May i, 1890.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,' 
iron had, to a great extent, been the making of us 
and had enabled us to avail ourselves of our geo- 
graphical advantages. The total value of our trade 
had grown enormously within the past 39 years. In 
I860 imports and exports together amounted to 
£365,000,000 ; in 1889 their value was £740,000.000. 
Our imports 30 years ago, were valued at 
£210,000,000, now they were £427,000,000; our 
exports 30 years ago were £164,000,000 now they 
were £313,000,000. About 40 per cent of our imports 
consisted of food produots, and about 35 per cent of 
riw materia' s of various kinds, to be user', directly 
or indirectly, for manufacturing purposes, partly 
our own consumption, but largely also for being 
exported in a manufactured state. Over GO per 
oent of the raw material oonsisted mainly <?# raw 
cotton and raw wool which were manufactured into 
textile materials to be exported to all parts of the 
world, Nearly one half our exports of home 
produce consisted of fabrics of raw materials 
in various stages of manufacture. Cotton manu- 
factures and yarn alone amounted to somewhat 
less than one-third of the total exports, whilo 
metals in various Btages of manufacture (in- 
cluding machinery) amounted to somewhat less than 
one-fourth. Our great raw export, coal, formed only 
about one-Beventeenth part of our exports of home 
produce. The relative importance of the mother 
country so far as size and population were concerned, 
oompared with the rest of the Empire might be 
seen from the fact that of the ten million square 
miles only 121,000 belonged to the United King- 
dom. The population of the mother country was 
today close on 38,000,000 or just about one-eighth 
part of the whole of her Majesty's subjects. The 
whole trade of the Empire might be valued, im- 
ports and exports, at about £1,200,000,000 of which 
about 68 per cent, was the share of the mother 
country, leaving just 32 per cent, to the vast 
remainder of the Empire. Mr. Keltie then dwelt 
in detail on the commercial, strategical, and geo- 
graphical features of the Empire beyond the seas. 
On the whole, he said, we were fortunate in our 
colonial Empire — much more fortunate than France 
or Germany, Portugal or Spain, who, except France, 
had very little beyond the tropics. The proportions 
of our colonial Empire, too, were well adapted to 
our wants. He had stated that the total trade of 
the Empire might be estimated at about 
£1,200,000,000 annually. That was just one-half 
of the trade of all foreign countries put together. 
Of the £1,200,000,01)0 we must credit £460,000,000 
to that portion of the Empire beyond our shores. 
Of these £460,000,000, about £170,000,000, belonged 
to the seven million odd square miles of what we 
oalled colonies of settlement, with their population 
of 10,000,000, mostly whites. The remaining 
£290,000,000 must be oredited to the tropical and 
sub-tropical possessions, whioh covered only about 
' 2,700,000 square miles, but with a population of 
some 300,000,000, among whom was only a sprinkling 
of whites. Of the £290,000,000 of trade allotted 
to tropical possessions, about £180,000,000 belonged 
to our great Indian Empire. About five-sixths of 
Iudia's imports of merchandise came from us, while 
of India's own produce about three-eighths came 
to the United Kingdom. Whatever habitable parts 
of the earth were available for European settle- 
ment had fallen to the lot of English speaking 
peoples, and among them we must reckon the 
United States, which we could not treat as a 
f oreign oountry, and which did an annual trade of 
c :i00,000,0..0, of whioh £90,000,000 was with the 
o jd mother country who in this matter stood far 
an ead of all others. In oommeroe, as in some other 
iujngs, blood oountod for something. Whether our 
jouics romainod attaohed to us, or whother tho 
larger ones — whioh now managed their own affairs — 
might, like the United States, set up for them- 
selves, the future alone could tell. Whatever form 
it might take, however, he thought that, in the 
interest of commerce as muoh as for sentimental 
reasons, we ought to stick together. The spread 
of our raoe on the face of the earth, the enter- 
prise of our explorers and adventurers, had helped 
to give us predominance in the commercial, as it 
had done in the political, world. In one form 
or another the English language was the medium 
of communication for something like 400,000,000 
people— nearly one-third of the population of the 
earth ; and ?orae who tried to forecast the future 
thought it might yet become the universal language. 
When we remembered that more than one-fourth 
of the whole trade of the United Kingdom was 
with the rest of the Empire it was surely our 
interest to do all wo consistently could to promote 
that commerce and to enoourage the development 
of our colonies and the judicious extension of the 
British sphere. As yet our colonies oould not do 
without us. One means among others of enabling 
us to keep our plaoe with so many powerful rivals 
in the field was to acquire a full knowledge of the 
geographical conditions which bore on the interests 
of commerce.-- -London Times. 
PERAK TEA. 
Some of the English newspapers are writing enthu- 
siastically about Perak tea. A small lot, which was 
recently put upon the London market, is pronounced 
to be of excellent quality, and the good people at 
home at once assume that a new and important 
source of supply is open to them. We fear, however, 
that for a good many years at least, they are doomed 
to disappointment. That Perak tea is of excellent quality 
and delicious flavour there can be no doubt. We draw 
attention to this long ago, and pointed out how suitable - 
the soil and climate of Perak, and other parts of 
the Malay Peninsula, are for tea cultivation. But 
soil and climate are not the only essentials for its suc- 
cessful cultivation. Its agricultural suooess has been 
proved : what bas not been proved is its commecial 
success ; and that after all, is the test to which it must 
be put before it can be pronounced an unqualified 
suocess. _ And it ia only too evident that, with so much 
else in its favor, the chances of commercial suocess 
for the present look remote. Tea requires cheap 
labour, and labour in the Straits Settlements and 
neighbouring countries is excessively dear— that is, 
it is dear compared with the labour of other tea- 
producing countries. The pay of Tamil labour here 
is much higher than in Oeylon ; it is muoh 
higher than the pay of coolies in Assam, Oaohar. 
and the other tea-growing districts of India, and 
much higher than in Java* Besides in those coun- 
tries a great deal of the tea leaf picking is done by 
women and children; whereas in the Malay Peninsula 
Tamil women and children are scarce, and with the 
restrictions and difficulties put in the way of emigra- 
tion from India, there does not appear much likelihood 
of their soon becoming more plentiful. There are of 
course the natives of the country— the Malays. If their 
women and children could be got in sufficient numbers, 
or indeed could be got to work at all, the difficulty 
would be settled. There would be some inducement 
for planters to open tea estates in Perak, and Perak 
tea would, in all probability, become a factor in the tea 
market. At present, we fear, there is no such induce- 
ment. To plant tea in the Perak on a commercial soale 
without a cheaper and more reliable source of labour, 
would be foolish, and could only end in heavy loss, 
unless, of course, the trees were unusually fruitful or 
tha tea of such quality as to oommaud a fancy price. 
We wish it were otherwise, for we should like to see 
the agricultural resources of the Peninsula developed. 
Cheap labour, however, is essential to attain this end, 
and cheap labour there seems no probability of getting 
for a long time to oome.— Piitaiuj Qazctte. 
