n6 THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [August i, 1887 
the previous year. The expenditure in India dur- 
ing the year was £101,068 17s 8d taking the Rupee 
at par, or £80,642 2s 7d., after deducting the differ- 
ence in the rate of exchange, being £1,371 5s 8d more 
than the expenditure of last year, and £7,150 0s 4d. 
less than the Superintendent's estimate. The results 
for the year stand thus : — Tea sales, gross proceeds, 
£114,810 15s 2d ; tea seed sold in India, £2,739 5s d ; 
sundry receipts in India, £1,673 7s; sundries, £350 
14s; total, £119,574 Is 9d. Expenditure in India at 
par, £101,068 17s 8d; less Exchange £20,426 15s Id; 
total, £80,642 2s 7d. Expenditure in England, £21,653 
13s 4d; total expenditure, £102,295 15s lid. Net 
profit, £17,278 5s lOd. The profit of the year, there- 
fore, amount to £17,278 5s lOd to which is to be 
added the balance brought from 1885 of £2,074 
10s Id, making a total of £19,352 15s lid, 
out of which we propose to pay a dividend at the 
rate of 10 per cent, for the year, and to carry for- 
ward £636 15s lid. In January last an interim 
dividend was paid at the rate of 5 per cent, or £1 
per share, and the balance of 5 per cent., or £1 per 
share, will be payable on July 1st. Mr. Phillips estimates 
the crop of manufactured tea for the current season 
at 2,629,1001b. and the expenditure in India at 
E10,95,684.— H. # C. Mail. 
|_0f course the Directors of the Assam Company 
know their own affairs better than outsiders, but cer- 
tainly outsiders will feel that the " management " 
has been wrongly blamed for what it could not help — 
deficient produce and low prices. — Ed.] 
THE SCOTTISH ASSAM TEA COMPANY, 
LIMITED. 
The meeting of the above company was held on 
Wednesday. The following is an extract from the re- 
port submitted to the meeting: — " Calculated on the 
usual basis of 41b. green leaf to lib. manufactered tea, 
the total produce during season 1886 amounted to 
202,5841b. of tea, as against 187,8051b. in 1885, being 
an increase of 14,779 lb. Deducting loss by weighing, 
samples, and usual buyers' allowance of lib. per chest 
the total quantity of tea available for sale amounted to 
199,8221b. as against 185,611 lb. in 1885, being an increase 
of 14,2111b. This has all been realised, producing a 
gross sum of £13,812 Is. lid., being an average of fully 
Is 4|d. per lb. as against an average price for 1885 
of nearly Is 4^d, per lb. From the profit and loss ac- 
count, it will be observed that the total revenue for the 
year 1886 amounted to £14,892 4s 3d., and that the 
total expenditure was £9,591 4s Id, showing a sur- 
plus on the year's transactions of £5,301 0s 2d ; 
to which there falls to be added the balance 
brought forward from last year, £439 6s 4d, 
making a sum at credit of profit and loss account 
as at December 31st, 1886, £5,740 6s 6d. Until the 
resources of the company are more fully developed, 
and its dividend-earning capabilities placed upon a more 
solid basis, your directors are of opinion that, with 
the view of obviating fluctuation of the dividend, 
any surplus profit beyond what is necessary to pay 
a dividend of 5 per cent, should be carried to credit 
of a reserve fund account, to be applied should 
occasion arise, towards the equalization up to 5 per 
cent, of the dividends of subsequent years. They re- 
commend this course the more strongly on the present 
occasion, because, as will be been on comparing the 
accounts of the two last years, the surplus to be so 
carried to reserve fund account arises entirely from 
the exceptionally favourable rates of exchange which 
prevailed during 1886, and not from extra profit 
derived from the ordinary operations of the com- 
pany. They accordingly propose that out of the 
above sum of £5,740 6» 6d, £1,000 should first be 
carried to said reserve fund account ; that a dividend 
of 5 per cent, free of income-tax, requiring £3,979 
10s, should next be paid to the share-holders ; and 
that the balance of £760 16s 6d should be carried for- 
ward to next account, subject to deduction for directors' 
fees, income-tax, and commission payable to the manager 
all for year 1886. This is now the fourth consecutive 
occasion ou which your directors havo had the 
satisfaction of proposing a 5 per cent dividend, 
and they are hopeful that under the arrangement, 
before referred to this rate of dividend may at 
least be maintained. The number of coolies ou the 
gardens at Dec. 31st, 1886, stood as follows :— 312 men, 
279 women, 88 children— total, 709. The average monthly 
number of labourers on the gardens during lb86 was 721, 
and the percentage of time-expirees who renewed their 
agreements was 72'2. Owing to the gradual increase 
of the cultivated area, the gardens had become somewhat 
undermanned as at December 31st last and that with 
an increased labour force, and consequent higher state 
of cultivation, it is thought that improved results 
might fairly be anticipated. Accordingly since Decem- 
ber 31st the coolie staff has been considerably rein- 
forced, and the number of coolies on the gardens at 
March 31st, 1887, was 861. It is hoped that the ex- 
peuse necessarily entailed by the importation and main- 
tenance of this large additional number of coolies will 
be fully recouped by the results of the greater facil- 
ities thereby placed at the managers' disposal for cult- 
ivation, plucking, and manufacture." — M. # C. Mail. 
