April  i,  1893.]  THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
639 
BRITISH  RAILWAY  RATES  AND  TEA. 
We  must  all  reoolleot  how  actively  a few  years 
back  a crusade  was  preached  against  the  severity 
and  inequality  of  the  rates  charged  by  the  Railway 
Companies  at  home  upon  divers  articles.  So 
Btrong  and  persistent — and  in  many  cases,  no  doubt, 
so  just — were  the  complaints  made,  that  a Special 
Commission  was  appointed  to  inquire  into  the 
whole  question,  and  very  reoently  its  decisions  have 
been  made  known  to  the  home  publio.  It  cannot 
be  said  that  these  have  given  satisfaction.  So 
far  from  having  accomplished  this,  it  is  now 
alleged  that  in  many  departments  the  new  rates 
have  illustrated  the  old  adage  of  having  “leapt 
from  the  frying  pan  into  he  fire.”  More  es- 
pecially is  it  complained  that  the  revised  rates 
bear  with  undue  and  exceptional  weight  upon  the 
agricultural  industries  of  England,  the  extra  burthen 
imposed  amounting,  it  is  said,  to  in  some  cases 
as  much  as  several  pounds  per  acre  annually. 
However,  the  matter  has  appeared  hitherto  to  be 
one  with  which  we  in  Ceylon  had  nothing  to  do. 
The  new  rates,  it  was  supposed,  would  not  affeot 
any  of  our  industries  ; but  it  would  appear  from  the 
intelligence  conveyed  to  us  by  our  London  Cor- 
respondent in  his  last  letter,  that  the  tea  planters 
of  Ceylon  may  turn  out  to  be  very  seriously 
affeoted  by  the  new  rates  imposed.  These  rates,  as 
regards  the  carriage  of  tea  by  railway,  must 
have  been  very  seriously  raised  to  have  evoked  the 
action  proposed  by  the  London  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce. This  body,  whioh  watches  so  carefully 
over  the  interests  of  all  trades  within  the  United 
Kingdom,  appears  to  entertain  the  fear  lest  the 
oharges  now  to  be  made  for  the  inland  carriage 
of  tea  will  place  a very  undue  burthen  upon  the 
grocery  trace,  that  whioh  is,  of  course,  the  main 
and  final  distributant  of  our  own  staple  product. 
We,  in  Ceylon,  cannot  afford  to  lightly  regard  any- 
thing which  injuriously  affeots  this  particular 
trade.  It  is  perfectly  well-known  that,  owing  to 
excessive  competition  in  that  trade,  the  margin  of 
profits  upon  teas— except  in  very  particular  cases 
and  as  regard  speoial  qualities— that  is  left  for  the 
retailer  is  very  narrow  indeed.  It  may  sound  well 
to  say  that  the  retailer  invariably  almost  sells  tea 
at  from  fourpenoeto  sixpence  per  pound  in  advance 
of  the  oost  at  which  he  obtains  it,  but  it  has  to  be 
remembered  that  rent,  rates,  taxes,  and  general 
business  expenses  have  to  be  deduoted  from  that 
amount  before  any  return  remains  to  the  trader 
on  which  he  and  his  family  can  depend  for 
maintenance.  We  doubt  very  much  if  the  ab- 
solutely net  profit  exceeds  l£d  to  2d  per  pound 
when  all  Buch  deductions  are  made.  Hitherto 
the  oost  of  the  inland  carriage  of  tea,  even 
to  the  most  remote  towns  of  Great  Britain,  has 
been  so  small  as  to  enable  the  trader  to  reap  a 
fair  profit.  But  this,  it  would  seem,  is,  under 
the  revised  rates  to  be  altogether  altered,  and 
it  is  natural  therefore  that  the  grocery  trade 
throughout  the  kingdom  should  feel  the  pinoh 
and  is  justified  in  its  complaints  that,  should 
it  be  compelled  to  raise  retail  prices,  a oheck 
must  ensue  to  that  increasing  growth  of  the 
consumption  of  tea  that  has  been  such  an 
important  feature  of  the  last  few  years  within  the 
United  Kingdom.  Here  in  Ceylon  even,  we  have 
felt  how  imperative  has  been  the  demand  for  some 
reduction  in  the  cost  of  oarriage  by  the  railway  of 
the  staple  product  of  our  estates.  The  produoer  feels 
the  weight  of  this  oharge  alike  with  the  retailer, 
and  to  enable  our  planters  to  obtain  a return 
upon  their  industry,  it  has  been  decided  to  afford 
them  relief  in  this  direction,  This  is  identical 
with  what  the  grooers  at  home  now  seek  from 
the  several  Railway  Companies  to  whioh  they  entrust 
the  oarriage  of  their  tea.  We  can  only  hope  that 
in  the  endeavor  to  obtain  this  reduction,  they 
may  be  successful.  If  the  retailers  are  hampered 
as  to  the  profitable  distribution  of  tea,  it  is  oertain 
that  the  tea  planters  of  Ceylon  must  feel  the  result 
in  no  insensible  degree. 
