632 
tME TROt>iCAL AGRlCULTUUtST. IMarch i, 1894. 
From Brother butineBB man we had a strong and 
ppontBHious expression of opinion in favour of 
ppending the £5,000 in direct advertising, rather lhan 
in a bounty distribution. — Still another merchant 
who favours the bounty system has expressed the 
opinion that its distributinn should be confined 
to shippers of tea from Co'ombo, the American 
Consul s c rt;fioate being suQioient ; but that would 
leave out nil tea for the Canadian Dominion, &a. 
In this way, the " cess " might make up for all 
that paseed under Mr. Morey's notice, perhaps .00 
cnt per" lb. in place of the cent. Mr. Laurie 
nstimated 1— It will be judged from the above that 
the Mercantile community are by no means clear 
as to the lest oourEc to follow. 'J'he Fubjeot is 
likely to be discussed at the Annual Meeting of the 
Chamber of Commerce on the 2ad proximo. 
EXPORTS OF (.'EVLON TEA TO AMERICA \< . 
A Colombo merchant deprecates our criticism 
of the Dihtributiou Jleturna of Exports pub- 
lished by the Chamber of Commerce, as 
follows : — 
" I don't see why yon should be down on tho 
returns from the ( nstoins and Chamber of Commerce. 
They are made up from the Customs entries and 
steamer manifests, which are the only available 
sources of information. We know well enough that 
a large proportion of the tea, which goes to the 
U. K. never goes near the London market, but if 
you tell a planter that, he smiles sweetly, and has no 
idea of believing you in the least. I suppose every 
iirra in the Fort ships some tea to America." 
We expressly f»uarded ourselves by writio^^ 
in conclusiou that " neither the Chamber 
nor Customs can know the real destina- 
tion of large quantities of tea shipped." 
Nevertheless, we must liold that some degree 
of censure is attributable, unless we are to 
)ielieve that no member of the Committee of 
the Chamber in passing the Annual Distribu- 
tion Keturn for publication could take u))on 
himself to add a note in the case of " China" 
for instance, to tlie effect that " most if not 
all the tea so entered went really to America "; 
and opposite " America," that the figures 
^iven by no means represented all the tea 
Bent from Ceylon to the North American 
Continent. This might be breaking through 
precedent; but it would have saved not only 
planters, but even several members of the 
Colombo mercantile community from a great 
misconception as to last year's tea exports 
from Colombo to America. Indeed, as our 
correspondent knows, he himself was the first 
to ^enlighten a prominent Dimbula planter 
who came to us full of the discovery, as he 
felt sure not a single planter in the country 
had any idea of the true state of tlie case. By 
all means let us have an explanatory note tj 
the Distribution table in future, to prevent 
grave misconceptions : a very few words 
will do. 
A merchant whose opinion we aeked as to 
whether all tea which escaped record for "America" 
in Colombo, was likely to be included in ihe 
British Customs returns of re-exports westward, 
replies : — 
"Your question is a most difficult one toBUswer. 
Where we have through Bills of L\dmK trauBbip- 
ment Liverpool or London, I ebould sny the tees 
riid not reappear as exports frooi Great Britain; but 
where the llill of L«ding is only to the United 
KiPgdotn I phould «»3 tbtt the teas did appear as 
rxports from (he United Kingdom althoagh not ca- 
tered for duly." 
it will be remembered that the figures given by 
Messrs. Gow, Wilson (c Stanton for Ceylon tea 
exported from the United Kingdom to America 
are : — 
To United States in 1693, rqual to . . 707 .567 lb. 
To Canada do. do. ..731,700 1b. 
Now from Colombo, Mr. Morey reports as passed 
for the 
United Stales in 1893, equal to .. 250,945 lb. 
While for the Canadian Dominion including 
British Columbia, Nova Scotia, \c., besides 
Newfoundland, Bermuda, Ac, tlie total cannot 
have been lees than . . . . 2f»0,000 lb. 
Total 1,890,372 lb. 
This would give us 1,890,270 lb. as the approxi- 
mate total of Ceylon tea for America last year 
in place of 1,-549,767 lb. May we speedily see 
these figures increased manifold. 
♦ 
YATADERIA TEA COMPANY OF 
CEYLON, LIMITED. 
ANNCU. GESEBAL ME£Il^C. 
The sixth annual ordinary general meeting of this 
Company was held at the oifices of the Company, 
13 Queen Street, Fort, on February 2 1st, pur- 
suant to notice. Mr. U. V. Masefield was in the 
chair, and the following i^harebolders were present : — 
Messrs. D. Fairtreatber, J. U. Scarey (Managing 
Director), B. G. L. Bremner (Secretary), J. K. 
Fairweather, A. Orchard, C, M. tiwatkin, J. A. 
Martin, and by proxy A. H. DiugwaU, and W. W. 
Church. 
Trie Secbetary read the notice convening the 
meeting. 
The minutes of the annual general meetiog held 
on February 2Sth, 1893, and of the extraordinary 
general meeting held on August 4th, 1893, were 
read and confirmed. 
The report of the Directors having been taken 
as read, Mr. Masefield moved that the report of the 
Directors and the accounts for the year 1S93 be re- 
ceived and adopted. 
The Managing Director, in seconding the adoption 
of the report, commented upon the accounts and the 
general progress of the company. It was satisfactory 
that while the market for Ceylon teas had fahen 
more than apennj' in the year, the difference between 
the cost aind tiie selling price of the company's 
teas had fallen on^y about one cent ; and tbough 
the revised crop estimate had not been obtained 
it was encouraging to know that the crop from 
the 527 acres under leaf in 1892 had in 1»93 ex- 
ceed the previous year's returns by 15,000 lb. 
tea. The leaf area in 1S93 was 52 acres more 
than in 1892. December had been a disappoint- 
ing month for crop in consequence of the early 
close of the N,-E. monsoon. Between cost of the 
teas and sale price there appeared a balance of 
gain of 12 72 cents per lb. 'J.he actual profit for 
the year, after liberal provisions lor depreciation, 
was over 32 per cent., and alter diviomg 30 per 
cent there remained, with some 6 per cent brought 
forward, more than 8i per cent to carry forward. 
The reserve fund which had been approved of at 
the previous meeting after some discussion had 
been found most necessary, and it would be seen 
on reference to the balance-sheet that it was not only 
fully employed in the busintss of the company, but 
tbat in view of the purchase of land and the exteusions 
in prospect, tlie diieciors |jad dtc ded to place ttie 
further enm of R5,0t)0 tt the fund, and the speaker 
regretted tba^ it h«^ not been determined ajpoQ in 
