Jan. i, 1895.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
481 
ANOTHER CEYLON PLANTER FOR BRIT- 
ISH CENTRAL AFRICA: 
NARROW ESCAPES FROM DROWNING. 
We have been favoured with the following ex- 
tract from a letter of Mr. H. L. Thornton written 
from Chinde dated 5th November last : — 
" At Aden I caught the German mail steamer, a 
very nice one, and came down with her to Tauza 
the new German port on the mainland where they 
have just opened a railway. Thence to Zanzibar 
a dirty beastly place; but with a nice set of fellows 
and a good club. Thence to Der-u-salaam a big 
German port and thence to Mozambique, where I 
changed into a small 500 ton steamer, as the big 
steamer cannot cross the bar of the other ports. 
Thence to Quilimane and here I nearly ended my 
life by the following accidents. I went on shore to 
dinner and returned on board at 11 o'clock in a 
boat paddled by two negroes; it was ebb tide and 
the river was running down like a mill race, and 
the breakers on the bar were awful. Halfway bet- 
ween the shore and the ship hoth my paddles broke 
in two, and I was left helpless and drifting down 
rapidly to the bar. I hailed my own steamer, they 
did not hear me, and then I swept past the last 
steamer, the Union boat, and by jove I did hail 
her, nearly burst myself. They heard me and sang 
out they would lower a boat ; meantime I went 
merrily down the river and began to feel ver} 7 queer 
indeed. We pulled up planks from the bottom of 
the boat and paddled like blazes. At last the boat 
from the " Sanon " overtook us and precious glad 
I was to get into her, and then we had the devil 
of a pull up to my ship against the tide. Well, we 
got there, and, of course, I made the officer come 
up for a chink. Before having one I said I must 
take the sailors in the boat a couple of bottles of 
beer, so down the gang-way I went, a bottle of beer 
in each hand. Suddenly my foot slipped, head over- 
heels I went into the river. I went right down aud 
came up against the ship's bottom. Fortunately I 
kept my presence of mind and tried to catch hold 
of something as soon as I came to the surface, and 
fortunately managed to catch hold of the rudder 
and held on like a leech till they pulled me on 
hoard. After which I changed my clothes and took the 
men in the boat another two bottles of beer. A narrow 
squeeze, was it not ? Thence to Chinde where I was 
unlucky enough to miss an up-steamer by a day and 
have had to wait here for five days. However, I go 
up the river in a very nice boat. Chinde is a queer 
place built on a spit of land between the river 
and the sea. A considerable European population, 
apparently healthy enough — a very mixed community 
though. 
" I will write again from Blantyre. I have 
just seen some Blantyre coffee; it looks a 
good bean though rather small, its last rate 
was 112s and everyone says it is doing well up 
there." 
HOME TEA SALE RULES. 
When very recently discussing the onerous nature 
of the conditions imposed upon the sellers of 
tea in the London market, a contemporary would 
seein to have overlooked a fact made patent 
by the inquiries of our London Correspondent. 
No one contests that these conditions bear 
heavily upon those who send their tea to London 
for sale, or that they contrast unfavour- 
ably with the conditions observed with respect 
to our local sales. Put we are reminded in 
our last London Letter that the story is 
an old one, and that in this revival of it the 
saddle has been placed upon the wrong horse. 
It has been a mistake, it is now made evi- 
dent, to assi-n the buyers at the tea auctions 
as being the head and front of the offending. 
We .are further told that at the time this 
question was previously raised, a few years 
ago, the Ceylon Association in London, in con- 
cert, we believe, with the Indian Tea Associa- 
tion and other similar bodies, did its best to get 
the grievances complained of redressed. Those 
Associations found that the conditions were in- 
sisted upon by the home Customs authorities, who, 
in so acting, had not in view any benefit of a 
one-sided character to the buyers, though they 
appeased to follow that direction. The insistence 
upon the conditions was made solely to benefit 
and safeguard the collection of imperial re- 
venue. No change has occurred since the former 
representation was made on the subject. Both 
buyers and sellers are powerless to effect any 
change, however desirous they may be to do so. 
It will be within the recollection of most of our 
readers, that the gravamen of the offence then 
charged against the Customs authorities con- 
sisted in the system adopted for calculating the 
weight of tea. When the combined Associa- 
tions approached Her Majesty's Customs on this 
subject, they were met by a pointblank refusal 
to concede anything towards reducing the onus 
of the practice. Its officers insisted on their 
pound of flesh, and they kept it both then 
and ever since. It is this practice that gives 
rise to the complaints again lately made, and 
unless the Associations are prepared to go over 
the same ground again— oidy to meet, we sus- 
pect, with the same rebuff— it is useless to at- 
tempt to reopen the question. There is no 
doubt that these anomalies in practice are 
not to be justified. Nor can we hope 
for their removal, unless the House of 
Commons can be induced to move in the 
matter. And even if that could be done, 
we well know what the reply from the 
Finance Minister would be. It would simply run 
to the effect that any departure from estab- 
lished practice must result in a loss to the 
revenue. Undoubtedly, this contention may 
be correct ; while equally without doubt the 
House of Commons would accept it as com- 
pelling the retention of the system, however 
unjustifiable it may be. The whole method by 
which tea is weighed in London is one open 
to very strong complaint. t the same time it 
must be admitted that our planters have the 
remedy, to some extent, in their own hands. More 
universally careful weighing on the estates would 
probably deprive the Custom authorities at home 
of the ground upon which they justify presen 
practice. On the other hand, all we hear of'the Cus- 
toms and Dock Warehouses arrangements — of the 
"cruel " way in which our teas are often treated 
in the re-packing and of the sales of tea-sweep- 
ings— must surely make every tea planter in Ceylon 
and India an ardent supjwrter of Mr. J. Allan- 
son Picton or whoever next may take up the 
■motion for "« free breakfast table" in the House 
of Commons. What an impetus the abolition of 
the Customs duty would give to the tea trade ! 
ON THE IMPORTANCE OF 1'OTASH 
FOR TEA. . 
We give prominence to the following important 
letter from the well-known Agricultural Analyst, 
Mr. John Hughes, and direct the special atten- 
tion of planters to the significant lessons it 
conveys. Hitherto, the majority of our tea 
planters have been inclined to pooh-pooh the 
warning that they should look to their soils, 
and to the instruction which science can give 
them, before it is too late. But we can see 
that a change is coining over general opinion, 
