THE 
Vol.  XII.  COLOMBO,  AUGUST  ist,  1892.  [No.  2. 
ME.  JOHN  FERGUSON’S  LETTERS  TO  THE 
“ FINANCIAL  NEWS.” 
E think  it  will  be  generally 
agreed  that  our  absent  bro- 
ther-editor has  rendered  good 
service  to  this  oolony  by  the 
letters  he  has  written  to 
one  of  the  leading  London 
financial  journals  on  the 
subject  of  our  island-grown  teas.  The  discussion 
which  gave  ocoasion  for  those  letters  being  written 
arose  in  some  degree  out  of  Sir  Andrew  Clark’s 
illjeonsidered  and  unjustifiable  remarks  with  respect 
to  the  qualities  of  Ohina  and  Indian  teas  respectively. 
We  have  before  dealt  with  the  topic  of  those 
remarks,  and  need  not  therefore  here  recapitulate 
our  arguments  previously  expressed  in  refutation 
of  the  absurd  calumny  passed  by  Sir  Andrew  on 
the  teas  of  India,  with  which  he  no  doubt  intended 
to  class— although  not  specifically  named  by  him 
— those  of  this  island.  Mr.  John  Ferguson,  however, 
has  taken  the  occasion  of  this  discussion  to  place 
on  reoord  in  the  oolumns  of  the  London  press  a 
series  of  facts  with  regard  to  our  teas  far  more 
oomplete  and  important  in  their  scope  than 
any  which  have  heretofore  been  submitted  for 
the  consideration  of  the  home  public.  Space 
must  prevent  us  from  reviewing  the  letters  at 
length ; but  we  believe  that  after  perusing 
them  all  of  our  readers  will  agree  in  the  verdict 
we  have  passed  upon  them.  A more  efficient 
oounterblast  to  Sir  Andrew  Clark’s  ill-advised 
strictures  could  hardly  bs  imagined  than  is  afforded 
by  those  letters.  One  would  have  thought,  after 
the  numerous  contributions  to  the.  literature  of 
Ceylon  tea  whioh  have  been  made,  that  it  would 
have  been  found  impossible  to  find  anything  to 
write  or  say  anything  respecting  it  which  could 
exoite  the  interest  of  home  readers,  but  Mr.  John 
Ferguson  has  oertainly  proved  such  an  apprehension 
to  be  an  ill-founded  one.  We  doubt  exceedingly 
if  the  leading  statistics  of  our  tea  industry  and  the 
history  of  its  inoeption  and  growth  have  ever  been 
put  in  a dearer  or  more  intelligible  form  before 
the  public  at  home  than  in  these  letters  by  our 
absent  oo-editor;  and  we  should  imagine  that  the 
figures  quoted  by  him  as  to  the  successive  annual 
yields  upon  the  celebrated  Mariawatte  plantation 
Will  likely  to  cause  the  mouths  of  many  of  our 
Indian  fellow-planters  to  water  exceedingly.  We 
need  not  here  notioe  the  remarks  in  the  letters 
dealing  with  the  question  of  possible  continuity 
to  the  tea  planting  industry  in  Ceylon ; for  we 
have  but  reoently  offered  remarks  upon  the 
same  subjeot.  More  important  as  affeoting 
the'  judgment  of  tea  dealers  in  England  are  Mr.  John 
Ferguson’s  observations  upon  the  multifariousness 
of  the  advice  tendered  to  our  planters  by  home 
critios  of  our  procedure.  With  this  subject 
the  letters  deal  at  some  length,  and  they 
show  how  almost  impossible  it  has  been  for  our 
planters  to  be  on  all  oooasions  guided  by  suoh 
advice,  especially  in  the  matter  of  coarse  and  fine 
plucking.  No  doubt  the  writer  while  at  home  has 
heard  muoh  said  deprecatory  of  the  stability  of  tea 
cultivation  in  Ceylon.  In  plaoing  before  the  public 
the  reasons  why  there  is  but  little  reason  to  dread 
a deoadence  of  this  stability  Mr.  John  Ferguson 
has  done  yeoman’s  service  to  this  colony,  because, 
while  reports  inimical  to  that  anticipation  remain 
uncontradioted  and  in  free  circulation,  they  must 
tend  to  disincline  investors  from  ooming  forward 
as  freely  as  they  otherwise  would  do  to  stimulate 
our  looal  enterprize  by  liberally  subsidizing  towards 
the  capital  of  the  Companies  whioh  are  almost 
daily  started  to  carry  on  and  extend  the  planting 
and  cultivation  of  tea  in  this  colony,  No  one  has 
given  fuller  consideration  to  all  the  questions  which 
affect  this  cultivation  than  has  Mr.  John  Fer- 
guson, and  we  feel  sure  that  every  reader  of  his 
letters  will  recognize  this  fact  in  every  sentence 
of  them. 
FROM  THE  METROPOLIS. 
27th  May  1892. 
THE  CEYLON  TEA  DISCUSSION. 
The  long  letter  I addressed  by  request  to  the 
Editor  of  the  Financial  News — a paper,  I am 
assured,  with  the  largest  circulation  of  its  olass — 
and  whioh  was  forwarded  to  you  by  last  mail, 
was  followed  by  another  in  the  issue  of  May 
23rd.  This  you  will  also  want  to  reproduce  as 
under  : — 
THE  TEA  INDUSTRY. 
CEYLON  AND  INDIAN  V.  CHINA  TEAS  FROM  THE 
PLANTER’S  POINT  OF  VIEW. 
To  the  Editor  of  The  Financial  News. 
Sir, — Notwithstanding  all  the  information  circulated 
during  the  past  seven  years,  very  erroneous  ideas 
appear  to  prevail  still  in  certain  quarters  in  England 
in  reference  to  the  quality  and  merits  of  Indian, 
and  especially  Ceylon,  as  contrasted  with  China, 
teas.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  Sir  Andrew 
Clark’s  hasty,  ill-considered  remarks  in  his  address 
to  the  London  Hospital  students  in  October  last 
