August r, 1887^ THE f ROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
11 
ful shareholder has only to look back old files, and 
he will find gardens now producing tea at 6 annas that 
formerly spent 10 annas, and the same old excuse 
against any reduction. " The. Manager advises us the 
reduction proposed would simply not only endanger 
future prospects, but very likely your entire property," 
and yet the same intelligent individual is now 
turning out the same or larger quantities at half 
the cost. Why ? Because if he will not some one 
else will very soon be found willing and able to 
do so. If this is the case and it is too easily 
proved as regards the past, why do shareholders 
again listen to the same argument now ? So far 
my strictures have been confined to the European 
establishment, but not in any way with a view to 
underestimate the value of a good Manager. My 
object has been, and will continue to be, to show 
not only the possibility, but the absolute necessity 
of amalgamation with a good head and subordin- 
ates- Natives if they can be found fit for the work 
in preference to Europeans — solely on the score 
of expenses; but when, as at the present moment 
it is becoming in many instances a question of 
actual existence, one saving clause points to amal- 
gamation, and my next will be written to further 
this contention, on the basis of the old motto 
which in addition to the great economy, says 
" union is strength." 
♦ 
CONSULAE TBADE BEPOBTS. 
Tea in Ahoy. 
The report of Mr. C. W. E. Allen on the trade 
of Amoy of 1886 is as follows : — 
Besidents of Amoy inform me that they expect 
shortly a crisis in the affairs of the port. Amoy 
as a place of business, is rather curiously circ- 
umstanced. Its prosperity is due to two causes, 
one to its being the port of supply to the neigh- 
bourhood, the other to its being the port of tran- 
shipment to Formosa. Now so far as exports are 
concerned— and foreign merchants are more in- 
terested in these than in imports, which are mainly 
in Chinese hands the Formosa trade is more valu- 
able than the local. Tea is largely sent from Northern 
and sugar from Southern, Formosa, and shipped 
hence in occean -going steamers to Europe and 
America, because Amoy not only possesses a splend- 
id harbour, but is in telegraphic communication 
with the rest of the world. North Formosa boasts 
of two ports, Tamsui and Kelung. The former 
has for a harbour only the embouchure of a small 
river, across the mouth of which a bar runs, closing 
it to all but vessels of light draught. Kelung, on 
the contrary, has a fair harbour, with accommod- 
ation for perhaps three large steamers at once. 
Unfortunately tea has to be brought a longer dis- 
tance, and with greater difficulty, to be shipped 
at Kelung than it has to be shipped at Tamsui. 
Hitherto it has been found that the cheapest 
method of dealing with it is to ship it at Tamsui 
for Amoy, and to tranship thence. Now however 
the Chinese purpose constructing a railway from the 
tea districts to Kelung and to lay a submarine cable 
from the mainland to Formosa. When these two 
are completed the tea will bo shipped in ocean-going 
steamers calling at Kelung. At this moment all the 
business in Formosa is done by branches of Amoy 
firms, but it is said by some that when the projected 
improvements are carried out the linns themselves 
will bo at Tamsui, and only the branches here. 
How tliis will be remains to be seen, but at present 
the work is not even begun. A British merchant in 
Amoy points out to mo tho disadvantages of the 
projocted scheme as follows .—The tea districts in 
Formosa aro situated on the hills at tho top of the 
water lyitMt of the Tamsui River, From thobe hills 
the tea is brought down the main branch, or one 
of its affluents, to Twa to Sia or Banka, towns at 
the junction of these affluents with the main river. 
Here the tea is packed and sent down for shipment. 
Freight from Tamsui to Amoy is only 10c. per half- 
chest. Suppose that the railway daes bring the tea 
from the tea districts to Kelung it can scarcely 
charge less than 10c, a package. Kelung harbour, 
though a good one, cannot for a moment compare 
with Amoy harbour, either for convenience or ease 
of access (it has a bar at the mouth), and is more- 
over out of the direct line taken by steamers from 
Shanghai to Hongkong and Europe, which Amoy is 
not. If we also consider the expense of removing 
establishments across the Formosan Channel we 
must, I think, conclude that our fears of the in- 
crease of Tamsui at the expense of Amoy are 
perfectly groundless. 
Ningpo. 
The report of Consul Cooper on the trade of 
Ningpo for 1886 says : — 
The return from green teas of 1885 proved so satis- 
factory that twenty-three establishments in place 
of 19 of the previous year were started for its pre- 
paration. Settlements of accounts are not yet com- 
plete, but there is little expectation of large pro- 
fits forthcoming. The market opened late. But a 
few hundred pounds of black tea left the port. The 
delicate flavoured teas of this Consular district find 
a ready sale among Chinese themselves in their 
natural dried state, as prepared by the growers. — 
L. & C. Express. 
PLANTING COMPANIES AND SOCIETIES 
IN JAVA. 
The Coffee BIabket. 
Nearly a twelvemonth ago the coffee market 
began to give signs of recovery from the prolonged 
torpor and depression which had marked it for 
so many years. Since May, 1886, the advance 
has been so rapid that prices for good ordinary 
are now more than twice as high as at that period. 
Speculators are masters of the article, and having 
awaited their day so long and patiently, they now 
make the most of it, leaving it to the trade and 
exporters to extricate themselves as best they can. 
In fact, the position of the article is greatly 
changed, and instead of purchases being restricted 
to the wants for consumption, large transactions 
take place between speculators, agents and others, 
whose sole idea it is to make money faster than 
is possible by the slower but surer way of ordin- 
ary business. 
We (Indisclie Mercuur) have before us a number 
of reports which prove that in London and Havre, 
as well as in New York and Eio, an intense specul- 
ation fever is raging, and that serious commercial 
men fear the inevitable reaction, though quotations 
for the article will at all events remain high. 
The one compares the coffee market with Monaco, 
the other with an overheated engine ; all are of 
opinion that moderation is advisable. From 
Havre we have the intelligence that the depos 
it, at first frcs. 3 and later on frcs. 6, has 
now been fixed at frcs. 12, and that a certain 
number of commercial houses look on the mat- 
ter as so dangerous that they refuse for the 
moment to do any transactions on futures. As an 
example of what is going on in Havre, we may 
quote that some few days ago the rise in a couple 
of hours was not less than frcs. 81 The follow- 
ing day, on account of less favourable news from 
New York prices went down from frcs. 'A to frcs. i. 
In London the state of affairs is not better. An 
invoice of old Yellow Santos fetched i)ls (id! 
The latest news about the crops in the different 
lands of production are not very favourable, The, 
