June  i,  1893.] 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
783 
and  passengers  at  rates  very  considerably  below  those 
which  the  autocrats  of  “the  city”  thought  they 
were  able  to  fix  immutably. 
That  this  could  be  done  without  a subsidy  is  clear 
from  what  the  Chairman  of  the  1 P.  & O.’  has  put 
down  in  his  handbook  page  58,  “ without  the  mail 
contract  the  capital  of  the  Company  would  have 
much  greater  earning  power.” 
The  E.  I.  S.  N.  Company,  which  has  no  share  in 
the  homeward  mail  subsidy,  has  paid  12  per  cent  to 
shares  are  at  100  per  cent  premium:  much  of  this 
revenue  has  been  derived  from  freight  on  planter’s 
produce. 
To  Australia,  China,  etc.,  several  indepen- 
dent lines  compete  with  the  1 P.  & O.'  London 
to  Brisbane  and  back  is  26,000  milts;  London  to 
Bombay  and  back  is  12,550  miles;  the  fares  by  -P. 
& O.  are  nearly  the  same,  but  the  Australian,  is 
carried  13,500  miles  further  for  almost  nothing  more  1 
Comment  is  needless  ; the  old  stalking  horse  of  a 
‘ slack  pas:euger  season:’  cannot  be  urged  in  com- 
paring Bombay  with  Brisbane  passengers  ; nor  have 
we  touched  on  the  speed  and  class  of  boats  on  the 
Australian  and  Indian  run,  respectively ; some  of  the 
latter  are  entering  their  22nd  year,  and  the  Indian 
mail  subsidy  is  very  heavy.  It  will  be  some  time 
before  the  new  contract  falls  in,  which  builders 
should  look  to. 
The  Committee  which  planters  and  passengers  in 
India  formed  were  at  first  ignorant  of  the  wide 
ramifications  of  the  shipping  combination , and  met  with 
much  opposition  ; however,  it  plodded  on  determined 
then,  as  it  is  now,  to  succeed  in  the  end,  and 
finding  that  the  matter  was  one  which  could  not 
te  concluded  by  correspondence  from  India,  3 of  our 
working  members  went  to  Europe  taking  with  them 
lists  of  some  3,500  supporters,  which  with  ladies, 
children  and  servants  represented  some  5,000  adult 
1st  class  fares,  who  were  all  pledged  to  support  an 
independent  line  which  would  come  to  our  aid  in 
breaking  down  an  unfair  monopoly. 
I may  fairly  state  the  principle  of  the  movement 
had  the  sympathy  of  H.  E.  the  Commander- 
in-Chief  in  India,  and  the  support  of  H.  E.  the 
Commander-in-Chief  of  Bombay  who  did  not  approve 
Of  officers  travelling  2nd  class  by  sea,  where  they 
are  brought  frequently  into  the  close  contact  of 
board  ship  life  with  warrant  and  N.  C.  O.’s,  privates 
etc,,  not  to  mention  valets  and  ladies-maids.  Nob- 
lesse oblige,  and  the  position  of  an  officer  should  carry 
certain  responsibilities  as  to  upholding  it. 
The  lists  which  were  taken  home  included  10 
Generals  commanding  in  India  or  heads  of  depart- 
ments, Commissioners,  Judges  of  the  High  Court, 
members  of  the  Secretariats,  Editors,  Bankers,  Pri- 
vate Secretaries,  Colonels  commanding  corps,  with 
some  500  field  officers  and  leading  members  of  the 
Indian  Civil  Service,  as  well  as  every  individual 
officer  in  many  corps ; but  the  chief  strength  of  the 
movement  lay  in  the  fact  that  numerous  tea,  indigo 
and  coffee  Planters,  Merchants,  Contractors,  Ex- 
porters and  Importers  who  has  registered  their  names 
and  pledged  their  support  and  influence. 
What  passengers,  or  any  one  class  of  planters 
could  not  accomplish  singly,  becomes  an  easy  task 
when  all  defensively  co-operate  for  their  mutual 
good  : our  strength  lies  in  union,  and  is  a modern 
application  of  the  old  story  ; the  faggot  and  the  bundle 
of  sticks,  and  shipowners  at  home  clearly  saw  this. 
The  idea  was  that  the  Shipping  Line  which  should 
take  up  the  business  would  extend  its  Board  of 
Directors  to  admit  selected  l epresentatives  from 
each  of  the  various  industries  named  above ; and  fur- 
ther that  it  should  create  a new  class  of  shares, 
(value  £5  each,  (to  be  within  reach  of  the  smallest 
income,)  so  that  those  who  would  invest  in  them, 
and  who  shipped  or  travelled  by  the  line,  would 
receive  back  part  of  their  payments,  as  dividends; 
instead  of  some  10  per  cent  going  into  English 
shareholders’  pockets,  who  do  nothing  to  support 
the  Companies  which  form  the  present  “ Con- 
ference,” and  many  do  not  even  know  to  what 
ports  the  steamers  trade.  It  was  partly  owing  to 
the  advocacy  of  our  friends,  and  coming  to  the  sup- 
port qf  the  official  community  in  India,  that  an 
old  established  co-operative  store  opened  branches 
out  here ; the  business  has  prospered  wonderfully, 
having  done  some  £120,000  sterling  its  second  year 
in  India,  and  caused  a reduction  in  prices  all 
round,  as  well  as  a fall  of  100  per  cent  in  the 
shares  of  certain  old-established  shops,  which 
do  not  recognise  the  co-operative  system,  The 
same  would  happen  in  shipping  shares : what 
this  purely  official  co-operative  society  has 
effected  could  be  far  more  easily  and  profitably  done 
by  a mutual  combination  among  passengers,  shippers 
and  planters,  and  with  much  more  profit  to  the  two 
latter  classes.  A case  in  point  is  the  steady  growth 
of  the  China  Mutual  Shippers  Co. 
