4 34 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Jam. r, 1895. 
for Honolulu on the 15th instant. Needless to say 
I was very glad to see our good friend once more, 
and found him looking very "fit" indeed. He h&a 
had a very successful trip through Europe, visiting the 
Exhibition at Antwerp. He has done a large business 
this trir>, especially in Canada, and has also done well 
in the States and Halifax. In many cases he found 
it very hard to compete with London prices (and this 
somewhat surprised me) which were cut so low, as in 
some instances to prevent profitable business being 
done, but being here to push and sell his teas, he 
has done so in very large quantities, and is well 
pleased with the results of his trip so far. 
ADVERTISING. 
Mr. Webster said that had he had some assistance 
in advertising Ceylon Teas, he could, without doubt, 
have placed ten times the quantity sold at least ; but 
that without some such help it was almost impossible 
to do so, and he did not feel justified in himself spend- 
ing a lot of money for the sole benefit of Ceylon. 
He quite agreed with me in stating that a large 
sum of money expended in general advertising in the 
large daily Papers of this country, would be com. 
paratively wasted ; but the same sum, or a smaller 
amount, judiciously spent in attractive advertise- 
ments and short descriptive articles, in the leading 
weekly and monthly journals, papers and magazines, 
the Home Journals, would be money well spent. He 
had a large bundle of such journals, selected for 
him by the leading advertisement agency in the 
county, and some such scheme will be the most ad- 
visable to follow, when the decision has to be 
arrived at, as to what papers are to be selected for 
advertising in. In fcfaiB tremendously busy cmd hurried 
country, the large dailies go to the ojfices and the 
news, money and stock articles, investments, and 
politics are hurriedly read by the men and the paper 
thrown aside. The other class of papers referred to, 
reach the homes, and are read leisurely by the ladies 
of the family, and our article Tea is altogether in 
their line. Curiously enough Mr. Webster mentioned 
to me that some of the largest and be3t grocery 
Stores had offered space in their stores to have our 
teas served by Natives, provided the latter were sent 
over for the purpose by the Planters of Ceylon, and 
Mr. Webster is convinced from what he has observed, 
that this mode of bringing forward our teas is one of 
the best, if not the best. The Americans like novelty, 
they also like to see the real thing, and are cute 
enough to know, that if we take the trouble to send 
over Natives at great expense, to advertise our teas, 
We must be in earnest, and have a good article to 
Bell. It is a telling coincidence that away down 
south', 500 miles from here, I should have had the 
same experience on this subject, as Mr. Webster had 
in New York, Chicago and the East generally. 
I forgot to mention, when writing of the im- 
proved tea chest required for this market, that 
the one of which I hope to send full particulars in 
my next, does away with the necessity of lead lining, 
and is the coming Tea chest, I perhaps should men- 
tion that I have no interest whatsoever in this pack- 
age, but simply write about it for the benefit of my 
brother-planters, and because it will be thoroughly 
acceptable to the tea trade here, which the present 
tea chests are not. It is the tea chest of the future. 
I noticed that Mr. Webster sported a tie of the 
Mounted Infantry colors which look very well. 
Mr. Webster informed me that he had several visits 
from Mr. Foster, but the latter's attempts to borrow 
money from him were unsuccessful. The head waiter 
who was in Mr. Poster's eating-place for a month, 
spoke to me one day in Los Angeles, and said he had 
left Mr. Poster's employ, as had not been paid a cent 
all the the time he worked for him! Simon, the re- 
maining Sinhalese, is returning to Ceylon shortly, he 
informed me the other day, in the presence of Mr. Web- 
ster, and I am glad such is the case, as the place is no 
credit to Ceylon. I was informed it is likely to close 
up soon, and Mr. Schrieber, in whose Candy store 
the eating-place is, has a claim on everything in it ! 
In a store on Market Street, I saw some Ceylon 
teas for sale, from the bulk, priced from 50 cts, to 
^5 cts, per lb. I was much disappointed with the 
appearance of these teas, they were rather coarse, 
and only a few dull grey tips were visible in the 
highest priced grade. A good wiry tippy Broken 
Pekoe is the standard grade for this market ; with 
Pekoe and Pekoe Souchong for lower prices. The 
best value I have seen in the States, w is in Detroit, 
Michigan, where such a Broken Pekoe as I refer 
to, was being retailed at 60 cents per lb. (It probably 
cost 27 or 28 cents, landed in the store.) The manager 
of the Market Street store said he Would let me have 
any of the teas at 10 rents, per lb. reduction on parcels 
of 5 lb. This is equal to 5 pence stg. reduction ! 
Mr. Webster, along with myself greatly deplored 
the delay in deciding what is to be done to carry 
on permanently the campaign in America. 
I do not suppose anything will be done for six or 
eight months yet, to carry out the suggcsiions of the 
Report to be submitted by the two Delegates, to the 
Committee of 80." This long delay is most injurious 
to our interests, and much to be regretted. 
India has now been in the field for months, 
and leading houses who may have made their 
arrangements with India's Representative, will not 
be so keen to enter into .similar arrangement* 
a year or tiro later, with another party, whose teas 
greatly resemble those of Iudia. This point should 
not be lost sight of, and I would suggest that the 
Delegates be asked to send iu a short preliminary 
Report, embodying such information as they may 
gain, early in their investigation, and which may re- 
quire some considerable time to act upon. In this 
way, some valuable tima might be saved, and detailt 
coald be worked out and agreed upon later. 
While iu Los Augelos I met a Mr. Roberts, an old 
Ceylon planter, and we had a long yarn about 
Dikoya, Bogawantalawa, Maskeliya, and Dimbula men, 
but many names mentioned by him were, alas! gone. 
As this letter should reach you about Chrisimas I 
will conclude by wishing you all the oompliments 
of the season and a Happy and prosperous New 
Year. Those are trite words, but the wish is sincere, 
I assure you. 
I notice a lot of lovely China for sale in stores here, 
but since the war began, would it not be more ap- 
propriate to call it Japaned China. 
Next Christmas I will think of the memorable one 
I spent with my friend Wales in M.di^imi. — Yours 
ever, " T. A C." 
VARIOUS PLANTING NOTES. 
Limited Companies and Sale of Property. 
— We feel sure that the detailed lists we pub- 
lisli elsewhere will have been scanned with 
very great interest. We have attempted to make up 
the totals and the results arrived at are as follows : — 
Value of Fropertij Sold in lb'94- 
House Property . . R 658,000 & £ 2,250 
Estate „ . . R2,278,480 <fe £229,868 
R2,936,4S0 & £232,118 
Limited Companies Formed in 1894- 
Capital .. .. R3,950,000 
Paid up (say) . . . . R3,000,0J0 
Coconut Planting in New Guinea (and 
Ceylon). — It is stated in the North Borneo 
Herald that the District Officers in British New 
Guinea have the power "to enforce coconut 
planting by the natives." This is equivalent to 
the old " Kajakariya" of Ceylon ; but we suppose 
it is exercised in N ew Guinea for the good of the 
people themselves — that is, that the palms they 
plant are to be their own property, subject per- 
haps to a small tax or rent to Government after 
they come into bearing ? — We should like to see 
power given to District Officers in Ceylon to compel 
the natives to keep their coconut and fruit gar- 
dens clean — if only to clean them up twice a 
year at inspection time ; and also power to pre- 
vent their growing palms or other fruit-trees too 
closely together, 