■» 
THE  COCONUT  PALM  INDUSTRY  IN  CEYLON. 
We  oall  special  attention  to  the  long  and  instruc- 
tive letter  in  another  oolumn,  of  our  Correspondent 
“ W.  J.,”  well-known  as  one  of  the  soundest  and 
most  experienced  authorities  in  the  island  on  the 
subject  of  Cooonut  cultivation.  His  opinion  added 
to  that  of  Mr.  W B.  Lamont  and  Mr.  W.  H. 
Wright  as  to  the  great  benefit  and  profit  accruing 
from  manuring,  is  deoisive.  But,  of  course,  it  is 
taken  for  granted  that  the  soil  is  worth  working 
up  in  this  way  and  capable  of  responding  and 
that  the  planting  was  fairly  carried  out  in  the  first 
instance.  There  is  a vast  extent  of  native  gardens 
where  the  first  operation  towards  good  culture  ought 
to  be  a thinning  out  of  trees.  It  is  extraordinary 
how  Sinhalese  villagers  even  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  Colombo,  cling  to  the  idea  that  the  more  palms 
or  other  fruit-trees  they  oan  crowd  into  their 
acre,  half  or  quarter  aore,  the  better  off  they  are 
as  proprietors  1 Between  Colombo  and  Panadure 
the  value  of  the  Cooonut  cultivation,  omitting  a 
few  exceptional  plots,  would  be  vastly  improved 
if  Government  passed  a law  which  would  enable 
them  to  send  out,  say  the  present  intelligent 
Mudaliyar  of  the  Colombo  Kachoheri  with  power 
to  pull  out  or  out  down  all  superfluous  or  sickly- 
dying  palms  and  to  show  the  people  the  proper 
distance  at  which  they  ought  to  cultivate  and  the 
great  benefit  that  would  aocrue  to  them  from 
a little— even  a very  little — regular  cultiva- 
tion, the  burying  of  rubbish  round  the  roots 
and  the  clearing  of  the  tops  of  the  trees. 
Indeed,  if  eaoh  District  Mudaliyar  were  em- 
powered to  offer  two  or  three  prizes  annually 
for  the  best  kept  oooonut  gardens,  good  might 
result. 
We  have  said  there  are  exceptions  on  the 
seaside  between  this  and  Panadure  to  the  ordinary 
state  of  “hugger-mugger"  in  whioh  most  native 
gardens  are  left.  One  of  the  most  notable  is  the 
ten-acre  piece  of  ooconuts  belonging  to  Mr.  de 
Soysa  and  leased  to  the  Galkissa  Peaoe  Officer, 
opposite  the  Mount  Lavinia  Hotel.  This  is  one 
of  the  best  bearing,  as  it  is  one  of  the  beet  culti- 
vated, plots  of  coconuts  in  the  island.  If  we 
mistake  not,  it  was  planted  under  the  personal 
supervision  of  the  Rev.  J.  G.  Maovioar,  Scottish 
Chaplain  at  Colombo,  between  forty  and  fifty  years 
ago.  Mr  Maovicar  had  bought  the  Mount  Lavinia 
residence  from  the  Government  for  “ a mere  song” 
— (the  sale  of  the  satinwood  doors  and  windows 
repaying  most  of  the  purchase  money) — and  the 
piece  of  land  opposite  must  have  been  included, 
or  separately  bought  or  leased.  At  any  rate  Mr. 
Macvicar,  who  was  a great  agriculturist  as  well  as 
an  eminent  scholar,  had  it  most  carefully  planted 
with  cooonuts,  seeing  that  the  nuts  seleoted  were 
large  ripe  ones  (a  most  important  matter)  and 
that  the  holes  for  the  young  plants  were  of  a 
proper  size.  The  result,  as  we  have  said,  is  seen  in 
some  of  the  finest  trees  in  the  island,  and  crops  which 
have  averaged  for  a long  time  we  are  creditably 
informed  about  4,000  nuts  per  aore.  That  should 
be  close  on  60  nuts  per  tree  and  a very  good  return 
it  must  be  considered.  Beyond  Panadure  and 
towards  Kalutara  especially,  the  coconut  palms  are 
devoted  not  to  nut-growing,  but  to  toddy-yielding, 
and  therefore,  apparently,  it  is  not  considered  of 
so  muoh  importance  to  have  the  trees  at  the  usual 
distance  apart. 
