276 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
[Oct.  r,  1892. 
to  oauee  a good  deal  of  personal  inconvenience,  and 
often  hardship.  If  they  be  superfluous,  the 
vexatiousness  to  individuals  has  no  compensation. 
The  absence  recently  of  any  clear  demand  for  modifica- 
tions arises  from  the  thoroughness  with  which  relief 
to  the  subjeot  has  already  been  granted.  For  a succes- 
sion of  Administrations  the  Tariff  has  been  submitted 
to  the  severest  inspection,  for  the  discovery  of  imposts 
which  trouble  consumers  without  material  advantage 
to  the  State.  Gradually  one  after  another  has 
been  eliminated  till  virtually  none  remain  which  the 
Treasury,  in  the  absence  of  some  sudden  new  breeze 
of  prosperity  oould  relinquish  in  whole  or  part. 
There  are  but  three  main  sources  of  Customs 
revenue  left.  Tobacco  yielded  last  year  in  duties 
£10,135,666  being  more  than  half  of  the  entire 
amount.  Tea  gave  £3,424,830  and  spirits,  foreign 
and  colonial,  £4,642,638.  Thus  less  than  two 
millions  sterling  have  to  be  put  to  the  account  of 
all  the  other  items  still  contained  in  the  British 
Tariff.  The  only  appreciable  benefit  to  consumers 
which  could  be  derived  from  further  conces- 
sions in  Customs  must  come  if  at  all  from 
additional  curtailments,  or  from  the  total  aboli- 
tion, of  the  duties  on  spirits,  tea,  and  tobacco. 
At  present  it  is  evident  that  the  State  needs  the 
money.  If  it  surrendered  a portion  or  all  of  the 
income  it  raises  from  them,  or  one  of  *hem  it  would 
have  to  recoup  itself  elsewhere.  On  a review  of 
possible  heads  of  taxation  it  is  difficult  to  see  how 
it  could  equitably  ohoose  a substitute  without  fla- 
grant violation  of  the  principle  that  all  classes  of  a 
community  are  bound  to  aid  in  the  pecuniary 
support  of  their  Government  and  institutions. 
Unless  by  the  payment  of  duties  on  the  tobaeoo 
they  smoke,  and  the  tea  and  spirits  they  drink,  the 
masses  of  the  people  contribute  nothing  from  their 
pockets.  They  ought  to  contribute ; and  it  is  not  easy 
to  peroeive  how  their  quota  oould  be  more  equitably 
assessed  than  by  the  actual  distribution  of  the  load 
over  the  heads  we  have  named.  For  the  general 
good  of  the  nation,  and,  in  particular,  of  the  con- 
sumers themselves,  it  might  be  wished  that  the 
smokers  and  imbibers  of  strong  liquors  should 
consent  to  a transfer  of  the  value  of  the  duties  on 
tea  and  analogous  imports  to  the  articles  they 
favour.  The  impediment  to  the  realization  of  that 
agreeable  and  remote  prospect  is  that,  should  it 
ever  be  attained,  it  would  only  be  through  the  ac- 
ceptance by  the  self-denying  patrons  of  alcohol  and 
smoke  of  tea  instead,  which  must  leave  the  Exche- 
quer as  muoh  at  a loss  as  before  for  an  alternative 
to  its  present  millions  from  the  tea  drinkers. 
The  Commissioners  do  not  profess  to  have  curious 
01  remarkable  incidents  to  relate  of  the  past  year. 
Still.no  Customs  report  can  be  without  subjects,  of 
interest-  It  is  a mirror  at  once  of  the  world  outside 
and  of  the  national  life.  A olimatio  disturbance 
in  Asia  Minor  a twelvemonth  ago  was  felt  in 
English  kitohens  in  the  shape  of  a dearth  of 
sultanas.  A more  even  temperature  there  has  now 
replenished  the  supply.  Though  the  Exoise  has  ( 
gained  by  an  inorease  of  home-made  spirit,  the  1 
Oustom-house  sympathizes  not  the  less  with  the  ■ 
sufferers  by  the  famine  in  Russia,  which  has  1 
intercepted  for  human  food  the  usual  imports  of  j 
oheap  alcohol  distilled  from  surplus  grain.  Similarly  1 
the  Department  has  to  lament  the  irruption  of  i 
phylloxera  into  the  Marne  heightening  the  price 
of  champagne  and  lessening  the  duty-paying  im- 
ports. Of  domestic  phenomena  reflected  in  the 
Oustoms  statistics  the  chief  are  connected  with 
tobaeoo  and  tea.  The  gross  revenue  from  tobacco, 
whioh  was  never  so  high,  exceeds  that  for  the  year 
before  by  £417,882  and  1890-1  had  itself  outstripped 
1889-90  by  £503,157.  The  Commissioners  are  informed 
by  experts  that  the  receipts  would  have  been  yet 
more  had  not  influenza  checked  consumption  in 
the  last  months  of  the  financial  year.  For  anti- 
tobacconists the  results  are  even  more  dismal 
than  the  figures  suggest.  According  to  the  Com- 
missioners, who  speak  in  a congratulatory  tone, 
(he  increased  revenue  has  been  drawn  mainly  from 
Western  Amerioan  tobacco.  Being  drier,  it  is 
smoked  faster ; so  that  more  leaf  is  consumed, 
and  less  water.  In  tea  the  most  observable  phe- 
nomenon of  the  twelvemonth  has  been  the  rapid 
rise  in  the  imports  from  Ceylon.  It  is  forty-eight 
per  cent,  the  increase  being  gained  at  the  expense 
alike  of  Indian  tea  and  of  Chinese.  For  the 
first  time  Ceylon  tea  has  exceeded  China  tea  in 
quantity.  Year  by  year  China  tea  declines,  and 
it  is  impossible  to  say  where  (he  decadence  will  stop. 
