Edible Products. 



148 



[March 1907. 



NOTE BY EDITOR. 



The two previous papers set forth the results of transplanting in paddy- 

 cultivation. The advantages of this method have been demonstrated almost ad 

 nauseam for very many years, and yet it is not employed in Ceylon— for the 

 so-called transplanting about Kandy is not real transplanting from a nursery. The 

 villager objects to any interference with his time honoured customs and the fact 

 that Ceylon gets the poorest return of paddy per bushel sown in the whole world 

 does not appeal to him in any way. The only thing to be done is to keep on demons- 

 trating the advantages of the method, and for the larger paddy growers to enforce 

 its use upon their land. 



CEYLON'S IMPORT DUTY ON TEA. 



Some philosopher has been guilty of perpetrating an epigram on the futility 

 of endeavouring to convince a certain class of person against his will. That parti- 

 cular class of person appears to us to be represented by the planters of Ceylon in the 

 attitude they have Anally taken up in regard to the import duty levied at Colombo 

 on Indian tea. So much has already been said and written on the subject that there 

 would appear to be nothing left to be said. Let us see how the matter stands. The 

 duty is 25 cents, per lb., or in other words, 4 annas per lb. Now taking the average 

 price of Indian tea to be 6 annas per lb., the incidence of the impost levied by Ceylon 

 works out to 75 per cent, of the market value of the article. No one is insane enough 

 to import Indian tea into Ceylon with such a duty. Had Ceylon not been a tea- 

 producing country, the tax would perhaps have been quite as equitable as the 

 British import duty on Indian and Ceylon tea : that is to say, it would have been a 

 revenue-yielding duty, and there might have been some show of excuse for levying 1 

 it. But Ceylon planters and tea shippers hold very strong views on the justice and 

 equity of the British import duty on British-grown tea, and what Ceylon people 

 have not said against this duty, is not worth saying. Yet, here are Ceylon men deli- 

 berately (and obstinately) trying to justify their duty against Indian Tea. Here we 

 have a British Crown Colony separated from India, a British possession, by a few 

 miles of water, levying a preposterously high duty on a British grown product, not 

 for revenue purposes, be it noted, but as a protective duty ! The lame excuse put 

 forward in defence of the duty is that "inferior" Indian tea will be imported into 

 the Island, and palmed off as " pure Ceylon tea " on the unsuspecting public. When 

 this duty was first levied, it was a revenue producer, because Ceylon did not pro- 

 duce any tea at that time, and there was some excuse for it. As the Pioneer said 

 the other day : " There do not appear to be very strong reasons in these days for 

 maintaining the duty. Local competition need not be feared much more than the 

 landing of coals at Newcastle ; and the system of bonding is quite sufficiently deve- 

 loped to prevent export under false and misleading marks. Ceylon planters appear 

 to take a rather insular and short-sighted view of the matter. A change of policy 

 would probably bring about so great a demand for tea that growers on the spot 

 would be the first to feel the benefit of a change, and Colombo would get all the 

 advantages of a new and extensive line of business." A ten-rupee note would pro- 

 bably cover the revenue at present derived from this duty. , 



Hei-e is what the two important Colombo daily papers have to say on the 

 subject. "Writing on the 22ud instant, the Ceylon Observer (which has always been 

 noted for its broad-minded views) says : " The last word has apparently been said 

 by our Planting and Mercantile bodies in reply to the repeated requests that the 

 import duty on Indian tea should be removed. At the informal Conference held 

 yesterday at the Colonial Secretary's Office, called together, we understand, with 

 the object of affording officialdom an opportunity of thoroughly securing the views 

 of these bodies on the subject, all the planting representatives and two of the mer* 



