Feb  i,  1893.]  THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST.  529 
FREE  POLICY  TEA  COMPANY,  LIMITED. 
Registered  by  T.  T.  Hull,  22,  OhaDcery-lane,  W.  0., 
with  a capital  of  £20,000  in  £1  shares.  Object,  to 
adopt  and  carry  into  effect  an  agreement,  made 
November  25,  between  John  Carty  of  the  one  part 
and  James  H.  Marsh,  on  behalf  of  this  company,  of 
the  other  part;  generally,  to  carry  on  business  as  tea 
and  colonial  produce  merchants  in  all  its  branches. 
There  shall  not  be  less  then  three  nor  more  than 
B6ren  directors  The  first  are  E.  W.  Humphreys,  A. 
G.  Goodwin,  tnd  J.  Pritchard.  Qualification,  £100. 
Remuneration,  50  guineas  each  per  annum. — financial 
News,  Dec.  15,  1892. 
up  the  last  etatistics  from  that  island.  These  show 
that  of  the  6,428, 137ib.  of  cinchona  exported  from 
Ceylon  between  January  1st  and  Ootober  24th  1892, 
London  received  4,839,306  lb.,  New  York  62,079  lb, 
Amsterdam  59,240  lb.,  and  Antwerp  462,450  lb.  The 
insignificant  remainder  weDt  to  France  ond  Australia. 
If  we  credit  Messrs.  Bohrii  ger  & Sons  with  the 
whole  of  the  shipments  made  to  Amsterdam  and 
Antwerp,  their  direct  share  of  the  Ceylon  shipments 
this  year  amounts  to  just  over  per  cent.—  Chemist 
and  Druggist,  Dec.  10th,  1892. 
TEA  IN  MELBOURNE. 
*. 
THE  MANNHEIM  QUININE  FACTORY  AND  ? 
THE  JAVA  CINCHONA  PLANTERS. 
A general  meeting  of  the  Java  Planters’  Associa 
tion  (“Soekaboemische  Landbouw  Vereenigicg”)  w*6 
held  at  Soekaboemi,  Java,  on  Ootober  14th  last.  On 
that  ocoasion  one  of  the  members  (Mr.  A.  Massink), 
a oincbona-planter,  read  to  the  meeting  a letter 
dated  June  30th  1892,  received  by  him  from  Messrs. 
F.  O.  Bohringer  & sons,  of  Mannheim,  of  which  the 
following  is  a translation  : — 
"Since  many  years  we  do  an  important  business 
with  Colombo,  as  we  buy  a very  large  part  of  the 
cinchona  bark  whioh  is  brought  to  market  there. 
For  this  purpose  a friendly  firm  in  Colombo  has  in- 
stalled an  analytical  laboratory,  to  be  able  to  analyse 
personally,  and  on  the  spot,  the  barks  which  are 
offered. 
‘•The  constant  increase  of  our  purchases  in  Colombo 
appears  to  us  to  prove  that  the  majority  of  the  cin- 
cbona-planters  regard  the  sale  of  their  produce  in 
Colombo  as  more  advantageous  than  its  shipment 
to  London.  As  the  Ceylon  planters,  by  selling  in 
Colombo,  obtain  approximately  the  same  price,  with 
the  addition  of  the  freight,  as  they  do  when  their 
barks  are  sold  in  London,  they  have  the  very  import- 
ant advantage  of  saving  the  heavy  sale  expenses  in 
London,  and  of  receiving  cash  for  the  bark  sold  im- 
mediately after  shipment. 
“ We  estimate  that  our  direct  purchases  in  Colombo 
have  for  some  time  amounted  to  one-half  of  the 
entire  output.  We  now  propose  to  establish  an 
analytical  laboratory  in  Java,  in  order  to  be  able  to 
effect  direct  purchases  in  that  island  also.  But  be- 
fore taking  further  steps  in  this  matter,  we  are 
anxious  to  put  to  some  of  the  largest  plantation 
owners  in  Java  the  questions  whether  they  are  pre- 
pared to  support  our  intention,  and  whether  we  may 
count  upon  being  able  to  buy  in  Java  cinchona  bark 
from  their  plantations.  We  address  these  questions 
to  you  among  others  acd  you  will  much  oblige  us 
by  having  the  courtesy  to  send  us  your  esteemed 
answer  as  early  as  possible.  ’ 
The  President  of  the  Assoeiafion  commented  in  a 
somewhat  unfavourable  manner  upon  Messrs.  Bob- 
ringer’s  letter.  He  said  that  during  his  visit  to 
Colombo  in  1886  his  factory  did  purchase  fairly  large 
quantities  of  bark  in  the  manner  described.  There 
was,  at  that  time,  a very  serious  crisis  in  the  bark 
industry,  consequent  upon  the  appearance  of  cancer, 
and  many  of  the  planters  weie  financially  in  the 
hands  of  Moorish  money-lenders.  Messrs.  Bohringer 
were  in  business  relation  with  most,  if  not  all,  of 
these  people,  acd  purohased  almost  all  the  produce 
at  their  own  analysis.  In  1887  Mr.  Bohringer  travel- 
led in  Java,  and  on  that  occasion  he  concluded  some 
transactions  with  planters  there;  but  the  President 
had  not  heard  that  aDy  fnr'her  business  had  resulted. 
