624 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Maich i, 1895. 
no duty. I know from c xreiience, it quiiy and ob- 
Btrvalion. that 9 men out of 10 cat £0 days out of 
a hundred, import d lice. And do nut the Sinhalese 
labonrers on t a estates do the same? The more 
regular they are at work on estates ihe less time 
they have to devote to their fields; the more they 
earn on estates, th j larger their consumption of 
rice, salt, curry-stuffs, cotton goods and o her duti- 
able; articles — be the r °ervic ■ on account e tates or 
on tea estates. The ', M'. Sk ine m*y rave ab ut 
the Hailw<y being an engine of taxation. Ii it is, 
it is one of the Planters' ow m nufacture; an i 
my coconuts, I usked, or u huske desiccated o- sun- 
dried, whether as oilor poonac, wh Uer for export 
or for upountiy nurseri s, areas inexorably taxed 
as Mr. Skrine's tea; but, curiou ly, both he 
and I prefer to pay the tax to the evasion 
of it by paying cart hire! More cu ious still 
scores and hundreds of coc nut proprietor' in the 
north and east i f the I- land are clamouring for 
this en itie of taxation and c >n ider themselves ag- 
grieved by the d* lay in c ashing them by its means! 
It is difficu't to understand how men of more than 
average intelligence could write and speak as reck- 
lessly as some peop e do about the immunity of 
coconuts from taxation, i n I in forgetfuluess ot the 
fact 'hat, th'ou^h arrack, coconuts contribute over 
two million rupees a year to the public exchequer, 
or over one-tenth of the gross annual revenue. If the 
coconut planter is more lightly clad, as Mr. David- 
son suggests, than the tea planter, it is I fancy a 
matter of choice ; and luxuries have to be paid for by 
those who affect them ; but I have no reason to be- 
lieve that native tea planters, of the class Mr. David- 
son evidently has in view, arc free from his reprohch 
— " that they eat rice, do not require many clothes, 
and need not pay anything"! Fancy not paying 
anything! Fancy, too, coconuts paying better than 
tea [and why not coffee ?] and " Colonists never 
having made the discovery till Mr. Davidson spoke ! 
When I met Mr. Skriue once and had a very in- 
teresting talk with him, I did not notice that his 
tailor's bill was extravagantly beyond mine; and 
when may coconuts pay as well as doss his tea, I 
may be "tempted to keep abreast of him in contribu- 
tions to the revenue through the consumption of 
luxures. 
I quite see that the true and sound basis of all tax- 
ation should be income, and I do not shrink from the 
payment of my dues, either through an income tax or 
a general land tax — coconuts and tea being both justly 
assefs^d ; but I think neither tea planter nor coco- 
nut planter — nor for the matter of that the Crown — will 
be benefited by more expensive and less distasteful 
methods of taxition than obtain at present ; nor have 
I any sympathy with those who talk at random and 
thoi ght'essly about coconuts escaping all taxation. 
In conclusion, I do not know whether it is in proof 
of 1 is absolute belief in the correctness of his theory 
th t osonut proprietors are directly benefited by 
ths en'ianced duty on kerosene, or of his abounding 
con"d mce in their open-handed and self -effacing genero- 
sity t tat Mr. Skrine has solicited the aid of the 
Nat'oaal Association. Most of its members are 
largely interested in coconuts! May I express 
the hope that, when they ungrudgingly give all the 
he.p they can towards the reduction of the Kerosene 
Oil Duty, they will at the same time expose the 
groundlessness of the statement that coconuts are 
free from taxation, — truly yours, 
" A COCONUT GENTLEMAN." 
[With the abolition of the internal Paddy tax 
should come as a matter of equal daaling and justice, 
the abolition of the Import duty on rice, and then, 
apart from the saving through Retrenchment, any 
deficiency could be made up by moderate ad valorem 
export duties on all produce leaving the island, until 
sttc'i time as a scientific General Land Tax be intro- 
duced here as in India. To this complexion it must 
come at last, and we do not see that the planters 
or natives of Southern India are much troubled by 
such a tax. As regards coconut and kjrosene oils, the 
higher the import duty on the latter, the stronger 
undoubtedly the position of the former, and the more 
it is protected. — Ed. T.A.~\ 
THE DAYIDSi iN-M \<;l'M!K TEA-PACKER. 
Df.ar Silt, — In reply to your correspondent's " a 
Planter's " enquiries regarding the Davidson- 
Maguire Patent Tea Packer, we shall be much obliged 
if you will allow us to give him the following parti- 
culars through the medium of your valuable journal. 
This machine was only introduced to the market 
two months ago, and during that short time we have 
booked more orders than we can execute lor the 
next three months. The machine has been thoroughly 
tested in London (at St. Olave's Warehouse;, iii 
Calcutta and also at our workshops in Colombo and 
Henfold Estate. Ceylon, all these tests being carried 
out in the presence of the foremost "Tea " men in 
each of the cities and districts. 
We may quote the results of the various tests as 
follows : — 
1st. More tea by 8 to 8£ per cent, was got into the 
chest than could be done" by hand. 
•2nd. This was effected without the slightest break- 
age of the leaf. 
3rd. The machine packed from 15 to 20 large chestt. 
per hour, which means a considerable saving in tunc 
4th. Owing to the peculiar vibration imparled to 
the chest the small leaf or dust was not separated 
from the coarse, and an equal sample was therefore 
maintained throughout the chest. 
;">th. The machine packs so evenly that in dealing 
with properly bulked tea of one grade chests ot 
equal sizes always contain exactly the same weight 
of tea. The tare being thus kept" equal throughout 
the break the necessity for re bulking in London is 
obviated, 
We may quote further the following statement 
of the saving effected by the use of one of these packers. 
The statement was handed to us by the Superintendent 
of an estate in Ceylon where our packer has been in 
use for the past six weeks. 
" Estimated saving on my crop of 200,000 lb. made 
tea. The average saving in bulk packed I find is about 
7 per cent, as compared with hand packing, so that 
I save altogether 140 chests iu my total out put. 
140 chests with lead, hoop iron, nails 
&c, including transport charges to Co- 
lombo say KH-25 per chest . . . . R455 00 
Freight to London ipaid on measurement) 
savesay 14 tons at R30 .. .. 425 00 
Saving in Coolie Labour I estimate at . . 145 00 
R 1,020 00 
So that during the season I expect to save about 
Rl.000 by using the machine."' 
As the machine costs about R700 we consider the 
above results very satisfactory. 
The proprietor of another estate in Ceylon writes 
that his "London Brokers repoit most favourably 
on the tea packed by the machine." 
This improvement in the quality of the tea on its 
arival on London is not only due to the size, and ap- 
pearanee being undamaged in the packing process, 
but is owing to the flavour being better preserved 
from the leaf being so much more closely packed 
together and consequent better exclusion of" the air. 
We will be happy to give your correspondent any 
further particulars he may require. — We remain, 
j-ours faithfully, 
' DAVIDSON & Co.. 
H. M. Haeris, Manager. 
JACKSON'S TEA ROLLERS :— A QUERY. 
Sir, — Can any of your numerous readers say why 
a piece of rope is very frequently attached to the 
handle which screws up weights of Jackson's "Eco- 
nomic" and "Little Giant" rollers? I have noticed 
it in many factories, and a-n inclined to think it is 
an idea of Rama Samy's, and tends towards 
WEAK LIQUOIt. 
[We learn from the Colombo Iron Works thit 
"the rope is used to fix wheal in a position an! is 
tried on to bow or bridge whi;h car. i:s screjv of 
rolling cap, thus preventing the wheel turning on its 
own account." — Ed. T.A.] 
