Dae, r, 1 891. j 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
4 1 7 
think it high time that the wise example now 
set them should be followed, so that no 
ground shall remain for a possible suspicion 
that fictitious amounts of assets may appear in 
the published accounts of any Ceylon Estate 
Companies. 
LANKA PLANTATIONS CO., LD. 
PROPOSED REDUCTION OF CAPITAL. 
The ordinary general meeting of this Company was 
held at 12, Fenchureh Street, E.U., on Wednesday, Mr, 
Geokge Allen presiding. 
The Secretaiiy (Mr. C. M. Robertson) having read 
the notice convening the meeting, and the report and 
accounts having been taken as read, 
The Chairman said : — Gentlemen, it now becomes 
my duty to make a few observations on the proceedings 
of tho past year. You will see from the seventh para- 
graph of the report that, shortly after the last general 
meeting, our late chairman, Sir Robert Harding, re- 
tired from the board, and soon afterwards was taken 
from us, ieaving me the only survivor of the original 
directors. My colleagues asked me to accept the 
chairmanship, which I did with great pleasure, know- 
ing that I could rely on their co-operation and support. 
Now, with reference to the report itself, you will see 
that we had very satisfactory returns from our coffee, 
although there was a decrease of 122 acres in the area 
under cultivation, and a diminution in the amount sent 
home. Before very long, I am afraid, a great part of 
this coffee will disappear, but it has been our endeavour 
to protect it all we can, and we shall continue to do so. 
It is somewhat gratifying to me that our views, as to 
the desirability, in the first instance, of going into 
coffee as a venture from which we might fairly expect 
every possible success, have been supported by the late 
Sir VVm. Gregory, a former Governor of Ceylon, whose 
memoirs have lately been published. Two years after 
the formation of this company, he satisfied himself that 
coffee would continue to be a profitable product, and 
joined our company, in which he took a large interest. 
As recently quoted in the Standard, he says : "I well 
remember going through the thriving coffee districts 
in the spring of 1877. The blossom was out, and they 
were as white as a table-cloth. I saw Mr. Thwaites 
on my return, and rather mocked him as a prophet 
of evil, since, although there had been disease for 
several years, coffee had still such a vigorous appear- 
ance). The following year the blow fell, and when in 
1883 I visited these valleys, the former splendid plan- 
tations contained little more than dried sticks, except 
where tea had begun to show itself." Now we come 
to the cocoa. You will remember that last year, when 
i had the pleasure of addressing you I said we had had 
an extraordinary crop and extraordinary prices, but 
could hardly expect it to continue. That turned out 
to be true, because this year, although it is a very 
satisfactory crop of nearly 1,000 cwts., and we realised 
£8,0(30 from it, there is a considerable decrease of 
i'3,390 in cash, which would have been enough to pay 
a much higher dividend on our shares. I have rea- 
son to believe that the American demand from 
which we profited last year may be revived. Im- 
mediately after that crop, had been shipped to 
America, all the trouu.e commenced of which we know 
so much, and the cocoa sent out there was practi- 
cally unsaleable. But things are improving very much. 
Messrs. Wilson, Sniithett t v: Co., in their circular of the 
•Hh September, say : — " The Board of Trade figures for 
the past eight months sho.v an iucrease in tue home 
consumption, the duty payments in August exact- 
ing tho^e of the same month last year by 380 ton^. 
uud in their circular oi the 12th October, they say 
tn a cocoa has ''attracted more general attention 
than of late, and fine qualities realised an advance 
01 from 2s to 3s per cwt ; " so that there is no 
reason to suppose that cocoa will not continue to 
be a profitable product. \Yo have received a good 
deal more tea this year tlian heretofore, and although 
tho price has fallen &<3 per lb., we have realised 
inoeo money than last year. I do not think wc need 
despair ot tea in any way, because such great efforts 
uie being made everywhere to extend its sale, and ther 
is no doubt that Ueylon tea is apparently more whole- 
some than most other teas. Many people can drink it 
when they cannot drink any other without suffering 
from indigestion. This is owing to the smaller quan- 
tity of tannin in it. In the official catalogue of the 
Chicago Exhibition, there is a paper written by Mr. 
