March i, 1890.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
633 
LAST YEAR'S TEA TRADE IN CHINA. 
The Shin Pad's retrospect of the trade of the year 
ended 20th January says : — 
The decline in the te^ trade, we are glad to see, 
is engaging the attention of those who are most con- 
cerned, and there is every prospect of a return of the 
oil prosperity as the improvements suggested are 
likely to be taken up in earnest very soou. Let us 
hope it will not be a case of ' going to look for the 
hound when the hare has broken cover,' or ' mending 
the fold when the sheep is lost.' The greatest fai- 
lures this last season were black teas; green and 
Pingsueys did rather better, but by no means satis- 
factorily. The temporary boon of the previous season 
had made our merchants greedy, and many new tea- 
firms came into existence on the prospect of a con- 
tinuation of it ; but the high prices asked by growers 
in view of the immense demand and the difficulty of 
getting at money to purohase, baffled their hopes of 
a successful season. Native banks did pretty well, but 
the number of failures was so great that banking 
business on the whole must be considered to have 
done worse than the previous year. — China Mail, 
PERAK TEA, 
We (L. and 0. Express) recently gave our opinion 
on the first consignment of Perak tea to this mar- 
ket. Our readers may be interested to know what 
a trade paper, the Grocer, says of this same ship, 
ment, which is as follows : — 
Another tea-producing district is the latest novelty 
in the tea trade. Lately it was tea from Fiji, now it 
is the growth of Perak, situate in the Straits Settle- 
ments of the East Indies, where British capital and 
enterprise seem to have been employed with beneficial 
results. The first consignment to the London market 
has just taken place, and has consisted of an in- 
voice of 78 half-chests from the " Perak " estate, 
where the tea has evidently been grown, cultivated, 
aDd manipulated by persons of considerable skill and 
experience in the industry. By expert valuers in " the 
lane " the quality of this experimental shipment is 
favourably spoken of, and on its being offered in public 
sale recently it found ready buyers at full rates — viz., 
Broken Pekoe at Is Ofd., Pekoe at llfd., Pekoe Sou- 
chong at d^d., Souchong (a single package) at the same 
price, and dust at 6fd. per pound. Should the tea 
production of Perak materially increase, it will come 
into competition with Indian and Oeylon and in the 
course of time add to the general supplies for this 
country, and afford a wider and more desirable assort- 
ment for the trade to choose from throughout the 
year. 
FISHING IN THE GANGES : GOOD SPORT. 
A correspondent writes to the Civil and 
Military Gazette : — " There has been some extra- 
ordinary sport in the fishing line this cold weather 
at Raiwala on the Ganges, about six miles above 
Hardwar. A member of the Association, H. A. K., 
fished in one pool there from the 24th October 
to the 1st December, both dates inclusive, that is a 
period of 39 days. He caught fish on 33 of these 
days ; he caught altogether 80 mahseer, weighing 
2,000 lb., and a daily average of nearly 61 lb. 
tor 33 days. The largest fish turned the scale at 
64.^ lb.; there was one of 46 lb., two of 44, one 42, 
two 40, one 39, two 38, two 37, five 3b, two 35, two 
34, two 33, ono 32, two 31, and two 30, besides 
many between 20 and 30. The heavy fish first 
mentioned was 57 inches long, and had a girth of 
30A inches. The best single day's sport gave 7 fish, 
weighing 210 lb.; and there were two days on whioh 4 
of 141 and 5 of 149 lb. were caught respectively. 
Other members of the Association had good sport 
in November too. E. S. killed 14 fish, weighing 
296 lb , whioh inoluded one of 431b. and one of 41. 
R R. B. killed one of 35 ; A. W. got 3, weighing 
80 
761b. (one of 42), and M. K.. 3 weighing 43 lb. 
Altogether 101 mahseers were landed, aggregating 
2,4501b,, or about 2414. each on average. The 
above record, which is one of undeniable fact, 
will be interesting to all anglers as something 
quite out of the common. It has certainly been a 
most exceptional season." — Pioneer. [We should 
think so, as also that if such butchery goes on 
mahseer will soon be scarce. — Ed. T. A. ] 
« 
TAXATION IN ENGLAND. 
DUTY ON TEA COFFEE, COCOA AND TOBACCO. 
In two articles on November 16th and 30th 
1889, the Economist Btated facts which, we confess 
struck us with amazement. The entire involuntary 
taxation of an average workman's family is now 
under 4|d a week. Here are the figures as given 
by a skilled economist : — 
" Returns of working-class expenditure collected by 
the Board of Trade, and recently analysed in these 
columns, gave details of the outlay of 34 working- 
olass families, comprising 180 persons, and with an 
aggregate yearly income of £2,493. The total expen- 
diture of these families upon dutiable articles other 
than drink and tobacco is returned at about £107 
per annum, and the taxation upon this expenditure 
amounts in round figures to £32. In other words, 
each of these 34 families, consisting, on an average, 
of five persons, and with an average income of £73 
a year, coutributes to the Imperial Treasury in tbe 
shape of taxes on tea, cocoa, and coffee about 18s 
6d a year, or 4jd a week." 
It may be said, quite justly, that to exclude liquor 
is unfair, because the workman wants his beer to 
make up the proper stimulating quality of his 
food. Very good; we should concede that at once, 
though Sir Wilfrid Lawson will not ; and how then 
does the matter appear ? This is the answer : — 
" The total expenditure of the 34 families upon 
dutiable articles other than tobacco is returned as 
follows : — 
Expenditure Equal to Annual 
for Week. Expenditure of 
Tea £1 11 41 £81 11 6 
Coffee 0 5 6i 14 8 2 
Cocoa 0 4 24 „ 10 18 10 
Beer ■ 0 15 2J 39 10 10 
Taking the price of tea at Is 6d a lb, that of coffee and 
cocoa at Is a ib, and that of beer at 4d a quart, this 
annual expenditure represents a consumption of 1,088 
lb of tea, 288 lb of coffee, 219 lb of cocoa, and 593 
gallons of beer. Let us now see what the duties charge- 
able upon this consumption amount to. The statement 
including the estimated consumption of tobacco is: — 
Quantity Rate of Amount of Duty 
Consumed. Duty. Payable. 
Tea 1,0881b . ... fid per lb ....£27 4 0 
Coffee . . 288 lb 2d per lb 2 8 0 
Cocoa 219 lb 2d per lb 1 16 6 
Beer 593 gals 2^ per gall.. 5 7 0 
Tobacco.. 270 1b . . . . 3s 2d per lb. . 42 15 0 
Total £79 10 6 
To this total some slight addition should be made on 
account of the expenditure on dried fruits, which are 
subject to a small duty. With this addition, the total 
amount of taxation may be set down, in round figures, 
at £80. And this is the total contribution to the 
Imperial Treasury out of incomes amounting in the 
aggregate to £2,493, In other words, the proportion 
of taxation to income in the recorded cases amounted, 
on the average to only 3-2 per cent. This is equal to 
about 7id in the £, and the evidence of the returns 
which the Board of Trade has collected is thus to the 
effect that the whole taxation of the working olasses 
amounts to not very much more in the £ than the 
olasses above them pay in Income-tax alone." 
Now, how much further are we to go in this 
direction? We can understand a Radical thinking 
that only property ought to be taxed ; but then, 
let all property be taxed, the workmen's aB well 
