554 
[Fkb. i, 1895. 
use ; but the high price of these rich, pungent sorts 
ie prohibitory to their use in the tace ot com- 
parative cheapness, as pushed and advertised 
at low prices everywhere, although the same money's 
worth of the finer article is quite as econon ii al, 
giving care in the preparation, and vafltlj bettel all 
round in the using. The quantity of tea now pro- 
duced in our own Grown colonies is simply enormous, 
but ti e bulk of it is of the lower graae of quality. 
Owing to the difficulty of curing by manipulation ol 
the human hand, machinery has to be resorted to 
1 — an unavoidable necessity at present, as sufficient 
native labour is not on the spot, if it had the apti- 
tude for the work ; and a machine is found, unfor- 
tunately, to destroy the finer traits of tea, its native 
fragrance, and its exhilarating properties. An un- 
expected development may come out ot the war in the 
East, and if John-Chinaman should betake himself to 
our tea gardens, under the British Crown, he would do 
a tine thing for himself, and also for ourselves. — Wm. 
Gbeen. — JbJcho, Jan. 17. 
TEA WORKERS COMl'LAl N ; 
BUT INQUIRY OF TI1E EMPLOYERS YIELDS QUITE 
ANOTHER STORY. 
Trouble in the tea trade is the note sounded in a 
lot of letters which reach Tht Star Office. The latest 
refers to the Terra Bona Tea Company, whose offices 
are in the Minories. It was declared over a number 
of signatures that the hours were 5C£ a week and 
the wages for girls averaging 18 years of age 5s a 
week. It was also alleged that the boys had all 
struck work owing to an increase in the number 
of hours to be worked. A Star man who called on 
the firm was afforded the fullest possible opportunity 
to examine the wages book. From his inspection he 
gathered that the wages ranged from one at 5s to 
a large number at 7s., Ss and its and a fair pro- 
portion ranging from 10s to 20s and 25s. 
AS TO THE HOURS, 
there does appear to have been a nominal increase. 
The head of the firm explained that Factory In- 
spector Arbuckle had pointed out to him that the 
Act entitled him to work his boys and girls from 
eight to eight, providing proper hours were allowed 
for meals. The employers thereupon gave notice 
that the hours would be altered from eight to seven, 
to those allowed by the Act. It was explained, 
though, that the workers would be allowed off at 
seven as usual in slack times, and that if 
they were done at six any time they could leave 
then. The employers, it should be added, keep the 
employees out of the hands of the money-lenders by 
advances without interest, and that they gave them 
an extra week's wages all round at Christmas. — Star, 

jfeiv. rmv il .-biifc.i urov ni noting. vm | 
TEA AND CAFFEINE. 
(From a correspondent. J 
London, Jan. 18. 
I have nothing further I can tell you about Tea 
dust sales. The members of the committee who are 
the dealers have been so busy with their Christmas 
and New Year arrangements with tea, and partly 
' owing to the rise in price, that they have not fol- 
lowed the matter up much further. It does seem a 
remarkable thing, after the facts have been published 
and it is well known here amongst the tea producers 
that these tea sweepings in London warehouses are 
allowed to be sold here after being sent to Hamburg 
to be cleaned, that some of them do not move in 
the matter. It is not improbable that the matter 
will be brought before the Government when Par- 
liament opens and the question asked whether they 
have been parties to this deception, and if it is not likely 
to be detrimental to the tea trade of India. We 
are still buying Indian tea in the market for turning 
into Caffeine. 
jj^MflpJ lot aoaici- ..Jiff ufoa.i. (J iw 4 | 
INDIAN TEA AND LAN< ASH1KK 
COTTON. 
The following letter wa* published in the J inu t 
of January 15th : — 
Sir, — In the Times of today. Mr. Kowe presents 
me with a dilemma, and challenges me to solve it. 
He asks me what my attitude is towards the heavy 
duties levied upon Indian and Ceylon tea bj this 
country, and he infers that if I am prepared "to de- 
fend them my letter is illogical. 
I am not prepared to defend them. To me they 
are absolutely aosurd. To levy an import duty upon 
articles which cannot in any way be grown or made 
in this country, which do not compete in any way 
with the products of this country, and which have 
become not a luxury but a necessity of us all, is to 
me the ne j/lus ultra of indefensible finance. 
If We must levy customs in order to distribute 
taxation as much as possible uver all classes, let it 
be as much as possible upon those articles the uianu 
facture of which abroad displace., English labour'. 
To the consumer it is indifferent which of the 
articles he buys is taxed. To the producer it is 
everything that the tax shall be levied so as to 
exclude the competition of the foreign workuiau. 
To levy a tax upon tea merely makes tea dearer 
to the consumer ; to levy a tax upon silk manufac- 
turers may, no doubt, make silk dearer to the con- 
sumer, but it will have the corresponding advantage 
of increasing the wage fund of this country. If we 
must tax a necessity of life let the English farmer 
have the benefit of it. W e cannot grow tea here, 
I have never seen any rational answer to this, 
which is a very real dilemma to the Free-trader. 
Mr. Kowe may ask me to justify my opinion by 
my vote. I am quite prepared to do that if necessary, 
but the vote must not have a unilateral effect. 
I am not like the cultivators of the anti-opium 
religion, who would sacrifice a great source of revenue 
before a corresponding source is proposed. I prefer 
an indefensible tax to bankruptcy. 
If the present Chancellor of the Exchequer, who 
is not averse to popularity, will free our breakfast 
table and draw an equivalent revenue from the taxation 
of articles which now flood this country from abroad, 
and which might be made here, I will vote with all 
my heart for his proposal, which will be both rational 
and popular. Meanwhile, Mr. Kowe will see that 
my withers are unwrung. — Yours respectfully, 
Carlton Club, Jan. 10. Henry H. Ho worth, 
— Q. Mail. 
THE TRADE IN KOLA. 
Last summer the United States Government in- 
structed its Consuls at Bathurst, Goree-Dakar, Mouro- 
via, and Sierra Leone on the \\ est Loast of Africa, 
at Mozambique and Zanzibar 011 the East 
Coast, and at Tamatave in Madagascar to collect 
information on the cultivation of the kola-tree and 
the trade in its seed. As might have been expected, 
the Consuls in Madagascar and Zanzibar report that 
the kola-nut does not grow Ln their districts, and 
is not imported there. No reports from the other 
representatives who have been written to have yet 
been published, with the exception of one by Mr. 
Pooley, the Consul at Sierra Leone. According to 
that gentleman the kola-fruit grows in pods con- 
taining from three to eight seeds. 'When full the 
pod changes from a green to a red-brownish colour. 
The seeds when collected, are laid by for a few 
days to allow the skin to soften, that it may be 
easily removed by washing. The seeds are exported 
fresh and dry. To keep them fresh care should 
be taken that they are properly washed with clean 
fresh water, not a particle of the decayed skin being 
allowed to remain on. After the water has drained 
the seeds are put into a cane basket, inlaid with 
a broad leaf from a plant of the natural order 
JIahaceoe, peculiarly adapted to keep the nuts fresh 
for a considerable time — say, three months and more 
— and to keep away worms, which are yery destruc- 
tive to the seeds. After the removal of the skis 