To  a certain  extent  China  planters  and  merchants 
might  arrest  the  tendency  by  more  oare  in  cultivation, 
preparation  of  the  leaf,  and  attention  to  European 
tastes.  In  general,  though  the  best  Chinese  will 
always  please  delicate  palates,  the  India  and  Ceylon 
kinds  are  certain  to  predominate  popularly  on 
account  of  their  strength.  To  tea  altogether, 
whatever  the  particular  sort,  the  supremacy  among 
non-alcoholic  beverages  is  at  all  events  destined. 
Onoe  upon  a time  it  would  have  appeared  absurd  to 
dispute  the  asoendenoy  of  coffee ; and  for 
generations  the  confliot  between  it  and  tea  pro- 
ceeded on  even  terms.  There  is  no  sort  of 
rivalry  any  longer  ; and  the  admirers  of  the  elder 
beverage  will  not  attempt  to  pretend  to  equality 
for  it.  They  are  at  least  entitled  to  remark 
with  surprise  as  well  as  concern  the  periodical 
symptoms  in  successive  Customs  reports  that 
it  has  not  yet  reached  the  bottom  in  its  fall. 
For  1890  1 there  was  an  increase  in  the  re- 
ceipt, which  inspired  a hope  of  a rally.  The 
Commissioners  were  sceptical  of  a revival;  and 
they  have  proved  to  be  oorreot.  Last  year  the 
revenue  fell  from  £185,906  to  £181,287.  That  is 
only  double  the  receipt  from  cocoa,  and  but  three 
times  that  from  chicory.  Perhaps  the  juxtaposition 
of  the  figures  for  chicory  may  help  to  explain  the 
extraordinary  disrepute  of  a beverage  in  some 
respects  unequalled-  The  one  real  explaua'ion  is 
that  the  preparation  of  tea  is  among  the  easiest 
of  oulinary  processes,  and  that  ooffee,  though  any- 
body might  acquire  the  art  needs  intelligence. 
That,  however,  is  a matter  about  whioh  Commis- 
sioners of  Customs  have  no  sensibility.  They  belray 
a little  human  feeling  for  cocoa,  which  they 
express  some  confidence,  will  become,  when  better 
known  for  its  wholesome  nutriciousness,  a more 
valuable  miloh  cow  to  them  than  it  has  hitherto 
been.  Coffee  they  dismiss  as  useless  for  any  pur- 
poses of  revenue.  It  is  a sombre  point  in  a docu- 
ment whioh  otherwise  contains  not  a few  pleasant 
features, ---London  Times,  Aug.  17. 
THE  AMSTERDAM  CINCHONA  SALES. 
( Telegram  from  our  Correspondent.) 
Amsterdam,  Thursday  night. 
Of  about  5,100  packages  Java  cinchona  offered  here 
today,  3,274  packages  sold  (the  rest  being  held  for  too 
high  limits)  at  6|c.  (=  l§d  per  lb .),  a price  which  very 
nearly  corresponds  with  that  obtained  at  the  London 
auctions  of  this  week.  The  following  prices  were 
paid:  Manufacturing  barks,  in  quills,  broken  quills, 
and  chips,  from  8c.  to  174c.  (=  ljd  to  2s  lid  per  lb.); 
ditto  root,  from  lBc.  to  35c.  (=  3jd  to  65S  per  lb.). 
Druggists’  barks,  in  quills,  broken  quills,  and  chips, 
from  5c.  to  35c.  (=  Id  to  6|d  per  lb.)  ; and  ditto  root 
13c.  to  19c.  (=  ljd  to  3$d  per  lb.).  The  principal 
buyers  were  the  Brunswick  works,  the  Auer'  ach  works, 
aud  the  Amsterdam  factory. — Chemist  ami  Druggist, 
Aug.  26. 
