THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [August i, 1881, 
tea is sadly wanting in lipuor. For that reason I 
believe it has gone out of favour in the Australian 
market. For the opposite reason Ceylon tea ought, 
if justice is done to it in making, to come into high 
favour and extensive use. Mr. Brown quite coincides 
with the recommendation to cut our big-leaved teas. 
Indeed I 1 ave heard of such teas bought here for 
about lOd per lb. and selling for 2a. when cut. 
Mr. Brown even advises making a good deal of broken 
tea. 
Of course I must repeat the remark that all the 
. satisfactory information embodied in my letters to you 
may not secure favourable verdicts for Ceylon tea 
from the Exhibition jurors, a good many of whom 
are interested in the China tea trade. But no jury 
verdict can alter the facts brought out by the extra- 
scientific analyses of Meesrs. Moody and Sibthorp, and 
the strictly scientific -analyses of Mr. Dunn. In answer 
to my questions the latter assured me, that . there 
was no disturbing element in the Ceylon tea analyses 
to account for results differing from those obtained in 
the case of Indian teas. The large proportion of extract 
and (he small proportion of ash in our teas are equally 
facts: and "important facts. 
Up to 2 p.m. Mr. Moody's report has not come to 
hand, and 1 fear it will not reach me to-day. I shall, 
however, take my letter at an early hour to-morrow 
morning to the office of Messrs. Henty so as to be 
able to include the report. Meantime I enclose a letter 
which has reached me from Nen' Zealand. The writer, 
formerly a planter in Ceylon, thus notices the market 
for Ceylon te* in " the Britain of the South ": — 
_ " Moray Place, Duuedin, New Zealand, 
" 18 th November 1880. 
"I am doing a small business hero as an Indian Pro- 
duce and Commission Agent. I have already done a 
little in Ceylon tea, coffee, spikes and cigars. Only 
a very limited market for our Ceylon tea here as 
yet : prices I have got for them in Dunedin are 
Pekoe 2s to 2a 4d in bond 
Pekoe souchong Is 5d to Is 8d ,, 
Souchong no offers over 3d per lb ,, 
Dust and fannings ,, ,, 
The markets are very quiet here at present, almost 
nothing doing. Our Ceylon teas are only used to 
work up a cheap China at present : they don't care 
for it alone, but rather like it in a mixture. They 
want as fine a looking leaf as possible on this market, 
and I have great bother 'to make them take a sample 
and liquor anything that looks coarse. They think 
our pekoe souchong rather coarse looking, and sou- 
chong aud dust ; they don't believe in at any price. 
I got 2s 4d per lb. in bond for a smaH parcel of Ceylon 
pekoe last week. I shall not recommend placing 
much of our tea on the New Zealand markets at 
present. Trade in everything is very quiet. Dealers 
are only buying from hand to mouth ; money is 
scarce and very hard to get in. I hold a stock of 
over 100 half chests (40 to 471b. each) 'Ceylon Pekoe 
Souchong ' just now, and I am only able to place 2 
to 3 half-chests at a ti*.e these days, that is if I 
want- to keep up prices. I notice Ceylon people al- 
ways quote the duty on tea at 6d per lb. here : they 
are wrong in this, as the duty on tea in New Zealand 
is only 4d per lb. I have sent samples to Ceylon of 
New Zealand tweeds, flannel, biscuits, flour, &c. The 
tweeds and flannels are first class: they are of the 
best wool ; it would not pay them to mix, and are 
beautifully soft. I have arranged with the manu- 
facturers to accept payment in produce, so this should 
be an inducement for some, as it saves exchange." 
Messrs. Jas. Henty & Co. of Melbourne will no 
doubt be ready to do for Ceylon teas what they are 
doing for India : not only push them in this market, 
but, through their agencies, in all the Australian 
colonies. You will see that the prejudice against 
large-leaved teas is universal, The feeling against 
* dust is even less reasonable. But we cannot at odcc 
remove traditionary prejudices. We of Ceylon must 
see to it that not only in quality but in appearance 
our teas are attractive. With tuch results as Mr. 
Dunn has obtained there is rea-on to suspect the 
genuineness of the complaint of weakness so often 
received from London regarding Ceylon teas. 
Having received Messrs. Jas Hen^y & Co.'s letter, 
I now enclose it. You will see that no fewer than 
78 samples of tea went to make up the averages 
which gave such satisfactory results, and that mv 
argument is repeated, that, if averages came out 
so well, the best samples if picked out might have 
-done much better. You will note what is said of 
the goodness of the congou, and of the deficiency of 
theine where it ought to abound in the green tea. 
I hope all in the colony will feel that Messrs. James 
Henty & Co. were justified in congratulating Ceylon, 
through its Commiroioner at the Melbourne Exhibi- 
tion, on the character of its teas- established by re- 
peated and careful tests. There can be now no ques- 
tion that for the Tea Enterprise in Ceylon there is 
a great future. This is specially gratifying to me, 
because, in my capacity of journalist, I advocated 
attention to tea as well as cinchona, when the majority 
of planters were either prejudiced against or careless 
about both. Every effort should now le made, I 
submit, to secure this important Australian market 
for our teas. The article is in demand, although ad- 
vices from Foo-chow report 20,000,000 lb. shipped 
for Australia. 
I was present and took part in a discussion at a 
private meeting convened by Mr. Buck to ascertain 
the tendency of feeling here as to a proposition that 
an agent should be employed for two years to collect 
and diffuse information and form collections of samples 
of goods likely to enter into commerce between India 
aud the eastern world generally, on the one hand, 
and the Australian colonies on the other. Mr. Buck's 
idea was to expend £5,000, of which India should 
bear hall and the Australian colonies the other half. 
If the thing is done, it seems clear to me India alone 
must do it. I pointed out at the meeting the important 
effect which was sure to be produced by the regular 
running of the British India S. JV. steamers to Queens- 
land in addition to the P. & O. vessels to the other 
colonies. And now I see the Dutch are contemplat- 
ing a regular steam service from Batavia. Pleniy of 
cheap freight will do much to link the eastern and 
southern lands together. 
I see that some Fiji coffee has sold for only Sid 
per lb. here. Mr, D. Mitchell says it was poor stuff. 
From what 1 hear, the Fijian archipelago is much 
more likely to be' a formidable competitor of Mauri- 
lius and Queensland in the production of sugar, than 
of Ceylon in the growth of coffee. 
Messes. Jas. henty & Co.'s Letter Anent Me. 
Dunn's Analyses or Ceylon Teas. 
Melbourne, 8th December 18S0. 
A.M. Ferguson, Esq., Commissioner for Ceylon, M.I.E. 
Deae Sir, — We now hand you the report of Mr. 
F. Dunu, of the . Government Laboratory, on the 
average samples of Ceylon teas handed to him for 
analyses, as advised in our last of 24th ulto. 
The orange pekoe, pekce, pekoe souchong and souch- 
ong are highly satisfactory, the percentage of extract 
being very large, of soluble salts full, which, with 
a low percentage of ash, stamps these teas as of the I 
greatest purity. 
Congou, which is usually considered the commonest I 
tea, turns out very good for its class, the percent- 
age of extract 37 '40 being well over the standard of 
extract for lowest class genuine tea, say 30f. 
There being only two samples of green tea to show, 
it was hardly a fair average, but turns out very 
