702 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
[April i, 1889. 
lately, and still exists, such an antipathy to the 
Chinese as settlers, or even traders and temporary 
servants, within Australia, as must make the 
Colonists more anxious than ever before to cease all 
commercial connection with China and do business 
in British-grown teas. (I am not expressing sympathy 
with Colonial treatment of the Chinese, nor dis- 
cussing this subject one way or the other, I am 
merely stating a fact which has a most important 
bearing on the question of pressing Ceylon teas 
at this juncture, on the notice of consumers in 
every one of the Southern Colonies). It is a case 
therefore at present for ' ' striking while the iron is 
hot" if Ceylon tea planters wish to take advantage 
of the anti-Chinese feeling prevailing throughout 
Australasia. 
But it will at once be asked, in the face of this 
picture, how is it that the China-Australian tea trade 
continues to flourish — the shipments from Foochow 
&c. to the Colonies being larger for the current, 
than the previous, season — while commercial reports 
from Melbourne and Syndey represent an over- 
stocked market for Indian, and it may be for Ceylon 
teas ? How is it in the face of all that was done at 
the Melbourne Exhibitions of 1881 and 1888 to adver- 
tise the pure quality of Ceylon teas, and in the 
former year, to expose — by a series of analyses and 
discussions in the press — the inferiority, nay the 
absolute impurity and unwholesomeness of much of 
the China supplies, — that the demand for our own 
and Indian teas continues so limited and that 
shippers dare not send Ceylon teas to the Australian 
market on chance of a profitable sale ? There are, 
I believe, plain and satisfactory answers which can 
be given to these questions. 
In the first place, I am not at all inclined to 
blink the fact that China teas undersell those of 
India and Ceylon in the auction rooms and whole- 
sale markets of Melbourne and Sydney — and that 
in consequence, the Australian tea importers, dealers 
and distributors can make far more profit out of the 
cheap China teas they import from Foochow than 
out of Ceylon and Indian teas. No doubt there is 
a certain quantity of highclass tea imported thence 
and sold at a high price to the wealthy who, it 
may be, have to be educated to appreciate the 
taste and flavour of our Ceylon Pekoes. But the 
large proportion of imports is of cheap inferior 
stuff which, however, does not reach the mass of the 
consumers, save at a price which would well cover 
the cost of average Ceylon teas after leaving a 
fair profit to the shippers and distributors. There- 
in lies the whole secret of the maintenance of the 
China Tea Trade with Australia. Why should tea 
importers and wholesale dealers, down south, 
trouble themselves, to buy or encourage an article 
on which they cannot do much business with a 
profit of more than 5 to 10 per cent to divide, 
when by going on in the established groove, they 
may have 15, 20 or even 30 per cent to divide. 
But how is it, the Ceylon planter will ask, that 
the people who have learned of, perhaps tasted, 
the superiority of Ceylon teas, do not by asking 
for the same create a demand which must be sup- 
plied—what in fact have the Exhibitions and all 
the outlay thereon from our exchequer and purses 
done for us ? In the large towns, it may be 
answered, a certain limited demand in select 
circles has been created which ha=t to be met ; 
but outside, the householder, the farmer, the shep- 
herd who may enquire for another tea is no doubt 
met by the statement that there is none in stock, 
that it is much dearer and altogether a fancy 
article unknown to minor or country grocers. It 
in quite true too that even in the supply to the 
Melbourne market, Ceylon teas in consequence of 
difficulties about freight for Hmall quantities, have ' 
gone forward very irregularly ; while as the result 
of practical experience and enquiry, "Old Colonist" 
went so far in one of his letters some months ago 
from the south, as to say that for Ceylon teas at 
Is per lb. in bond at Melbourne, there should be 
an unlimited demand in the Australian Colonies. 
It is plain in fact that the vast mass of the 
consumers do not know how to get, or anything 
about the price at which they should be able to 
buy, good pure Ceylon teas. No Exhibition, or 
discussion in the press, can take the place of actual 
commercial distribution, advertising and canvassing. 
The China-Australian tea trade has been built up, 
and is maintained, year by year, in this way. The 
utmost business energy and enterprise are displayed 
by the men mainly interested in its maintenance. 
Let me illustrate from my own experience. 1 
travelled to Marseilles in 1887 with two gentlemen 
largely engaged in the China tea trade : one mainly 
buying for the Bussian, the other for the Aus- 
tralian, market. The latter reckoned to spend 
several months every year, or at least, every second 
year in the Colonies, booking his orders, canvassing, 
seeking new constituents and generally making 
himself agreeable while maintaining and promoting 
the trade in China teas. He was not alone ; there 
are perhaps half-a-dozen or more shipping firms 
at Foochow that send partners or responsible agents 
to spend three or four months in the Australian 
colonies to canvass and book orders for China teas. 
What can the Indian or Ceylon tea merchants or 
planters be said to have done to push a trade in 
contrast with this systematic business arrangement ? 
Almost nothing. 
I have not met Mr. Sinclair yet, and am not 
acquainted with the details of any scheme he may 
have mentally formulated, or put on paper, in 
connection with the establishment of what I may 
call a " Ceylon-Australian Tea Trading Com- 
pany." But, I understand that part of his plan 
would be the establishment of depots in the 
principal towns where supplies of Ceylon teas 
could always be obtained by the suburban and 
country dealers on terms almost as advantageous 
as those allowed for China teas after satisfying 
the different superior middlemen. The large land- 
owners, squatters and others, who send their 
employees big supplies of tea among other rations 
from town, would find that they could get at such 
depots a greatly superior article at, perhaps, as 
favorable a price — considering how much further 
a lb. of Ceylon tea will go — than was paid for 
China " posts and rails," the tea stuff which has 
made "bush tea" so often the subject of satire. 
Mr. Sinclair would also, no doubt, recommend the 
Company's supporters to canvass and advertise 
freely at the outset, assured of a due, if not 
handsome return. It would, moreover, be to the 
interest of every Ceylon tea planter to make the 
Company's work and depots known to friends or 
to the friends of friends in the Colonies. With 
a steadily increasing tea trade, we might well 
expect other branches of commerce between Ceylon 
and Australia to develope and to find bonds of 
union in many ways which would gradually bring 
this little island into closer, and even more beneficial 
relations with these splendid Austral countries. 
But leaving the future prospect alone, and return- 
ing to the problem now I venture to lay before 
the Ceylon tea planting community, it may be 
asked, how is this Tea Trading Company to be 
formed. Already I regret to understand that in one 
quarter cold water has been thrown on the idea 
of a local formation. It has been said that Mr. 
Sinclair must go to London for the shareholders 
and capital. No dewut indirectly, some of the 
capital may come from home from owners of 
