Oct. 1, 1900,] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
567 
AN INDIAN TEA CESS AND THE 
CEYLON TEA DUTY. 
It is very gratif jnng to us to see both the 
Indian and local press now so generally 
taking up subjects which, for a long time, 
we urged almost as one crying in the wil- 
derness. We refer to the need of pressing 
on the Indian Tea planters and also the 
Government, in season and out of season, 
the need for establishing a Cess E^und for 
advertising their tea in new countries, after 
the pattern set in Ceylon ; and secondly the 
need for abolishing the unwise, inequitable 
.ind anomalous import duty on tea 
in Ceylon. It is well-known that its 
existence has already cost Colombo much 
business not only in the handling of the 
teas of Travancore and other South Indian 
districts; but also in the manufacture of 
brick tea for Russia, during the recent 
crisis —an industry which, if once started, 
might have led to great and rapid develop- 
ments in regard to one of or.r most promising 
customers. The bugbear held up now .is 
ever, is that, if the duty be abolished, infeiior 
China and Java teas will come here to be 
blended with Ceylon. But can any tea im- 
ported be inferior to some that is already sold 
in the Colombo market ?— and why should 
a blending business be relegated to London, 
America, or the Colonies, if it can be done 
in Colombo ? No one can be so ignorant as 
to suppose that Ceylon tea will not still 
continue in Mincing Lane as elsewhere to 
be bought on its merits, or that any buyer 
or dealer can be deceived by manipulation 
or blending in Colombo. The cry for " Pure 
Ceylon" tea is of very little v.alue in these 
days when veritable rubbish is sold atColombo 
sales. There must now be the guarantee that 
it is "good" as well as " piire " tea and such 
guarantee can be as readily given when 
Colombo is a free port for tea, as at this 
moment. If the attention of the Viceroy, 
in Council is called to this Ceylon tea duty, 
its abolition will .assuredly be requested more 
forcibly than politely. Far better on every 
account, not to wait for such an invitation or 
request. 
A TEA CESS FOR INDIA. 
I have read with ninch interest your articles 
on a " Tea Cess for India." It is a groat satis- 
faction to us here in South India to find you 
nsin<T your jjowei fal influence witli the oliject of 
inducing the Indian Tea Association to make a 
.second appeal to the Government of India to 
place a small compulsory tax on the expoi tot tea. 
The feeling ot my own Association (and I helieve 
it is the same with otliers in South India, though 
I cannot speak witii authority for those Associa- 
tions) is, tliat a compulsory cess sliouhl long 
since have been imposed : that (he small contrilm- 
lion hitherto raised in India forlhe Foreign Market 
Fund is a blot on the spirit of enterprise and the 
dignity of the Indian tea planter, and that a tax 
on the same lines as tliat raised in Ceylc'u would 
not merely be no hardship, but would be re- 
funded to us over and over again by the certain 
increased consumption of ' oui produce. In addi- 
tion to this we down iiere, who are so near Ceylop 
and are so closely in touch with tiiose in the islands, 
feel very Intterly, that we are talking a mean 
advantage of the liberality and public spirit oi 
our brotiier planters across the water, and with 
very small cost to ouiselves are rea))ing what 
they h !ve sown. It is hopeless to expect the 
Indian Tea Association to move fuither in this 
matter, if they are going to wait for a "fair show 
of unanimity " from tiie Indian tea planters. That 
we shall never get. What we want is a good 
majority. I think you are wrong in stating that 
by "unanimous consent" the Ceylon "growers 
jiiaced the matter in the hands of their Govern- 
ment. Was it not because the growers were not 
unanimous, that an inlluential majority placed 
tlie matter in the hands of their Government? In 
all cornnnniities, particularly in those so large 
and so varietl as that of the tea planters, you will 
always find a certain proportion, on whom persua- 
i«ion ami argument are thrown away. In such 
oases the opinions and wishes of the f^reater and 
more infliiential nun)ber should be considered. 
Surely this is a social law ? I am glad to see from 
your issue of the Kith August, that those standing 
out from the present Fund in Northern India do 
not amount to more than .3,5 jier cent., and a part 
of those standing out would (I understand) not dis- 
app'ova of a couipulsory cess. Might not then 
the minority, which would be stiirsmaller were 
Southern India added to the poll, be disiegarded ? 
Granville L. Acworth. 
Feerniaad via Feriakulam, Sept. 1st, 1900. 
—Indian Gardening and Planting, Sept. 13. 
'"THE TALE OF A TUSKEK " 
is given in Macmillan's Magazine for Sept- 
ember in a paper signed " A. D. G-G." 
We make a few quot.rtions. The paper 
opens : — 
Most sliooting stories tell of success, of some good 
bag, or of the gain of a particular head ; for a 
chansre, here is a tale of defeat. Tnis is the account 
taken from my journal, of a longday after elephants, 
a most interesting and exciting day, to which I 
look back as among the very best of all my sporting 
time. Then I was a comparative novice at big game. 
The country was Ceylon, and the month January! 
For arms, I had a ^SO exjiress, while the big rifle (a 
ten-bore) was can-ietl by Hena, a Cingalese, who 
was an indilferent hunter, plucky enough, but quite 
ignorant of woodcraft. . . . "All at once Hena 
bent and peered into the foliage to the lefi, where I 
saw a few leaves gently shaking. " Alliah (an 
elephant)," he whispered, and then clutching my 
arm in his excitement, " Eta, eta, eta alliah (a 
tusker elephant), and suddenly I saw among the 
leaves a long and shining tusk. Without the 
slightest warning we had walked straight up to a 
tusker. Now in Ceylon tuskers are extremely rare, 
so rare that few sportsmen ever see one. I can 
think of half a dozen people who have shot one, bnfc 
I know nobody who can claim two. It was difficult 
to make the elephant ou.-i in the half-light of the 
dense cover, but he was not of great size, probably 
something over eight feet high. He w.as broad.-,id'e 
on, perfecciy motionless : and as I loaded andci.''k"il 
the ten-boie, more noiselessly than I had ever dom- 
before, as I crept caul lously towards the animal and 
paused when he n)ade a quiet pace forward, as I 
halted within ten yards to wait an ojiportunity to 
