822 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [June 2, 1890. 
paying auriferous quartz reef. For very good 
and weighty reasons, therefore, let us have the 
Geological Survey at the earliest possible date. 
FUEL. 
Rules Regarding the Supply of Firewood to Tea 
Estates in the Western Province and Province of 
Sabaragamuwa are published in the Gazette. 
Proprietors or managers of tea estates desirous of 
obtaining a permit to out firewood for estate use 
in Crown forests shall make written application to 
the Government Agent of the Provinoe ; and then 
follow no less than 29 rules with sohedules and 
list of trees not to be used for fuel in any case. 
TOBACCO INDUSTRY IN THE PHILIPPINES. 
Since the abandonment by the Spanish Government 
of the tobacco monopoly in the Philippines in 1882 
the trade has reoeived a great stimulus by the invest- 
ment of private capital, and the more equitable 
treatment of native cultivators. The trade is now 
almost wholly in the hands of a Spanish Company which 
with a capital of three millions sterling, owns the 
largest tobacco estates. It has in its employment 10,000 
hands, and the annual produotion is 80,000,000 cigars, 
400,000,000 oigarettes, and 5,000,000 lb. of cut tobacco. 
There are also in the islands six other Spanish com- 
panies, two German and several Chinese. The Gov- 
ernment demand at present is a license tax of about 
£20 aunually for manufacturing tobacco. During the 
period of the Government monopoly eaoh unmarried 
native was bound to plant 4,000, and each married 
native 8,000 plants a year, the leaves being delivered 
to the Government officials at a fixed price about 50 
per cent below what they fetch now. The gross revenue 
10 the State from the monopoly was about £800,000 
per annum. The best tobaccos are manufactured from 
the plants grown in the provinces of Cagayan and 
Isabella in Luzon, and amount annually to between 
6U.000 and 100,000 tons. All the tobacco is manufac- 
tured into cigars and cigarettes, and is classified in 
six grades according to the size and quality of the 
leaves. About 60,000 acres in the island are under 
tobacco cultivation. During the year 1889 the cigars 
exported from the islands amounted to 112,074,000 of 
which Spain took 26,715,000 and Great Britain and its 
dependencies 17,871,000.— M. Mail. 
TEA IN FOOCHOW. 
(From the Daily Echo.) 
We understand that very few tea manufactories in 
the country are making any preparation for the 
oomicg season. Pakling is the only district where 
repairing and preparation is general, in the tea hongs. 
We have been assured that more than half of last 
year's teamen will be laid up for want of means 
and credit. 
Though on every side we hear nothing but bad 
prospects for the coming tea season, nevertheless 
the tea box makers seem to be already aotively 
preparing different sizes of boxes; in during 
the week quite a number of ready-made boxes were 
to be seen in the streets. Mysterious Fooohow I ! I 
♦ 
SUBSIDY TO JAPANESE TEA EXPORTERS. 
Some time ago a meeting of Japanese merchants 
interested in the export of tea was held in Tokyo, when 
it was deoided that a Company should be formed with 
a capital of half a million yen for the purpose of 
endeavouring to develop the brick-tea trade with 
Russia. Originally it was proposed to assist the 
project by levying a tax of 2 sen per box upon all tea 
prepared for export to Europe and America — or, to 
apeak more correctly, upon all tea over whioh the Tea 
GuiJdt, exercise control. AgainBt this proposal, how- 
ever, strong opposition speedily manifested itself, the 
tea men justly claiming that to tax the trade already 
established for the purpose of opening a new and • 
precarious market, could not be called a wise policy 
Long and earnest debates took place on the subject, the 1 
final discussion being attended by the Minister of State 
for Agriculture and Commerce and by other officials, in 
the capacity of audience. A resolution was then adopted 
to the effect that application should be made to the 
Government for a subsidy at the rate of sixty thousand 
yen per annum for five years. The Government, on 
being approached, refused to accede to the request 
in this form, inasmuch as it is obviously inexpedient 
to enter at present into engagements binding the 
Treasury for a term of years. There seems, how- 
ever, to have been a strong disposition to assist the 
enterprise, for in the end the Treasury agreed that 
a sum of 200,000 yen should be deposited in the Bank 
of Japan by way of subsidy, there to be held to 
the credit of the Finance Bureau of the Agri- 
cultural and Commercial Department, and be drawn 
against, if necessary, by the tea men with the con- 
sent and approval of the Bureau. In considera- 
tion of this subsidy, the new Company agreed to 
be bound by a charter of very stringent character, 
providing that no alteration could be made in 
the business programme of the Company without 
the endorsement of the Agricultural and Commercial 
Department ; that any change in the Company's con- 
stitution which might seem advantageous to the 
Minister of that Department, could be made at his 
instance and by his direction ; that no such change 
could be made by the Company without the Minister's 
assent ; that the Minister should appoint inspectors 
to supervise the Company's accounts ; that the profit 
and loss statements should be submitted twice annually 
to the Department of Agriculture and Commerce, and 
that the Minister of the latter should, within certain 
limits, exercise the power of appointing the Manager 
and Directors of the Company. The Government, 
in short, while agreeing to assist the Company finan- 
cially, retained for itself very thorough control 
of all the Company's affairs. It may well be 
supposed that this arrangement has evoked muoh 
comment. As yet the leading vernacular journals 
have not all spoken, but two or three newspapers 
of the second rank have condemned the Government 
in very emphatio terms, and one of our local English 
contemporaries goes so far as to dub the Company's 
procedure " a bare-faced attack on the funds of the 
nation," declaring that the only result of the affair 
will be to "put into the pockets of the few gentle- 
men who have engineered the soheme a good many 
of the dollars wrung from the impoverished peasantry." 
We are by no means so rash as to assert that these 
critioisms may not be justified, It strikes us, how- 
ever, that to utter them without any knowledge of 
the Company's real purpose or programme, is at least 
premature. Our English contemporary is plainly under 
the impression that the objeot of the subsidy is to 
assist in renewing disastrous attempts to divert 
the export trade from foreign into Japanese hands. 
He says, indeed, that " there is no rea- 
son to suppose that the Japanese will be any 
more diligent in pressing the sale of tea than for- 
eigners are already." So far as that question is con- 
cerned, we are entirely at one with our contemporary. 
We believe that the foreign merchant, accepting, as 
he does, all the risks of the trade, and conducting it 
with the greatest intelligence and enterprise, is the 
best possible agent Japan can have at present. This, 
however, is a general verdict. With regard to the tea 
trade in particular, we are persuaded that the present 
system of preparing tlie staple for export invites ma- 
terial reforms which will surely be effeoted one day 
or another. Whether the new Company contemplates 
attempting such reforms we do not know, and until 
fuller information is procurable, we refrain from dis- 
cussion. One point, however, is worthy of note. The 
idea whioh we have formed by examining the meagre 
details thus far published, is that the Company con- 
ceives no project of interfering with the present course 
of the tea trade to America and Europe, its chief, if 
not unique, purpose being to promote the export 
of brick-tea to Russia. Looking at the returns for 
