June i, 1882.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 
rorr 
under a few inches of sand, a solid mass of ice. The 
soda, as dug up from the plain iu sheets from two to 
three inches in thickness, really does look more like 
ice than d es any other natural mineral formation. — 
Oil and Drug News. 
THE TEA QUSETIuN IN MELBOURNE. 
Mu. J. O. Moody's Letter to the Indian "Tea 
Gazette." 
(Copy of titter addressed to the, Editor of the Calcutta 
"'Pea Gazette," and forwarded per Shannon, leaving 
Melbourne on 30th March 1»S2.) 
DEAR SIR, — In your paper of 20th February last ap- 
pealed a letter from Mr. Everard, which, for mendacity 
and unscrupulousuess, I should hope, is unsurpassed 
iu the annald of letter-writing. There is no doubt but 
that yon have been purposely misled. 
His statement that "no such letter (as mi»c) ever ap- 
peared in the 'Age, 1 " is coutradioted by his own re- 
ply to til • is particular letter, and which also appeared 
in the Age newspaper. 
Here are the two in juxtaposition : — [Then follow the 
letters which have already appeared in the Observer.] 
The editor, in honouring my letter with a place 
in his leader, did so in a most complimentary way, 
though at the same time he excluded the money 
challenge and my name, both of no consequence, and 
not to the point perhaps he thought the money 
challenge infra dig. on my part. 
You [the editor of the Tea Gazette] will tind, in the 
Calcutta Tea Gazette, of 19th December last, this leader 
printed in full, and containing also my letter, printed 
in your columns for the second' time ; and if. Mr. Editor, 
you had only noticed this, it would have saved me 
from the unmerited reproof for "carelessness" contained 
in your article of 20th February, aud which has been 
republished in the Melbourne Argus of '25th March. 
I now intend to prove that nearly every paragraph 
contained in the rest of Mr. Everard's letter to you 
is untrue. [This is a strong word to use, but it is 
the only appropriate term to uco when Mr. John 
Everard makes statements. — Ed.] 
If you will kindly turn to the " Official Record 
of toe Melbourne International Exhibition," just pub- 
lished (copy of which, is posted to jou), on pnge lb'4 
you will liud the list of jurymen for sections 31 
and :!•-', winch gives Mr. David Gibson as chair- 
man—not Mr. Everard, who assumes tho title. 
Further, the official report from the section 
of this jury on tea is signed by Mr. David Gib- 
son, as chairman, not by Mr. Everard. The tea 
section or subdivision of the jury was composed of: — 
Messrs. I). Gibson (chairman), J. Everard, \V J. Cow- 
deroy, A. Harvey, V7. I'ut Brown, K. s. Harlcy. All 
jurymen (about -1U0) got medals f<>r their gratuitous 
services. [This was to meet Everard's attempt to shew 
that his receipt of ;i medal was any mark of special 
approval of his conduct. — El>.] 
I was appointed to this jury, but resigned on re- 
ceiving my appointment, because I represented .las. 
Heuty & Co., tho agents of the Calcutta Tea Syndic- 
ate, who might be considered exhibitors and come 
under the following jury cl .use (page 1. Official Record): 
— "That no person interested, cither as a partner or 
emph'ye, in a house exhibiting, shall be a juror in the 
classes in whi.'li .Mich him.-,!- or per.- m exhibit-.." 
On the first meeting of the full jury, Mr. Everard 
in unmeasured In uguage denounced Indian and Ceylon 
teas and all connected with t em, ni d this being »u- 
ported to Mr. D. A. Sibthorp, Commissi ncr for ludin, 
and Mr. A. M. Ferguson, commissioner [or Ceylon, 
those gentlemen entered a protest against Mr, Everard 
acting on the jury, and requested that Mr. W. Pitl 
Broun should be nominated, more c pee..iil\ as Mr, 
Everard had acted as agent lor one 01 the Japanese 
a formed, and cer 
amber well up i 
i, not Mr. Everan 
xhibitors — producing M*. Everard sown advertisemen 
in the "Argus" in support of this — mid claimed tha 
he came under this clause of the jury regulations. Ml 
Everard was not removed from the jury * bu: Mr. Brow 
was placed on it, after the jury 
ainly was the only one of th 
Indian teas, and the work fell on 
as stated by th t g< ntleman. 
