June i, 1889.] 
THE. TROPICAL AdRidULTURlST. 
339 
colony great and small, and lest eggs should 
remain burn the chips or rather roast them, for 
they are not easily consumed. 
As soon as the young grub is hatched he begins 
cutting his way inwards, making a crooked and 
still widening track. When half grown he turns 
towards the surface, where at his full growth he 
cuts so close that nothing thicker than a 
piece of packing paper is between him and the 
open air ; then he wraps up in a cocoon of the 
fibre of the stem and awaits his transformation. 
The perfect insect easily bores its way out and 
begins life on a new footing. As they are night-flyers 
their habits are not to be traced further, but we 
may suppose with no great stretch of conjecture 
that they are very diligent in seeking convenient 
spots to deposit their eggs. 
If the expansion of the stem bursts a strong 
succulent leaf at the base it should be removed 
at once, but the operation requires a sharp tool 
in a careful hand to avoid wounding the stem 
and making the remedy worse than the disease. 
If the stem he accidentally wounded the best thing 
I know is a daub of tar with as much fine sharp 
sand as it will hold. Notwithstanding all the pre- 
cautions that can be taken a few trees will be 
lost wherever the beetle has obtained a footing, 
and the danger is greatest where the cultivation 
is highest and the growth consequently quickest. 
The danger begins with the first appearance of the 
stem and continues more or less till the flowering 
begins. 
THE CEYLON TEA PLANTATIONS COMPANY, 
LIMITED. 
The report and accounts submitted on Friday to the 
shareholders of the Oeylon Tea Plantations Company, 
Limited, were adopted. An interim dividend of 6 
per cent, was paid in September last, and a second 
interim dividend of 4 per cent, was paid in January. 
On Friday a final dividend of 5 per cent was declared 
making 15 per cent, for the year. 
In the course of his speech, Mr. David Eeid, 
of Thomanean, Kinross, the chairman, said : — 
The shareholders will notice in looking through the 
accounts that nearly the whole oE the amount at the 
crodifc of profit and loss account has been distributed 
as dividends. In this the directors had scarcely any 
option, because at the first of this year an issue of 
4,550 shares became necessary to pay for the pur- 
chase of the estates to which I have alluded, and so 
a state of things was brought about analagous to the 
winding up of an old partnership and the inaugurat- 
ing of a new one, and under such circumstances it 
became necessary as a mere matter of accounting 
that the balance at the credit of profit and loss 
account should be handed over to those shareholders 
to which it really belonged. But, gentlemen, although 
nearly the whole of the balance at the credit of 
profit and loss account has been divided, the directors 
have not lost sight of the very great importance 
of fortifying the position of this company to meet 
the attack that is being made upon all tea property 
by the fall in the price of tea ; and in order to put 
clearly before you the way in which this has been 
done, it will be necessary for me again to refer to 
what I said to the shareholders when I addressed 
you at the first general meeting. It will be in your 
recollection that I said that, speaking in round num- 
bers, the property consisted of 1,000 acres of jungle 
at £2 10s an acre, and 1,600 acres of tea land at £40 
an acre. I am glad to be able to inform you that 
when we commenced business on Jan. 1st, 1889, taking 
the price of jungle land as before at £2 10s., the 
price that your tea land stands in the company's 
books is £35, instead of £40, a reduction of 12| per 
cent. This I consider a most important point. I do 
not think it is possible for any shareholder to take 
an intelligent view of the value of his property 
without considering not merely dividends, but also 
the margin of profit per pound of tea, and the 
margin of profit per acre that the property yields; 
for it is ouly by looking at it from that point of 
view that one can form any adequate opiniou of the 
condition that the company is in to meet the possible 
fall in the price of tea. Now, I daresay it will be 
interesting to the shareholders — indeed, I may say it 
is my duty to explain to you how this has been brought 
about. In the first place, it has been brought about by 
the purchase of the estates, to which I have referred, at 
a much lower price per acre than the price at which the 
company's original acres stood in the books. And it has 
also been further brought about by the development of 
jungle land into tea-planted land of the old estates of 
the company at a very low cost. Now, I can well con- 
ceive that the shareholders will say it is very well to 
tell us that the price at which the estates stand in our 
books has been reduced 12§ per cent., but are the acres 
as good ? Well, that is to a certain extent a matter of 
opinion, but in the opinion of myself — and I may say 
it is the unanimous opinion of the board — the average 
of the acres that we started business with on Jan. 1st 
1889, is in all respects equal to the average of the acres 
that we began business with in 1888. I am not going 
on this occasion, as 1 did on the last, to describe to you 
in any detail — in fact, not at all — the condition of the 
estates, because I prefer that you should receive it at 
first hand from Mr. Rutherford, our manager in Ceylon 
who has within the last month come to this country. 
(Applause.) Now there is another striking feature in 
this report, which I would just allude to and that is 
the great fall in the price of tea. I believe that we 
have suffered in this very much in common with all 
tea companies. We hear a great many differences of 
opinion expressed upon the exact grades of tea which 
have suffered most and also as to whether the Ceylon, 
Indian, and China teas have fallen equally. So far as 
I have been able to arrive at an opinion, I think that 
nearly all teas have suffered, and I think it must be 
satisfactory to the shareholders that in spite of such a 
fall in price we can present so favourable a balauce- 
sheet. Tea growers have, no doubt, an anxious time 
in front of them, but the directors have confidence 
in the future of the company, and recognising frankly 
and early that only the fittest will survive in the 
fierce competition that over-production is bringing 
about, they will spare no trouble to maintain efficient 
and economical management of the company's busi- 
ness. 
Mr. David Reid (Mincing Lane) said that the share- 
holders would no doubt like to hear a few words from 
their Oeylon manager, Mr, Rutherford. (Applause.) 
Mr. H. K. Rutherford : I have pleasure in a double 
sense in being present here today at the annual 
meeting of the shareholders ; first, as a shareholder, 
in listening to the chairman's clear and explicit state- 
ment of the financial position of the company, and, 
secondly, as your manager in Oeylon, in knowing that 
the services of those in Ceylon who have taken an 
active part in bringing about the favourable results as 
shown in the directors' report are fully appreciated and 
recognised. (Applause.) The chairman has shown 
how the capital cost per cultivated acre has, by 
the purchase of new estates, been brought down 
from £40 to £35. Now, the fact of tlie pro- 
perties standing at £35 per acre would have but 
little meaning if the statement was not supported by 
the other important fact that the properties are all ij 
good condition and well worth the value at which 
they stand in the company's books. (Applause.) Tea 
estates, as you are aware, may be, from poverty of 
soil, unsuitability of climate, bad planting, and unpro- 
ductive bushes, absolutely worthless. I am very 
pleased indeed to be able to tell the shareholders, 
from my intimate knowledge of the company's origi- 
nal properties, and those newly acquired, that they 
have potentialities in them which I am confident 
will carry them over the stormy waves of low prices ; 
and when unseaworthy craft have sunk, the company's 
ship, I trust, will come annually into harbour, un- 
loading its cargo of good dividends. (Applausw.) The 
new estates acquired by the company have the follow- 
ing advantages : — They have good soil, some of them 
considerably above the average. They are all at 
