3^6 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [December r, 1887. 
not be in writing, as under the Ordinance 
No. 7 of 1840, it was not " a bargain, contract or agree- 
ment... for establishing any... interest affecting land " 
which requires the execution of a notarial deed. ( Vide 
O. K. Balapitiya No. 31,086, 7 S. C. C. 71.) This de- 
cision was delivered by the full Court consisting of 
Fleming 0. J., and Dias and Lawrie, J.J., and went 
upon the lines laid down in a former judgment by Sir 
Edward Greasy in which it was held that an agreement 
affecting fructus industriales did not fall within the 
Ordinance above quoted. But by a judgment of the 
Collective Court, present Burnside, C. J., and Clarence 
and Dias J. J., this decision has been set aside and 
the privilege which the cultivator as well as the 
landowner enjoyed for over the prescriptive period — 
a privilege based on custom which had immemorial 
usage for its authority, had been taken away from 
him. The Chief Justice expressly states that the 
Court should not concern themselves in " inter- 
preting the law, whether their decisions would encour- 
age or discourage agriculture, or impose hardships" and 
Clarence J., holds: — " That an agreement to let land for 
cultivation in anda on the terms of the landowner re- 
ceiving a specific share of the crop is merely an agree- 
ment for a lease with the rent to be paid in kind and 
the torm exceeds one month. There is nothing more to 
be saiu. No custom can do away with the plain and 
express effect of a statute." While the " concurring 
hero " though of a different opinion on a former oc- 
casion discloses the courage of his convictions by as- 
senting to the theory laid down by the majority of " my 
lords." Although Clarence J. is unable to discern 
the hardship that this iniquitous decree will create, un- 
less, as he says, there be hardship arising out of the scale 
on which stamp duties are now fixed, those who are 
conversant with the habits and wants of native cultiv- 
ators will not fail to appreciate and realize the incal- 
culable harm the ruling in question will do to the cause 
of native agriculture — more especially the cultivation of 
paddy and fine grain. Aspointed out before, themajority 
of the owners of paddy land are actually unable and 
cannot afford to pay for labour, and sheer necessity 
gave birth and brought into existence one of the most 
beneficial systems known to grain cultivation, namely 
the co-operative or bee system. By it the man who 
is blessed with extensive acres of ancestral paddy 
and cbena land derives the benefit of having them 
cultivated at scarcely any expense, while bis less 
favoured brother, who has hardly any inheritance to 
boast of and depends on cultivation for his livelihood, 
gathers a rich harvest by the sweat of his brow. Thus 
it will be seen that system in its operations — "blesseth 
him that gives and him that takes." In addition to 
the Government by tythes and other legal imposts levied 
on grain cultivation which are sufficiently oppressive, 
it is anything but just and fair to emburden an already 
overtaxed population by the imposition of additional 
duties. The legal requirement that an agreement by 
a person to cultivate a neighbour's land for a share 
is certainly a death blow to anda, cultivation and a 
discouragement to agriculture as time alone will doubt- 
less show and in this aspect of affairs it is devoutly 
hoped that the Legislature will before long come to 
the rescue of the unfortunate native agriculturists who 
are affected thereby and restore to them the boon 
they have hitherto enjoyed by amending the law. 
♦ 
CHEAP AND NASTY. 
At a recent meeting of the City Commission of 
Sewers, at the Gui'dhall, E. c, on Tuesday, an im- 
portant question arose with reference to the sale of 
upwards of a thousand packages of salvage tea at the 
Mart, Mincing Lane, and in regard to the powers of 
the public analyst. 
Mr. J. Voce Moore (Messrs. Moore, Brothers and Co.) 
said : — While we are assembled in this court there 
are being sold in Mincing Lane no less than 1,090 
packages of tea said to be so damaged as to be wholly 
unfit for human food. It may be asked, "How can 
this be, seeing that a Government inspector was ap- 
pointed a few years ago Y" I am informed by one of 
the officers of the Custom House that this tea was 
sound at the time of passing the Customs, but as 
salvage from fire it is in its present improper con- 
dition. I hope the indignation of respectable mem- 
bers of the trade will be such that they will absol- 
utely refuse to pay for such stuff. I ask whether the 
attention of the medical officer of health has been 
called to the faot. 
Mr. Oloudesley : The tea has been sold this morn- 
ing, I think for a halfpenny a pound, duty paid. 
This tea has been salved from the fire in Westbourno 
Grove. I do net think it is likely to go into consump- 
tion. It is merely to find out whether there is any 
market value attaching to it. 
Mr. Moore: The fact of the sale does not affect 
the seriousness of the subject. There is nothing to 
prevent this foul stuff being circulated amongst the 
small dealers throughout the country. 
The medical officer (Dr. Sedgwick Saunders) said: 
On Friday last the secretary of the London Whole- 
sale Tea Dealers' Association called at my rooms 
and brought me a sample of tea, which he said had 
been submerged at Plymouth. He wished me to stop 
the sale of this commodity at the Mart today. I got 
a sample of the tea and analysed it immediately. I 
found the tea indicated a quality which it has after 
being submerged. Instead of being the range of 
healthy tea — between 28 and 48 per cent. — this came 
out 19 - 3 per cent. The ash was 7 per cent, instead 
of six per cent., but the extra percentage might be 
fairly due to a little carelessness in packing. I con- 
sulted Mr. Blake, the clerk and Mr. Baylis, the soli- 
citor, to ascertain what the power of a medical officer 
of health was. I found that, unless I could go be- 
fore a magistrate and swear that the tea was unfit 
for food, it was impossible for me to interfere with 
it. I had no legal right to the sample at all, and 
I could not in any way swear that what I had was 
a sample of the tea offered at the saleroom. This 
seems to be a different matter from that referred to 
by Mr. Moore. I think it was in the prooess of re- 
dry iug the tea that the deterioration took plaoe. 
Amongst the tea were minute particles of carbonace- 
ous matter. It might have he en a wilful foreign ad- 
mixture, or simple carelessness in drying the tea. It 
is an interesting question to know how far the medi- 
cal officer might interfere in future. Unless the tea 
is absolutely sold to the detriment of the person buy- 
ing it, there seems to be no legal remedy. — H. S[ C. 
Mail, Oct. 21st. 
♦ 
CHINA AND JAPAN TEA EXPOBTS 1887-8. 
It will be observed from the figures we give below, 
that no important change has taken place in this 
season's exports from China to Great Britain : 
the decrease is still about 30 millions of pounds 
and not likely to be diminished. The Hankow 
shipping season is now olosed with a stock of 
about two million pounds, which will probably be 
absorbed by the demand for the north of China. 
The stock of black tea at Shanghai is about 
six million pounds, being 3£ millions in excess of 
that of last year. The shipment of this will be 
spread over the next three or four months, and 
we suppose a large portion of it may be shipped 
to England. The Poochow shipping season will 
be practically over a month hence, as the re- 
ceipts are dwindling down to insignificant quantities, 
the fortnight's arrivals being only equal to 7,500 
chests against 22,000 chests the same time last 
year. The stock at Poochow is equal to 113,549 
chests or ten million pounds, against 134,935 
chests or 12 million pounds last year. If the 
whole of the Shanghai and Foochow stocks are 
shipped to Great Britain during November and 
December, which is scarcely probable, the export 
will be 106 millions of pounds, against 140 mil- 
lions last season. Comparing last year's receipts at 
Poochow with present year's, there is little prob- 
ability of November and December's receipts being 
orer 25,000 chests. The decrease of 30 millions 
