9° 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [August i, 1889 
places under his care, for tea. But with our old 
staple rising in value, and splendid prices even 
now available for " high-grown Ceylon plantation," 
we may depend upon it, that labour and material 
both will be made available by every coffee owner 
in the country troubled with green bug, to give 
Mr. Jackson's system a fair trial. Meantime his 
brother planters, more especially in Udapussellawa, 
Haputale and Badulla, cannot but feel grateful to 
him for his cheery while practical note of defiance 
to their dire enemy. May the " green-bug's " 
shadow speedily grow less until it disappears for 
ever ! 
♦ 
AN INDIAN PLANTER ON THE TEA TRADE 
There can be no doubt that the produoers of British- 
grown tea are paying the penalty of over production 
in a serious short-fall in values ; and that the Chinese 
tea growers are seeing their revenge in the dragging 
down of prices all round, by the reckless way in which 
importers of the leaf from the flowery land have for 
some time been throwing their large invoices on the 
market, without reserve. This pernicious practice of 
printing catalogues "for sale without reserve," is an en- 
tirely new departure, never having been known before 
the growers of Indian and Ceylon teas commenced to 
force China leaf to take a back seat in the Mincing-lane 
market. Indian planters, however, have thus far 
struggled manfully against adverse trade, and though 
they see returns gradually dwindling to very small 
proportions, they have done their best to meet the 
emergenoy by economies in the cost of production whilst 
Calcutta agents have met them by considerable reduc- 
tions in charges. They are, of course, limits to this 
cutting down of expenses, and most of us are of opinion 
that we have about found bottom in the matter of 
cost, and that any further drop in prices must in- 
volve loss to many shareholders, and the throwing 
out of cultivation of some of the poorest of the In- 
dian gardens. 
As a rather curious commentary on this opinion, I 
may mention what I have every reason for believing to 
be true, that in the Dooars district some of the more 
wealthy companies are making arrangements for open- 
ing up large tracts of jungle for new tea cultivation, to 
the extent of 12,000 acres. There may be some ex- 
aggeration in these figures, let us hope there is, but I 
do not doubt the broad fact of a considerable tea ex- 
tension. Of course, all this will not be planted up at 
once, whilst some years must elapse before the new 
gardens come into crop, and it is to be hoped that in 
the meantime a corresponding extent of old unprofit- 
able tea acreage may drop out of existence. 
The circumstance coming upon a drooping market, 
renders the opening of new outlets for our tea more 
than ever desirable. The American tea syndicate has 
not been formed a day too soon, and this even brokers 
admit, for they are as much interested in a recovery of 
prices as are growers. Our teas are usually recognised 
as possessing great strength ; during this and the pre- 
vious season, however, there have been many complaints 
in the Lane of an absence of full flavour, in Aseams 
especially, teas being spoken of as wanting in point and 
briskness. As far as the American market is concerned 
this fact tells rather in our favour, seen that across 
the Atlantic, tea drinkers do not care for full flavoured 
tea, and it is probable that our present make of leaf 
may suit them to a T. 
I notice a great deal of talk about over-firing of 
Ceylon Teas ; the same is frequently cast in our teeth, 
though I cannot conceive how the reproach has been 
deserved, for there is as much care taken in Indian 
factories as was aver the case. Of course these com- 
plaints help to depress an over supplied market, but 
according to my view of matters I consider that the 
tea importers are much to blame, for, if not selling 
without reserve, as is the case of China invoioes, at 
any rate over- weighting auctions, on sale days without 
the least regard to the power of the trade to take off 
anything like the quantity put up. The ooasequence 
is that either many lots are bought in, or sacrifices 
have to be made, in either case depressing the 
market. 
In consequence of the largely increasing quantities 
of British grown teas being brought to public auction, 
it appears very desirable- that a further change be made 
in sale arrangements. In 1890-91 not only will India 
ship more largely, but Ceylon growers will send about 
half as much as comes from Calcutta, and it may then 
be found necessary, not onh- to have different days 
for auctions, but different sale-rooms. Indian and 
Ceylon being sold in distinct parts of the Commercial 
Sale Rooms. 
I suspect the days of 15 and 20 per cent dividends 
for shareholders in tea companies have gone, never to 
return. I do not look for more than eight per cent on 
my shares in a well-managed company. I notice that 
according to the report of the Darjeeling Company the 
gross profit for the past year was £9,347, out of which, 
after payment of commissions to staff and income-tax, 
it is propose' I to pay a dividend of 6 per cent, including 
£175 taken from the reserve fund. The average price 
realised for the crop of 1888 was only Is 0 - 54d per 
pound, being l - 44d per lb. below the average price of 
the previous year's crop. This, it is said, was due to 
the fact that the weather was unfavourable for the pro- 
duction of te as of fine quality, while a considerable and 
general reduction occurred in the market values of 
Indian teas. 
I hear some people express doubts about Indian teas 
succeeding in the States, and they point to the failure 
of former efforts in that direction. It may not be 
generally known that the collapse of a very costly 
American Tea Agency a few years ago was caused by 
the grave mistake of flooding the wholesale markets 
with Indian teas, which were recklessly sacrificed at 
auction instead of being carefully and judiciously placed 
before the consuming public. We are not going to 
repeat this costly blunder. — Written for the " Ceylon 
Advertiser." 
NATAL GOLD AND COAL FIELDS. 
It would be unfair to criticise too closely Oapt. 
Nicholl's first report as commissioner of mines. That 
officer admittedly entered upon the duties of his position 
without special training or experience, while he had 
before him the work of organising an entirely new 
department. We shall content ourselves, therefore 
with simply reviewing the facts set forth in the 
report. They show that the Commissioner has not 
been idle. Although he professes to have dealt 
" more particularly with affairs relating to the gold 
mining industry and with the work performed by 
the diamond " drill," he has had other work to attend 
to. Officers have had to be appointed ; rules and regu- 
lations to be framed; surveys made, roads constructed 
and reports prepared. The framing of rules and regu- 
lations alone has been a formidable task, beset, as the 
circumstances of the case are by most conflicting in- 
terests and ever-changiug conditions, and hampered as 
Capt. Nicholls must have been by the lack of direct 
personal acquaintance with the usages of mining in- 
dustry. One immediate and wholesome effect of gold 
prospecting has been the extension of roads 
into the native locations. Three new roads have been 
opened up to or in the direction of the Umsinga. 
Whether g( ld mining pays or not these roads will be 
a lasting be nefit to the colony. On the first point the 
Commissioner frankly states that " nothing very 
promising has been discovered, except in the Um- 
singa Division and in the countries of Umvoti and 
Alexandra. In these three districts the prospects 
may be considered as being decidedly encouraging, 
" several gold-bearing quartz veins having been brought 
to light, and developed and tested to such an extent 
as to show that they are capable of proving payable 
concerns, provided they are systematically worked." 
The report attributes any delay there may have been 
in the development of the Natal Fields to the want 
of capital, rather than to mismanagement or igno- 
rance the other chief factors of disappointment or 
