THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [November i, 1887. 
and the Java highlands can only be leached by an ex- 
pensive voyage. The nearest health resort is the Crag, 
at Penang. Even that falls short of requirements. 
DOES TEA PAY? 
The question as to whether tea pays — whether it 
may be looked on as a profitable investment, would 
probably be answered promptly in the negative by 
most people. Everyone connected with the tea 
industry is always ready to join in a Jeremiad 
on the subject, and to cry " Ichabod." Managers, 
agents, shareholders, and proprietors all alike lament 
the glorious past, when "rupee averages" were by 
no means exceptional, and when " going into tea " was 
thought to be synonymous with being in a fair way 
to retire with a competency within a reasonable num- 
ber of years ; and when V making a fortune " out of 
it was quite within the bounds of probability. Now, 
they say, all is changed. Prices have fallen so much 
that a small managing proprietor may slave all his 
days in an unhealthy climate, and never get more 
than a bare subsistence out of his garden. Com- 
panies, through the voices of their agents or directors, 
insist on the stern necessity of more economical work- 
ing : shareholders bewail dividends growing small by 
degrees and beautifully less ; and grow restive, and 
carp at direction and management, goaded thereunto 
by the diminishing value of their shares. Assistants 
growl over the futility of asking for salaries com- 
mensurate with their own ideas of the valne of 
their services ; and managers are apt to use un- 
parliamentary language if the subject of their corn- 
emission is touched on. Agents, who are popularly 
•upposed by managers on the one hand, and share- 
holders on the other, to absorb a large proportion 
of whatever is to be made of out of tea, shake their 
heads and look gloomily mysterious over the ques- 
tion : and if they refuse to commit themselves to 
a decided opinion on the prospects of tea, give one 
thoroughly to understand that they at least obtain 
a small advantage only ; and even selling brokers, 
who would seem to stand secure to make nothing 
but a profit out of tea, selling it at so much a chest, 
do not admit that their life is an ideally happy one. 
The cry of over production, so far from carrying 
doubt and dismal foreboding in its ring should be 
to them tidings of comfort and joy. The more tea 
produced, the more chests to sell. Yet there is no 
one to be found who will raise a cheerful strain on 
the subject. 
It is worth while to consider this chronic despon- 
dency on the subject of tea, and endeavour to ascer- 
tain if it may not be due in a great measure to a 
habit of looking at the dark side of the picture. It 
must be borne in mind that in no business or pro- 
fession is success assured. Merchants and tradesmen 
do well or ill, — make fortunes, derive only a sub- 
sistence, or absolutely fail,— according to circum- 
stances and their individual capacities. Professional 
men are in the same category. For one successful 
doctor, lawyer, or engineer who rises to the top of 
his profession and makes a big income, retiring even- 
tually with a fortune, there are many who can 
just manage to make a decent livelihood ; more 
with whom it is a constant hand to mouth struggle 
for existence ; and others again who cannot manage 
to keep afloat, but sink in the struggle ;— the stream 
of life flows over their heads, and their place knows 
them no more. 
Anyone who would seek to dedrce from the failure 
of a few merchants, or the nonsuccess of sundry pro- 
fessional men, that such a business or profession was, 
"played out," and no longer a profitable business to 
engage in or a promising career to embark on, would 
at once be looked on as foolish and illogical ; gene- 
ralizing recklessly from a few exceptional data. Yet 
the gloomy view taken so generally of tea rests on 
no better basis. A few companies here and there 
pay no dividends ; the market value of shares of a 
good many concerns has depreciated. Private planters 
can no longer realize rapid fortunes by opening out, 
floating a company to take over their gardens at a 
huKo profit, and retiring on the proceeds. And hence 
the wail that floats on the air ; — tea is no longer a 
profitable investment : tea planting is a career no 
young man who can obtain anything else to do should 
embark on ; and in short, " the planter's life is not 
a happy one." 
But the fact is that, 20 years or so ago 
tea was a speculation, a " fevered dream of 
wealth." Now it has come down to the level 
of its surroundings and is an every day, prosaic, 
ordinary business, subject to the hard necessities of 
ecery other business in which competition is keen, 
and wherein things have to be very closely looked 
after to show a profit at the end of the year. That 
it pays as well if not a trifle better, than most 
other kinds of businessis we tbiok capabk- of <lemon- 
stratiou. Take the results of the working of twenty- 
four tea companies registered in London as published 
in our issue of 23rd August, of the twenty-four con- 
cerns, nine paid a dividend of ten per cent aDd up- 
wards; eight more paid five per cent and upwards; 
while five paid no dividend at all. But even of the 
non-dividend paying companies only two actually 
worked at a loss ; the other three show considerable 
profits, £3-16-3, £2-5-3 and £1-14-10 per acre,— and 
that on large areas. In one case the profits, — some 
£13,000, — made out of tea are absorbed by the losses 
on other business done by the same concern : in the 
other two cases the surplus, about £9,508, and £3,600, 
goes to pay off interest and loans incurred in former 
years as the result of a combination of bad seasons 
and bad management. Here we have 22 out of 24 
companies making handsome profits ; in two cases 
fifteen and eighteen per cent. Seventeen out of the 
twenty-four pay five per cent aud upwards. We are 
inclined to think that five per cent and more up to 
eighteen per cent for one's money is pretty good in 
this present Jubilee year of grace, as times go. The 
three companies noted above as working at a profit 
but paying no dividend, owing to outside causes or 
former misfortunes, each show a profit of five per 
cent or more. Thus we have 20 out of 24 concerns 
registered in London paying 5 per cent and upwards. 
The table published in our issue of the 30th August 
gives particulars of twenty of these London tea com- 
panies, including the dividends paid for the last six 
years. A study of this will also go to prove that tea, 
properly managed, is very far from being a non-paying 
investment. A comparison of the share lists in the 
daily papers will help to bear out our assertion that 
tea pays as well as most other business. There are 75 
commercial companies and 110 Tea Companies quoted. 
Of the 75 commercial companies, 32 pay no dividend : 
of the 110 tea companies, 41 pay no dividend. Only 57 
per cent of the commercial companies can show a divid- 
end for 1886, while 63 per cent of the tea companies 
make the hearts of their shareholders glad. Of the 
forty-three dividend paying commercial companies 
seven or sixteen per cent pay in two figures, ten per 
cent and upwards ; while eighteen per cent of the tea 
companies pay ten per cent and upwards. The highest 
dividend in the former is 15 per cent in the latter 28 
percent. These figures are not very impressive per- 
haps, but they are certainly in favour of tea. 
Again, how many of the companies that pay no 
dividend are really working at a profit ? We would 
venture to say that at least three-fourths of the non- 
dividend paying concerns are really making a profit of 
five per cent and upwards ; but this profit unfortunately 
is swallowed up by interest on old debts or on advan- 
ces for current expenditure, and in other ways, so that 
none of it finds its way into the pocket of the share- 
holder. Where a company has a heavy interest charge 
on an old debt incurred in former years, and has be- 
sides to hypothecate the season r s crop for money at 
twelve per cent, for current expenditure, the share- 
holders stand a very poor chance of getting anything 
out of the gardens. In such cases it is worth their 
while to consider whether it would not be better for 
them to become their own creditors in some way; to 
advance the money required themselves, whether ou 
preference shares, debentures, or in any other way that 
seems best to them, instead of leaving the company to 
raise money at high interest elsewhere. They would 