Of  course  all  old  established  interests  would  be  respec- 
ted, as  far  as  was  compatible  with  taking  care  of 
number  1 ; but  with  exchange  where  it  is,  and 
keen  competition  on  the  increase,,  each  of  us 
should  strive  to  see  where  our  own  best  interests  lie, 
and  to  work  out  our  own  emancipation,  independent 
of  all  monopolies;  and  even  of  Associations  where 
these  evince  too  much  partiality  for  the  latter. 
As  the  Tailor  said : “We  don’t  come  out  here  for  our 
health’s  sake:”  we  spend  during  our  service  in  the 
East  some  £400  per  family  and  servants  in  steamer 
fares  on  an  average,  and  our  wives  and  children  at  aDy 
rate,  deserve  better  than  the  mixed  company  in  the 
second  saloon  of  u steamer ; but  dow,  with  this  com- 
bined rise  in  fares  and  crop  in  exchange,  many 
cannot  afford  more,  and  separations  must  be  for  longer 
perioriB  until  we  have  a line  running  in  our  own  in- 
terests, and  controlled  by  our  leading  shippers. 
The  result  of  the  negotiations  at  Home  was  that  a 
provisional  arrangement  was  entered  into  with  certain 
independent  shipowners,  when  what  we  anticipated 
would  happen  occurred  [of  course  our  opponents 
will  say  it  was  a pure  coincidence].  Just  as  the  Com- 
pany was  about  to  commence  operations,  two  lines 
withdiew  from  the  “ Conference  ” : passenger  fares 
fell  25,  and  tea  freights  dropped  about  iOO  per  cent ! 
We  pointed  out,  in  the  Pioneer,  Indian  Planters' 
Gazette,  etc.,  that  this  was  only  a temporary  move- 
ment. However,  it  was  very  profitable  to  shippers  and 
travellers  while  it  lasted:  still,  it  had  the  effect  of 
delaying  our  project  for  an  Indian  Cooperation 
Steamship  Company,  which  had  to  remain  in  abey- 
ance until  February  of  this  year,  when  tue 
‘ Conference  ’ again  formed  themselves  into  a happy 
family,  to  “ take  tea”  with  the  planter  and  passenger, 
in  the  old  sweet  way ; only  more  so,  rates  being 
raised.  Our  friends  at  home  again  took  up  the 
matter,  and  suggestions  were  made  to  the  Indian 
Tea  Associations,  as  well  as  to  independent  planters, 
merchants  and  shippers.  In  many  cases  these  were 
well  received,  especially  when  it  became  known  that 
the  proposed  mutual  or  cooperative  line  would  have 
power  to  advance  money  to  shippers  at  moderate 
rates,  so  as  to  give  them  a free  hand  in  making 
shipments. 
But  lo  1 another  peculiar  coincidence  occurred,  the 
conference  again  climbed  down,  and  has  made  a 
minimum  offer  of  35s  per  ton  for  tea — Which  is  in 
excess  of  our  friends’  proposals.  It  is  probable  that 
this  proposal  will  be  rushed  through,  but  there  are 
also  numerous  strong  indications  that  many  will 
adopt  an  independent  attitude,  and  will  bear  in 
mind  that  for  the  last  number  of  years  they  have 
been  unduly  mulcted  by  the  action  of  the  union. 
To  accept  these  terms,  for  a period  of  three  years 
only  (after  which  cates  might  be  put  up  to  50s) 
should  be  detrimental  to  planters’  best  interests, 
which  would  seem  to  lie  in  shipping  by  the  cheapest 
and  selling  in  the  dearest  marhet.  Shippers  have 
been  patient  long  enough  if  it  pays  the  “ con- 
ference ” to  carry  tea  now  and  for  the  next  three 
years,  at  30s,  planters  might  claim  a very  large 
rebate  on  the  50s  freights  they  have  been  regularly 
paying,  for  years  back  ; moreover,  they  are  entitled 
to  representation  on  the  Boards  of  Direction,  and  to 
be  allowed  to  participate,  as  shareholders,  in  the 
profits  their  shipments  enable  steamer  lines  to 
declare : their  share  is  the  shell  of  the  (Jeylon 
oyster.  It  is  as  well  never  to  forget  that  the 
i present  concessions  seem  only  wrung  from  thq 