The  Secretary  advised  all  the  planters  strongly  not 
to  sell  any  ot  their  bark  outside  the  ordinary  sources 
but  to  consign  the  whole  of  it  to  Amsterdam. 
It  may  be  remembered  that  formerly  the  Bruns- 
wick Quinine  Factory  bought  directly  in  Java, 
though  upon  a different  basis  from  that  suggested 
by  Messrs.  Bohringer  & Sohne.  As  we  were  anxious 
to  ascertain  the  effect  of  the  large  purchases  of 
bark  in  Colombo,  of  which  the  latter  speaks  upon 
the  distribution  of  exports  from  CeyIoos  wo  looksd 
The  tea  market  has  been  quiet,  Our  special  cable 
correspondence  from  Foocbow  reports  the  Bailing  on 
18th  inst.,  of  the  "Cbing'u,”  She  will,  we  believe,  call 
at  Hongkong,  and  will  probably  not  arrive  here 
until  the  end  of  January.  She  brings  principally 
common  to  medium,  300,0001b  being  destined  for 
Sydney,  and  1,000.0001b  for  Melbourne.  The  market 
is  practically  closed  with  a total  export  to  the  colo- 
nies of  14, 000,0001b.  This  is  not  tco  large  a supply. 
A provisional  summary  of  the  shipments  to  the  colonies 
for  the  present  season  are  as  follows  :— 
Lb. 
China  tea  (June  to  December)  ...  ...  14,000,000 
Indian  tea  (May  to  October)  2,400,000 
Ceylon  tea  (May  to  November)  3,500,000 
19,900,000 
The  consumption  cf  the  colonies  is  25,000,0001b  to 
26, COO, 0001b  annually. 
The  custom  house  statement  of  receipts  and  deliveries 
of  tea  at  the  bonds  last  week,  together  with  the 
stocks  in  bonds  at  the  close  of  the  week,  is  as 
follows  : — 
Deliveries. 
Receipts 
into 
For 
Home 
Coneump-  For 
Stocks 
on 
Bond. 
tioD. 
Export. 
Dec.l7. 
Lb. 
Lb. 
Lb. 
Lb. 
China 
...  1,900 
13\467 
96,619 
4.315,705 
Indian 
30  921 
122,644 
448,682a 
Ceylon 
...  17,699 
7,705 
26,291 
227,5386 
Totals  , 
...  19,599 
169,093 
245,564 
4,991,925 
a Not  including  shipments  ex 
"Goalpara.” 
"Rome,”  and  a fitnall 
6 Not  including  shipments  ex 
portion  of  the  shipments  ex  “ Woolloomooloo.” 
— Melbourne  Argus,  Dee.  21,  1892. 
ZANZIBAR  AND  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURES 
A valuable  report  on  the  agricultural  condition  and 
prospects  of  Zanzibar  has  been  sent  home  by  Sir 
Gerald  Portal,  and  is  published  by  the  Foreign  Office. 
The  author,  Mr.  Fitzgerald,  is  a specialist  on  tropical 
agriculture,  and  is  now  in  the  employment  of  the 
British  Bast  Africa  Company.  The  marked  similarity 
between  Zanzibar  and  the  leading  West  Indian  islands 
— notably  Trinidad  and  Jamaica— in  the  matter  of 
soil,  temperature,  and  rainfall  is,  ho  points  out,  un- 
doubtedly a very  important  matter,  inasmuch  as  the 
principal  tropical  products  can  with  certainty  b 
introduced.  He  deals  with  the  labour  question, 
suggesting  the  importation  of  Indian  coolies  ; 
but  the  real  difficulty,  he  tells  us,  lies  elsewhere. 
Will  the  Zanzibar  landowners,  he  asks,  now  that 
slavery  is  doomed,  face  the  altered  state  of  affairs  ? 
“ Abler  judges  than  himself,”  says  Mr.  Fitzgerald, 
“ reply  distinctly  iu  the  negative  ; and  it  is  certainly 
a fact  that  many  of  the  larger  estates  are  heavily 
encumbered  and  entirely  in  the  hands  of  Indian 
traders  and  merchants.”  The  factor  required  is 
European  enterprise,  and  the  sooner  this  can  be 
more  largely  attracted  the  quicker  will  development 
commence.  He  suggests  that  the  Government  should 
make  known  the  fertility  of  the  country,  and  he 