The exhibits of tea at the Melbourne International 
Exhibition were as follows : — 
India 339 
Ceylon 78 
Straits Settlements 1 
Japan 35 
Melbourne and Chinese 54 
Therefore the representatives of 417 samples out uf507 
samples were notsatisfied with Mr. Everard asajurj m in. 
In continuation of my statement I refer touioMr. 
Sibthorp, and also give extract from Mr. F rguson's re- 
port to his Government (see Weekly Ceylon Observer of 
15th January, 1881) .— 
"As regards judging our Oeylon teas and other teas at 
this Exhibitiou, I felt so strongly the necessity of guard- 
ing against notorious prejudices in the case of at least 
one juror (Mr. Everard), who has a direct interest in 
Japan tea, that I considered it my duty to address Mr. 
Newbery, the Superintendent of Jurors, at considerable 
length on the expediency of applyiug to teas and coffees 
the principle on which spirits, wines and beers were judged, 
the jurors receiving numbered samples without any inform- 
ation as to the origin of the liquors; and Mr. Newbery 
deferred to my request, and accordingly bottles were pro- 
vided .... numbered 1, 2, 3, and so on. . . ." 
And take a later opinion (see Observer, 17th Novem- 
ber, 1881) :— 
"THE TEA PLANT, &c. 
" Dr. Wallich had far more excuse for his mistake than 
has the now exploded wind-bag, Mr. Everard, for his gross 
ignorance displayed in a speech at a public meeting held 
specially in the interests of China teas," &c, kc. " If 
there should be anyone so credulous as to attach the 
slightest weight to Mr. Everard's statement that 'during 
the past 20 years he had done his utmost to introduce 
Indian teas,' they need not wonder at his further state- 
ment, ' although with hut little success,' in view of his own 
astounding confession that he considers the China tea 
superior to the Indian from the fact that the able and 
experienced celestials, who had been 2,000 years iu the 
business, had discovered the secret of depriving tea of 
that very principle— theiue— which until now was deemed 
essential to true tea. It will now be the turn of the honest 
chemist to turn round on the advocate of the libelled 
teas and say: — 'It is you. not we, who have told the tea con- 
them from Chiua hus 
ly deprive, 1 of its theino 
d of Indian tea. You 
see what Mr. Ferguson's opinion of tins is, and I dis- 
tinctly state he lias been hostile to Ind an tea ever 
since Mr. Sibthorp and I dtclined to all-'w him to 
sell a portion of the Syndicate's shipments, for reasons 
that are indisputable. [That is the wh-de secret of 
Everard's animosity against Mr. Moody and Mr. 
Moody's friends, Messrs. Buck, Inglis, Sibthorp and 
Ferguson, ull of whom were honoured with Kvcnird's 
I abuse. We are acquainted with Mr. Moody's very 
I conclusive reason lor not consenting lo Mr Everuid'tt 
j impudent request, considering the circumstances, of 
I being allowed to sell a portion of th, Syndicate's 
T»o you think that a friend to Indi n tea. would 
Write to tho Argus, an Mr. Everard did a* follows: — 
-And notwithstanding Mr. IngUs'a oatertiui (Ws., 'there 
has nev er yet been placed on record au in: nice of fulutl- 
erated tea having been nen1 From an Indian warrhou«e'), 
1 now inform him that iu India fer sive' s.-ns.iiis liio 
* Because it * 
rsUxl judges.— BO. 
sumers that the stuff suppl 
been systematically and dr 
and tannin.'" 
Mr. Everard poses as tl 
really impossible to 
