January i, 1890.I THE TROPICAL At3RTCt3LTU R1 ST. 
4S3 
Peofit and Loss Account for year to 31st Aug. 1889- 
Dr. £ b d 
Interest on Debentures paid and accrued, 2,236 2 10 
Commission on Debentures, .. 13 5 0 
General Charges, including Office Rents, 
Auditor's Printing Stationary, &c„ 158 13 2 
Telegrams, ... 9 1-10 
Postages, ... 1183 
Home Salaries, ... 550 0 0 
Directors' Remuneration (including arrears 
£50), ... 300 0 0 
Law and Visiting Charges in Ceylon, 36 0 10 
Tncome-Tax ... 151 14 10 
Oriental Bank, Bad Debt, ... 22 19 0 
Balance being Profit— At 31st August 
1888, £1.751 6s Id ; for year to 31st 
August 1889, £3,590 17s 5d, ... 5,342 3 6 
£8,832 1 5 
Cr. — 
Balanoe at 31st, August 1888 _ ... 6,299 2 8 
Les.sTea cultivation accounts written off, 
£2.297 16s 7d ; Dividend of 5 per cent 
paid £2,250 ... ... 4,547 16 7 
£1,751 6 I 
Interest on Investments — Received, £2,516 
8« 3d ; Leis Accrued at 31st August 
1888 £926 9s lOd, ... 1,589 18 5 
Accrued 31st August 1889 £533 Is 4d ; 
In Arrear at ditto £791 lis 2d, ... 2,914 10 11 
Net Return from Estates in Company's 
possession for 1888-89, .. ' 3,991 18 9 
Bank and Deposit Interest received and 
accrued, .. ... 172 8 2 
Registration Fees, ... ... 1 17 6 
£8,832 1 5 
[Messrs. Oumberbatch & Co. are the local agents 
—Ed. CO.] 

THE NEW DEPARTURE IN CONNECTION 
WITH THE PEARL FISHERIES 
OF CEYLON. 
In connection with probably all the pearl fisheries 
which in modern times have taken place in Ceylon, 
speculators have brought small lots of 'oysters in 
swift sailing boats for sale in the capital and the 
chief towns of the oolony. But during the period 
of some thousands of years, during whioh the 
banks off the north-west coast of Ceylon have 
yielded their treasures, the idea seems never to 
have suggested itself until now, of dissociating the 
processes of cleaning and searching the shells 
from the scene of diving and raising the oysters. 
Indeed, until the era of steam, any such attempt 
would have been impracticable. We cannot 
doubt that sanitary considerations and a desire 
to save the colony from a repetition of the lamen- 
table casualties whioh marked and prematurely 
closed the fishery of 1888, owing to the out- 
break of epidemic cholera, have operated strongly 
to induce a trial of the experiment of bringing 
the oysters about a hundred miles from the 
banks which form their abodes, for sale and 
treatment. While steam renders this possible, sani- 
tary science, now so greatly advanced, st^ps in 
with appliances and precautions, calculated to 
render unnecessary the horribly disgusting 
and dangerous process of putrefaction, the 
abominable smells, the armies cf crawling 
maggots and the plague cli udfl, of flies 
which have been ever the accompaniments 
of fisheries conducted after the orthodox 
fashion on the dreary coast of Arippu and Sila- 
vatturai, off whioh lie" tho Modaragam, Cheval and 
the other series of chief " pars " or banks, which 
are the favourite feeding and breeding grounds of 
the pearl oysters. The application of the incinerat- 
ing process to the flesh and other waste matter of 
the shells may lead to the loss of a few pearls, 
but such a consideration is of no account in com- 
parison with the benefits conferred on those con- 
nected with the fishery and on the community at large. 
Capitalists who wish to speculate in pearl shells 
can now live comfortably in Colombo instead of 
being condemned to lodge in palm leaf huts, and to 
inhale odours, compared with which the " two and 
seventy stinks " of Cologne, immortalized by 
Coleridge, are as nothing. Speculators with limited 
means, too, inhabiting the capital or its neighbour- 
hood, will have facilities for trying their chances, 
and we Bhall be surprised if increased competition, 
thus rendered possible, does not far more than repay 
the cost of transit of the bivalves. Indeed we believe 
it quite possible that the results, pecuniary as well 
as sanitary, of the experiment which Captain Donnan 
is employed to carry out may entirely revolutionize 
the order of our pearl fisheries, so that the pearl 
bank region (so dreary and barren since Tamil 
raids led to the destruction of the ancient irrigation 
works) will be the scene merely of the diving and 
raising operations necessary for the harvesting of the 
shells, the precious fruits of "the harvest of the sea" 
being realized, as in the present case, near Colombo. 
If the experiment initiated in connection with 
the small fishery off the Karaittivu bank proves 
a success, we cannot doubt that the remainder 
of the oysters on the Dutch Bay bank will be 
dealt with after the same fashion. There can 
be no doubt that our neighbours in Southern 
India will watch with almost as much interest 
as ourselves in Ceylon the results, economical, 
sanitary and general, of an experiment so curious 
and interesting. The only sufferers by the suc- 
cess of the new departure will be the wretched 
inhabitants of the Mannar district, who will be 
deprived of the profitable employment to themselves 
and their buffaloes, in connection with the pali- 
sades and buildings which hitherto have had, 
with every recurring fishery, to be erected at 
Silavatturrai. But the people of Mannar ought 
to be compensated by irrigation works to make 
their rich soil laugh with fruitfulness. Of course 
accommodation and supplies for the divers will 
still be required. 
♦ 
REGULATING TEA SALES AND REFIRING : 
CUSTOMS PRACTICES. 
(From the Home and Colonial Mail.) 
Our correspondent, Mr. G. Seton, calls attention to 
the important subject of the necessity for controlling 
the supplies of Indian and Ceylon tea placed on the 
London market. Although the depression in prices 
occasioned by the excessive supplies offered for sale in 
Mincing Lane is deplored, and the feeling in tea circles 
is that something ought to be done, nothing is done. 
Few people other than speculators wish to cause a 
famine or a " corner" in tea, nor is it generally desired 
to depart from rectitude to the extent of keeping back 
tea to the injury of the consumer. The course sug- 
gested is that the market should be controlled with 
some regard to the eternal fitness of things, and that 
instead of throwing tea upon the market iu the present 
hap-bazard way, some method should be introduced in 
place of the ruinous course now pursued. "Where 
there's a will there's a way," and if tea companies and 
tea agents will combine with the object of preventing 
the needless sacrifice of the growers' interest, there 
need not bo any difficulty iu bringing about a change for 
the better. 
