278 
THt TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October r, 1S88. 
CEYLON AT THE MELBOURNE EXHIBI- 
TION. 
77 Collins St, West, Melbourne, 7th Sept. 1888. 
The Secretary, Planters' Association, Kandy, Ceylon. 
Dear Sir, — I am in receipt of yours of the 3rd and 
4th ultimo advising despatch of the exhibits and the 
two native attendants by 3. S. " Oceana " which 
reached this on the 21st ultimo, after which I con- 
tinued as expeditiously as possible to complete the 
arrangements for the Court ; further exhibits how- 
ever from Messrs. Mackwood & Co. which came to 
hand by German steamer, arriving several days later, 
have retarded somewhat the completing of the Court, 
and I am unable to advise by this mail its being open 
to the public, but can confidently say that I shall be 
in a position to do so by the next ; and I hope your 
Committee will agree with me that it was preferable 
to have everything in position before opening though 
it may have caused a little further delay. I am glad 
to say that the space afforded me will be ample for 
all requirements : some of the space allotted, adjoining 
ours, not being taken up, has been granted to me. 
I regret to say that permission has not been granted 
for the sale of tea, and it is highly improbable that 
it will be, — the last communication with the public 
caterer now more than a fortnight since being entirely 
ignored, to whom as I wrote you previously the 
Commissioners referred me in the matter. 
As the outlay so far as has exceeded £175, I need 
not say that it will be advisable for the satisfactory 
development of the exhibits that you should remit 
me further funds. In the meantime I propose in order 
to meet current expenses to dispose of some of the 
tea in hand provided that I can do so at a fair profit. 
Accounts and vouchers of expenditure will be for- 
warded you by next mail. 
I have to request you to thank Mr. A. M. Ferguson 
for his two letters to Sir J. Macbain and Mr. Cosmo 
Newbery, which I shall avail myself of with pleasure. 
The Ceylon flag alluded to in your letters under reply 
has not been received, but will probably come to hand 
by the S. S. " Coromandel " due here on the 8th or 
Oth. I had already had a flag made representing an 
elephant balancing a flag pole bearing the Union 
Jack, which can be replaoed by that sent by you if 
thought advisable and made use of in some other 
part of the Court. I have had some little trouble in 
finding house accommodation for the two native at- 
tendants, but have made the best arrangements possible, 
and imagine that their discomfort, if any, must be 
mainly attributed to the continual cold weather they 
have experienced since their arrival. I having found 
it necessary to provide them with some extra warm 
clothing ; as we are now expecting daily warm 
weather, this cause of complaint will be removed. 
The photographs received have been nicely framed, 
so as to fit into suitable positions in the building, and 
will without doubt be a great attraction, being much 
admired already. 
Should my selling of tea be approved of by the 
Oommittee during the season of the Exhibition, I 
would advise further shipments and in half chests in 
pveference to whole. — I am, &c, 
(Signed) H. McKenzie. 
CEYLON TEA IN AMERICA : 
HOW TO MAKE IT KNOWN: DR. DUKE'S 
PLAN— A GOOD IDEA. 
We learn that a proposal has been laid before the 
Planti re' Association by Dr. Valentine Duke which is 
ut ouco novel and, from our point of view — ex- 
tremely sensible and practical. With the object of 
securing attention to Ceylon tea throughout America 
Dr. Duke proposes that the 0,000 lb. of tea offered to 
Mr. Elwood May under conditions, but declined, 
should bo utilized by being distributed into a thousand 
or 1,200 packets of 5 lb. tea each. Those should bo 
made up in suitable neat boxes which ought also 
Lo contain B hort account of the rise and growth 
oi the Ceylon Lea industry in pamphlet form with 
instructions for the proper infusion of Ceylon tea- 
What is to be done with the boxes? They 
are to be entrusted to a reliable agent, to 
forward by prepaid parcel delivery or post to the 
leading Newspaper Editors in the United States 
and Canada ! This is to be effected so that the 
delivery may take place as "A Christmas Gift 
from the Tea Planters of Ceylon " to each of our 
selected Newspaper contemporaries. So good is 
the idea that we should like to see it extended 
and 2,000 additional packets of 2 lb. each say, 
sent to the conductors of second rate journals — 
whose name is legion — in the Siates. That would 
make 10,000 lb. of tea in all, and a better 
advertisement for our staple acrosB the Atlantic 
"ferry" could not possibly be desired. A good 
paragraph, if not a leader, with full extracts from 
the pamphlet, might be looked for in the journal 
of every recipient, and as 5 lb. or even 2 lb. of 
good Ceylon tea — equal to double the quantity of 
China — would suffice for a considerable time in 
the editor's family, the lasting effect of the ad- 
vertisement in a circle sure to have many friends 
and acquaintances can be easily understood. Dr. 
Duke, we believe, urges that the editors of medical 
and technical journals should be specially con- 
sidered in the distribution. This can easily be 
done. From Sell's Dictionary of the World's Press, 
we gather that the totals for the United States 
and Canadian Dominion are as follows : — 
Daily Newspapers ... ... 1,267 
Tri-weekly ,, ... ... 51 
Semi-weekly ,, ... ... 173 
Weekly „ 11,165 
Bi-weekly ,, ... ... 74 
Semi-monthly ,, ... ... 252 
Monthly „ ... ... 1,674 
Bi-monthly ,. ... ... 26 
Quarterly ,, ... ••• 127 
Grand Total ... 14,339 
It will be no easy matter selecting even 3,000 
out of this large body of press publications ; but 
the agent employed — and it is much better to 
entrust this duty to someone in America— has the 
means of a&certaining approximately the position 
of nearly every journal in the country. Sell gives 
the names and addresses of only about 800 with 
the leading circulation, and this " Dictionary of 
the World's Press" (for 1887, the latest published) 
is at the disposal of the Planters' Committee if 
they desire to have it. But we would strongly 
recommend the gentlemen concerned to entrust the 
business of distribution to capable and disinterested 
hands in America. Perhaps it might not be 
thought the right thing to give the distribution 
to any dealer in tea ? In that case we would re- 
commend to the notice of the Tea Fund Committee 
the firm of Messrs. Pettingill & Co., Broadway, 
New York, who stand highest, we believe, as 
Newspaper Advertising Agents, and who must have 
business connections with all parts of theUnion. 
A gentleman who would be certain to interest 
himself, if applied to, is Mr. Andrew H. Green, — bro- 
ther of the late Dr. Green of the American Mission, 
Jaffna, — who holds a very high position in New 
York, at the head of one of the largest Insur- 
ance Societies, and who bears the highest reputation 
as a citizen, man of business and politician. A 
word from Mr. Green in any business circle in 
New York goes a long way, and we know how he 
keeps up his interest in Ceylon affairs. It will 
be for the Planters' Committee, however, to ucuide 
what is best to be done with Dr. Duke's proposal. 
That it is likely to be taken up cannot be doubted, 
since we learn it has the approval oi several of th. 
leaders of the planting community. 
