March i* 1890.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
My route hence to New York has been altered, and 
instead of going via Montreal I go by Winnipeg, St. 
Paul's, and Chicago. This change is made in the 
interests of the Company and partly because I have 
received numerous letters to business men in the two 
last named cities who may be of very great servioe to 
the interests lam endeavouring to represent. 
Communications have been opened up by me with 
theOanadian Pacific Railway Company with a view to 
get that Company to arrange with one of the many 
lines of steamers touohing at Colombo and Hongkong 
to grant through Bills of Lading irom Colombo to Van- 
couver but final arrangements must be made by the 
Head Office at Montreal. 
It has been my good fortune to make the acquaint- 
ance of Mr. N. C. Daviea who is prominently conneoted 
with the Northern Pacific Railwaj and who was very 
greatly impressed with what I related to him about our 
teas. He has given me several introductory letters to 
men holding high position, in the Company abovenamed 
and will use his best endeavours to assist me in getting 
our teas on all the sixteen Dining Oars of the Northern 
Pacific Railway system; 
I became acquainted in San Francisoo, with a son 
of Mr. Armour of Porkpacking fame who gave me many 
letters of introduction to influential business men in 
St. Paul's and Chicago hesides one to his father's 
firm. 
Vancouver city, the terminus of the Canadian Pacific 
Railway and the starting point of the Canadian Pacifio 
steamers plying to Japan and China is growing very 
rapidly and is fast approaching a point when it will 
become the chief city of the Pacific com-t. In its near 
neighbourhood are minerals of all kinds, among them 
may be meutioued gold, silver, iron, coal, etc., and its 
supply of lumber is comparatively inexhaustible. 
Soon the Northern Pacific and the Southern Pacific 
Railways will extend their roads into it, and it seems 
destined to become the cbief distributing point on this 
Coast. Mr. Abbott the Chief Manager here of the 
Canadian Pacifio Railway, tells me tbey have landed 
silks and teas in New York in twenty-seven days 
from Hongkong and he believes our teas can come over 
his line as quickly and cheaply to Montreal as by the 
Suez Canal and London. Tbis leads up to my having 
to state that I have made, what I believe to be, a very 
important connection here. 
The firm of Oppenheimer Bros, have given me a small 
order. The firm is represented to be worth £100,000 — 
and it is doing the bulk of the wholesale business here. 
One of the firm is the present Mayor of the city which 
office he has occupied for three consecutive years. 
This letter was accompanied by an order from the 
firm named, whioh had been executed, he was 
happy to say, and the tea sent out for tranship- 
ment from Hongkong to Vancouver. 
Mr. Davies asked if the teas that were being 
Bent were all blaok teas. 
Mr. Mitchell replied that they were. The 
Directors had decided that for the present they 
should confine their attention to blaok teas. They had, 
however, had an offer from Mr. Drummond Deane to 
send green teas, and he certainly intended to recom- 
mend the Directors to take charge of Mr. Drummond 
Deane's consignment, and let it be sent to Amerioa 
on his accouut, and they would at all events see 
the results of it, He did not think it would inter- 
fere very much with the sale of their black teas, 
to which they were giving special attention, and 
they would have the advantage of knowing 
which teas took best. Whether they would 
follow it up by recommending the making of 
green teas in Ceylon, and undertake the shipping 
of them, was a matter which must depend very 
much upon the result of the present experiment. 
— Messrs Wattson A* Farr wrote on Dec. 13th 
last :— 
Mr. Pineo h-is decided upon a shop on 2_'iicl Street 
between Broadway and 5th Avenue one of the vory 
best locations in the City and we liavo ordered it 
leased from 1st Jan. 18'JO until 1st May 1891 at the 
rate of $4,000 per annum. Almost all leases end here 
on 1st May. This property is very cheap as rents 
go, and we quite agreed with Mr. Pineo, that 
it was best to get a really good and well located 
shop, even it we would have to curtail advertii-ing 
or some other expenses. We have ordered tbe lease 
in the Company's name, wo of course guaranteeing 
rent, as we will bave to do for all engagements. 
Mr. Pineo is looking after packets, advertising ar- 
rangements &o. &c. He much regrets that the Tea 
Packing Machine has not arrived yet, as he cannot order 
the packets until he sees it. 
We find Mr. Pineo a very pleasant gentleman, and 
shall have much satisfaction in co-operating witb him 
in any way. He will no doubt write you fully in a 
few days. 
Another letter came from Mr. Pineo, but he had 
sent it upcountry to the Chairman of the Company, 
who had not returned it, although he wrote for it 
twice and telegraphed yesterday. He was afraid 
the Chairman had been away from home, but the 
letter was probably then on its way down 
and when it came he would make the necessary 
extracts and hand them to the Press for the 
information of the shareholders. There was 
really no other actual business to bring before 
the meeting. All that was contemplated by 
holding the present meeting was to afford an 
opportunity of giving information to tbe share- 
holders. Not very much time had yet elapsed out 
of which to accomplish a great dsal, or even 
to receive much information from the other 
side as to what had been done. It must 
be remembered that although the Company was 
a Ceylon Planters' Company, its operations were being 
carried on on the other side of the world, and 
it took a considerable time to communicate with 
America, Everything, however, was being got in 
readiness for a good start. They had first-rate 
premises, and, as was evidenoed by the correspon. 
dence, they had got first-rate people to look after 
the interests of the Company, and, what was of 
much importance, they were ready to co-operate 
with Mr. Pineo to the fullest possible extent. They 
had gone on supplying Mr. Pineo with shipments 
of tea, and, as he had stated, about 18,000 lb. 
would have been sent when the " Dacca" sailed 
in a few days. The shipments were made 
on through bills of lading to New York 
with transhipment at London. They would be 
guided by the advices they got from New York as 
to the quantities they would go on sending from 
week to week. They were quite ready to send on 
as much as ever they were likely to get through, but 
they would wait a little longer for more information as 
to the quantities they found to be saleable. The teas 
which had been sent were bought to match 
standards which were very carefully seleoted and 
decided upon by the whole of the Direotors, and there 
was not the least doubt as to their giving satisfaction 
because these same teas were fully gone into with 
Mr. Pineo before he left, and samples of the standards 
were taken with him. He thought the prospects of the 
Company were very promising indeed. Many people 
asked him if they wtre likely to receive dividends ? 
Well, judging by the prices which had been quoted 
from America he did not see that they could fail 
to bave fair dividends upon the capital invested after a 
little time had elapsed. At the very outset, of course, 
their expenditure must be considerable in fitting out 
an establishment such as they had got to make com- 
plete, and iu advertising and other charges, but when 
once ihe Company and its teas were known the 
necessity for going on expending money at that 
rate would, of course, cease. Ai the present time 
the principle they were going upon was to ship 
the teas to the agents in New York without draw, 
iug against them, because they now had the oapi. 