♦ 
COLONIAL INDUSTEIES. 
NATAL I — TEA-GROWING ON THE NORTHERN COAST. 
SUCCESSFUL RESULTS. 
Mr. Morton Green has just returned from a visit to 
the tea gardens of Victoria County, where he has been 
the guest of Mr. J. L. Hulett, M.L. O. of Kearsney 
Estate, Nonoti, and is quite surprised at the progress 
the industry has made in that part of the colony. He 
says Mr. Hulett has 170 acres at present under cult- 
ivation on his farm, and besides this has 2,000 acres 
in hand which is in every way suitable for tea growing. 
In the immediate neighbourhood of Kearsney Messrs. 
Lyle & Reynolds have 100 acres under cultivation with 
the manufacture of the tea going on at the same time. 
Adjoining Hulett's place, Clayton and Ashwell have 
30 acres under cultivation. Hiudssn 25 acres Peachy 
20 acres, Thring 10 acres, and Balcomb 10 acres. 
Mr. Hulett informed Mr. Green that he planted 
his total the first five acres as an experiment in 
1880, and crop this season will be about 55,0001b. 
of manufactured tea. Mr. Hulett estimates that 
the total weight of tea made in the colony this year 
will exceed 80,000 lb. and he has already sold his 
crop at a very encouraging figure. Having the fore- 
sight to plant timber-bearing trees ahead of his tea 
culture the result is that Mr. Hulett is now sawing 
up his own wood for the purpose of packing the tea. 
He has now sufficient material in hand to supply 
himself with packing cases for many years to come. 
On this estate Mr. Green also saw Davidson's "Sirocco," 
or tea-firing machine, in full work, and giving the 
most satisfactory results. Mr. Hulett, we understand, 
also uses Greig's "Drier," and Jackson's "Excelsior 
Roller," the whole being driven by an excellent engine, 
which also drives a circular saw for cutting the planks, 
mealie mills, &c. In fact the impression left on Mr. 
Green's mind, combined with his recent home know- 
ledge, was the ensured success of the Natal tea-grow- 
ing industry. The plantations, he says, were in 
excellent order throughout ; and as an answer to those 
who carp and cavil at the tea industry being inter- 
fered with by failure in the tea trees, Mr. Green was 
shown a hybrid tea plant planted twenty-four years 
ago, which measures across the top ten feet in dia- 
meter, being a sort of grandfather to the surrounding 
plantation. As a further illustration of the hardiness 
of the tea culture, Mr. Green was told that Mr. Brick- 
hill has two similar trees on his estate ; and these 
places of culture being widely apart, viz., the Umbilo 
and Nonoti, it is only fair to assume that nearly the 
whole of the intermediate country would be suitable for 
tea growing, which view was endorsed by Mr. Hulett 
during a conversation with bis guest Mr. Green. VTe 
understood that within a three-mile radius of Kearsney 
there are 370 acres of land under tea cultivation and 
doing exceedingly well. Mr. Green further reminds us 
that in consequence of the increased work entailed on 
him by the tea industry, Mr. Hulett has been unable 
to avail himself of the enormous yield from his orchard, 
