November i, 1889.I THE TROP'CAL AGRICULTURIST. 
329 
TEA, COFFFE, CINCHONA AND COCOA. 
The report of the Commissioners of Her Majesty's 
Customs for the year ending March 31st, which have 
just been issued, prove unmistakably the extraor- 
dinary development of the home trade in Indian 
and Ceylon tea. A table which accompanies the 
report illustrates by some remarkable figures the 
continued decline of the British tea trade with 
China and the corresponding advance of that with 
India and Ceylon. In fact the tea trade with our 
two Eastern dependencies last year, for the first 
time, actually exceeded in amount the trade with 
China. The Commissioners do not conceal their 
regret at this fact, because they admit that it 
affects the revenue in a way they do not like. 
The Customs receipts from the tea duty would, 
undoubtedly, be much greater than they are if the 
home supply came exclusively from China, for the 
simple reason that Indian tea goes farther than 
that of China. The Commissioners declare that 
they make a moderate estimate in assuming that 
Indian tea " goes half as far again as Chinese tea " 
as regards depth of colour and fulness of flavour. 
That is to say, if one pound of Chinese tea pro- 
duces five gallons of drinkable liquor, one pound 
of Indian tea will produce seven and a half gallons. 
The Commissioners add that if all the tea con- 
sumed in the United Kingdom last year had come 
from China, instead of partly from that country 
and partly from India and Ceylon, the customs 
receipts from this source of revenue would have 
been a million and fifty-four thousand more than 
it was. It appears to the Commissioners, there- 
fore, that the displacement of Chinese tea by that 
produced in India and Ceylon is practically tanta- 
mount to a reduction of duty on the latter, the 
effect of which is differential in their favour as 
against tea from China. 
The report referred to shows that coffee and 
chicory are gradually going out of favour, and are 
being superseded by cocoa. Notwithstanding the 
enormous increase in the population of the United 
Kingdom during the last ten years the customs 
receipts from coffee have declined by more than 
ten per cent. The receipts from chicory have 
diminished during the same period at a still greater 
rate. The customs duties upon cocoa, on the other 
hand, have largely increased. The yield of duty 
under this head last year was 9 - 19 per cent in 
excess of the record for the previous 12 months. 
The Commissioners attribute the satisfactory in- 
crease in the consumption of cocoa not only to larger 
production, and consequent lower prices, but also 
to the progress of the temperance movement. 
Some letters have recently appeared in the Dublin 
Daily Express on the price of tea. One corres- 
pondent in a moment of weakness drew attention 
to the difference in quotation of the price of tea 
in Mincing Lane and that charged by the retailer 
in fair Dublin city. Thereupon an indignant tea 
merchant, who seems to be a lineal descendant 
of Dicken's Laurence Boythorne, writes : — " Your 
correspondent, ' H. J. L,,' pounces at random on 
an extract from some market report, without any 
knowledge whatever of its context. He, if the 
truth were known, was never near Mincing Lane 
in his life. He sees a quotation of 4|d for tea, 
and concludes that all tea is the same in quality 
and price. He emerges from the little narrow rat- 
hole of his own ideas into print, and concludes 
that ljd per pound is the average trade price for 
good tea, and this, he infers, is sold by retailers 
at 3a per pound. He knows nothing about the 
Dooars and Darjecling districts. The only know- 
ledge that I can give him oredit for is— that he 
knows the duty to be 6d per pound, Your corres- 
pondent, ' H. J. L,,' ia not aware that the best 
quality of teas only are negotiable in the Irish 
market, and if he chooses to call on me I will give 
him the names of a few houses in Dublin where he 
can get good tea if he wants it." 
After generally anathematising the unfortunate 
" H. J. L.!' his opponent adds, " were your corres- 
pondent brought before the bar of my jurisdiction, 
I shouLl unhesitatingly pass upon him my sentence 
(without power to appeal), namely, that he should 
be compelled to drink fourpence-halfpenny tea for 
the rest of his natural life.'' The punishment pro- 
posed seems out of proportion to the offence. — 
Home and Colonial Mail, Sept. 13th. 
SUGAR, COFFEE AND CINCHONA IN 
NETHERLANDS INDIA. 
In Java the sugar planters are at their wits' end 
how to cape with the disease which now works 
havoc among growing cane crops by cankering their 
roots. Plant cane from abroad has suggested itself 
as substitute from the home grown article now come 
under suspicion. Borneo at first came into favour 
as a suppliar meeting requirements. To satisfy the 
demand, nurseries were laid out there, and looked 
promising enough at the outset. They have fallen 
into discredit, owing to the dreaded disease appearing 
there among the young cane. Celebes will now be 
tried, and commissioners have been sent there by 
Java sugar planters to see what can be done in that 
line. In Java the cane has suffered much from 
excessive rain, followed by a severe drought. 
Masses of dead cane, fit only for fuel, cumber the 
fields. The planters, for all that, count upon an 
abundant crop larger than that of last year. 
The Government Gazette of Netherlands India 
contains an official report on coffee leaf disease there 
by Dr. Burck, a botanical specialist. As remedy, he 
recommends the planting of trees thickly around 
coffee plantations to stop the wind-borne germs of the 
disease, Sprinkling the leaves of coffee trees with 
tobacco water has been found useful as safeguard. 
That fluid has also done good service in nurseries. 
In the Preanger Eegencies in Java the cinchona 
planters have taken steps for combined action. 
They intend to start a cinchona syndicate with a 
view of controlling the output and regulating prices. 
— Straits Times, Sept. 30th. 
«< 
TOBACCO : — NORTH BOhNEO PLANTING- 
NOTES. 
A syndicate has leased the Tutong river in Brunei 
from the Sultan for 55 years. The area of agricul- 
tural waste land on the Tutong is estimated at 
100,000 acres. 
We hear the Tutong Syndicate intend to grow 
tobacco, but in view of the difficulty that exists 
of getting labour in this state and in Sarawak we 
wonder how the syndicate will obtain their coolies, 
for we are told that at present it is illegal to 
engage Contract labour either in Hongkong or in 
Singapore for service in Brunei. 
At Mr. Van der Hoeven's estate, visited in the 
early part of the month, there was a grand display 
of tobacco plants ; even and regular in height and 
as thick as they could grow ; the leaves of ex- 
tremely large size, the nerves small, and the texture 
of extraordinary thinness. Not only was one part 
of the estate like this, but field after field showed 
the same characteristics. 
Cutting and carrying had commenced in earnest 
and by the end of the month Mr. Van der Hoeven 
hopes to have half his crop housed. 
This tobacco burns with a very white ash, and 
its reception on the Amsterdam Market ia looked 
forward to with much interest. A very high price 
is freely predicted for it. 
