Srit. I, 1900.] THE TROPICAL AG illCULTURIST. 157 
Mil. O'ONOU ON INDIAN TEA: 
PLANTERS AND THE CURRENCY. 
The Director-General of Statistics for the 
Indian Government is Mr, J. E. O'Conor, 
C.I E.,'and he follows up the Customs tables 
for the vear 1889-1900, with a fairly elabor- 
ate Report. We quote the portions 
referring to our staple, which are of general 
interest to our planting and mercantile 
community. It will be observed that Mr. 
O'Conor attributes the falling-off in the im- 
portation of (China and Ceylon) tea into 
India, to the disappearance of the re-export 
trade through Persia, and th;it this is due 
to the great efforts of Russia to place its 
overland trade with Eastern Asia, that is 
China, on a sound footing. For the moment 
this overland trade has undoubtedly met with 
a check, the full effects of which have not 
yet been realised. Turning to the Exports 
of Tea, Mr. O'Conor, as a loyal supporter 
of the Government and its Currency policy, 
has a stroup; deliverance against the critics, 
including Mr. R. H. Elliot, but more espe- 
cially directed against grumblers among the 
tea planters themselves, It will be well for 
Ceylon tea-planters, who still harp on the 
currency, to note what is said and how 
etfectivelv the case of Brazil is dragged in 
as an illustration of evils avoided. Be this 
example apposite or not, we have long been 
clear that the higher rupee stopped the 
rapid extension of tea planting, and so put 
a check on the (at present) one great and 
universally-admitted drawback to pros- 
perity in tea, namely overproduction. Do 
not the Ceylon planters, therefore, owe this 
much to the Indian Currency authorities as 
something to balance the other side of the 
accomit? We are pleased to see how well 
the average for the Calcutta Tea Sales has 
kept up for the past five years and that the 
direct export of Indian tea, to Australasia, 
United States and Canada, is increasing. 
Mr. O'Conor's remarks are as follows :— 
The importations of Tea have, as was antici- 
pated, again fallen away. As late as 1898-97 the 
importations amounted to as much as 7,875,000 lb.; 
in the following year, concurrently with Russian 
measures taken in view to the fostering of direct 
trade between Eastern Asia and Russia, the 
transit trade through Persia into Turkistan was 
placed under serious disabilities, and the imports 
of tea fell to 3,515,000 lb. In 1898-99 there was a 
very small recovery to 3,659,000 lb., but last year 
there was again a decline to .3,203,000 lb., a 
quantity considerably less than half the trade 
which existed until the new arrangements came 
into operation. The importations of China tea 
are less than a third of what they were four yen rs 
a^o, but besides this decline in China tea must 
be noted a great reduction in Ceylon tea to 
about half the imports of the preceding ycir. 
That is not to be regretted, so far as Ceylon tea 
was consumed in India, but with the reduction 
of the imports of Ceylon tea into India there has 
happened an increase in the direct imports of 
that tea into Russia, the arrangements referred 
to favouring the trade in that tea, as was observed 
in reviewing the trade in tea in 1898-99. 
Exports -.—Tea. — The .very large quantity of 175 
million pounds was shipped, an increase of 17§ 
million pounds, being at the rate of 11 per cent, 
on tiie shipments of 1898-99. In the seven years 
since the closure of the mints the exports have 
noreased by as much as 39 per cent; and al- 
20 
though prices have not be.eji able to maintain 
all along what owners of" tea estates would 
regard as a satisfactory level in tlie face of the 
constantly increasing quantities shipped from 
India and Ceylon to wliat is, after all, a limited 
market — yet the industry has happily not been 
overtaken by tlie ruin and d^olation which were 
so freely prophesied to be'^he consequence of 
placing the Indian currency system on a sound 
basis. Nor, happily, are there any indications 
tliat the industry is not likely to be even more 
solidly prosperous in the future than in the past. 
What a vicious currency system did in Brazil 
for coffee the unsound currency system of 
India was doing for tea. The temporary sti- 
mulus given by depreciated paper or depreciated 
silver led to rapid extensions of cultivation ; 
tlie increasing supply led to a fall in pria»s ; 
the fall in prices led to a demand for further 
depreciation in the currency, in order that the 
speculative planter might find from the tax- 
payers the profit which he could no longer find 
from consumers in an over-supplied market. In 
Brazil this vicious circle is still being travelled, 
and the issue can only be either the ruin of 
the planters, who are aghast at any suggestion 
for currency reform, or the complete and hope- 
less insolvency of the countrj\ In India this 
road has been closed, and the capitalist will now 
place his money in tea with exclusive reference 
to the conditions of cultivation and consumption 
and without an eye to a depreciating currency. 
It is by no means improbable that in the result 
the near future may see a gradual restoration 
of the price-level, already initiated durinp; the 
past year, to a level which will satisfy the 
producers and not restrict consumption. 
Prices in Calcutta (annas and pie per pound.) 
[We omit " Pekoe Fannings " and " Broken 
Souchong."— Ed. T.A.] 
Orange 
Broken 
Pekoe. 
1895- 96 . 
1896- 97 . 
1897- 98 . 
1898- 99 , 
1899- 1900, 
(& broken 
Orange) 
Pekoe. 
. 11 11 
. 9 111 
. 8 9f 
. 8 12-5 
7 9 1-10 
Pel&e 
Pekoe 
Sou- 
chong. 
5 11 
5 oh 
4 10| 
4 7' 
0 Oi 
Aver- 
age. 
9 7 3 4-7 
8 7S 6 9 9-10 
7 5 5-7 6 Of 
7 5 8 
6 9| 5 8| 
The exports of Indian tea to the United Kingdom 
amounted to 154,161,492 lb., being nine-tenths of 
the whole quantity exported. Some portion of 
the tea shipped to London is of course re- 
exported to other countries, but it is satisfactory 
to note an increase in direct shipments from 
India to markets outside the United Kingdom, 
especially to Australia, Canada, and the United 
States. 
CHEETAHS ON THE PROWL. 
A very handsome specimen, of the tiger tribe, 
v.'ss shoe just below the Hakcalla Gardens, ty 
a well-known native huntsman. The animal 
had been seen prowling about tlie previous day, 
and had taken away a dog belonging to liini said 
to be of value, so watch was kept in the neigh- 
bourhood of the animal's haunts, when in broad 
daylight the brute pounced upon a dog whicli 
happened to be passing a low tree overhanging a 
stream, when the huntsman fired, mortally wound- 
ing the cheetah, but not before his would-be quarry 
was slightly mauleil. The carcase was brough* 
to Nuwara Eliya where it found ready sale, Mr. 
Laidlaw, Agent of the National Bank, being the 
purchaser. The following were the dimensions ;— » 
Length 7 ft., height 3 ft."(7or. 