Walker one of our visiting agents and now a Member of 
Council in Ceylon, who says that Ceylon tea contains 
10*12 per cent of "-annin, against 15 found in some of 
othe.' teas. Then, again, the progress of the sales here 
is vei/ great. Messrs. Wilson, Sniithett & Co. in their 
circular of 14th Sept. says : — '•' The imports for the last 
8 months were 5S,300,000 lb., against 52,500,000 lb. for the 
same period of 18 J3, and the home consumption rose from 
42,700,000 lb. for the first eight months of 1803, to 
48,200,000 during January to August last;'' — that is 
for Ceylon tea) and thence the development of the 
taste for Ceylon tea at the expense of China is more 
apparent when comparing the home consumption of 
this year with that of 18J1 ; that during the past 
eight months of the latter year the duty payments 
on China tea exceeded those on Ceylon by over 
2,500,0001b., whilst up to date this year the home 
consumption of Ceylon has been more than three 
times as heavy as that of China. That shows how Cey- 
lon tea is displacing China tea. At the end of Sep- 
tember they say : " A very firm tone has prevailed, 
but any marked advance in value was generally as- 
cribable to improved quality, and several good orders 
from Russia secured high prices." In October they 
say : " Imports were practically the same as those of 
September last year, whereas the deliveries show an 
increase of close upon 1,000,000 lb.," and again, on 
October 12th, " all the best liquoring invoices were 
strongly supported, and several good continental 
orders, principally from Russia, again secured full 
prices for some of the best 
The imports for the nine months show an increase 
of 50,100,000 lb., and home consumption an increase of 
6,00,000 lb., while the exports are, if anything, still 
more satisfactory, being nearly 1,000,000 lb. heavier 
than for the same period last year." And the last 
report is very gratifying to us, because it shows that 
our tea from Thotulagalla has realised Is 3 Jd a price 
which leaves a very large profit, and what the directors 
are endeavouring to do is, by improving our machinery 
to improve the quality of tea, at the increase in 
value more than justifies the expense. The circulars 
only refer by name to the Russian export demand, 
but I think you will be interested to hear a few lines 
from an article in the Tim.es, of Gth August dealing with 
the efforts made to introduce our tea into the United 
States. The article contains the following passages: — 
'•The efforts which the British tea planters of India and 
Ceylon are now making to effect an entrance into 
new markets are extremely interesting. While the 
honours of prompt action belong to Ceylon, the re 
suits .... have been satisfactory alike to Ceylon 
and India." "Next to Great Britain the United States 
are the largest tea purchasers in the world." "Before 
the close of the exhibition, 1,500 American tea firms 
had stocked British-grown teas." "The Ceylon plan- 
ters have opened a central permanent depot for Uey- 
lon tea in Chicago itself," and in the Colombo paper, 
received on the 20th of this month, it is shown 
that the imports of Ceylon tea for seven months 
ending 31st July were 563,819 lb. in the United 
States, and 467,173 lb in Canada. If Ceylon 
teas are going to supplant China tea, I do not 
see how it is possible that we shall not see an 
increase in our profits and more satisfactory divi- 
dends. Now we come to the part which is not as 
satisfactory as it might be, because we are only able 
to declare a dividend of 2 per cent. It is really 
accounted for by the fall in the price of cocoa and 
the diminished cocoa crop. But the whole of our 
estates are in good order, and each has producued 
a profit on the year. Within the last week or fort- 
night the price of tea has risen rapidly, and our 
prospects are good. That brings us to consider the 
suspense account. You will remember that we were 
somewhat heroic in what we did when we re- 
planted our estates, first with cinchona ami then 
with tea: we charged all the money that it cost 
us to suspense account, and that account up to the 
