903, 5f per cent. ; 1904, 4| per cent. ; 

 1905, 2\ per cent. ; 1906, 2 per cent. ; 1907, 3£ 

 per cent. The increase shown during 1907 is 

 attributable to the effort made by distributors 

 to use in their blends more of the inferior 

 China tea to try and compensate for the higher 

 prices ruling for Indian and Ceylon growths. 

 That an increase of only 1 per cent, could 

 be made in such circumstances indicates how 

 exceedingly unwilling the British public are to 

 take even the smallest percentage of China tea 

 in the blends that are sold from retail shops. ' ; 



By the way, the friends of China tea, and 

 there seem to be quite a number of them, 

 are becoming a little anxious about the 

 supply of rubbish arriving from China. In 

 the "Grocers' Gazette : ' "Heathen Chinee" 

 writes :— " This market has been temporarily 

 paralysed and demoralised by the launching 

 upon it of vast quantities of the most terrible 

 rubbish in the shape of sittings which the trade 

 has seen for many a year past. The fact that 

 this deleterious mixture pays 5d. per lb. duty to 

 the Customs just the same as if it were really tea 

 must supply the only possible excuse for letting 

 it into the country. In the long run this will be 

 another nail in the coffin of the China trade, 

 and the veteran hands who still live by and love 

 the old trade are the most bitter in invective 

 against the latest knock-out blow. Many of us 

 can still remember the days of the old Maloo 

 mixture, and it took years and years to rid the 

 market of that awful pest. What eventually 

 became of it, no one exactly knows to this day, 

 but it was before the era of most litter, and so 

 was probably used for bedding, down pur- 

 poses for horses and cattle when straw ran 

 dear, or perhaps to keep strawberries out of 

 the dirt. Now, once again, just when we 

 are priding ourselves on the whole community 

 d-inking better tea, along comes this reek- 

 ing rubbish in the shape of siftings to once more 

 discredit China tea in the eyes of the whole 

 world. The best friends of the China tea trade 

 are the men who are anxious to see it keep up 

 to at least a moderately good standard of qua- 

 lity, and, goodness knows, the trade does not 

 want any more 'facers' just at the moment." 



After this very candid statement it is amusing 

 to note that the secretary of the China Tea 

 Association winds up a letter to the trade jour- 

 nal we have mentioned, with the following touch 

 of humour : "China tea, of all grades, does not 



