May 1, 1901.1 THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
751 
TEA IN PEERMAD, TllAVANCORE : 
GREEN TEA MANUBACTURE AND 
RESULTS. 
Mr. Drummond Deane has always sovue 
practical suggestion to make, as well as 
useful information to give, when he puts 
his pen to paper. Under date of 2J:th 
March, he writes of his Peermaad district 
(elevation 3,600 feet) :— 
Pldcei here in beaiin<r average well over 450 lb 
per acre and some up t.) 600 lb per acre and I take 
it the average cost /.o.5. does not exceed 20 cents 
in tliis district and they are good highgrown teas. 
If you mm upPeerrn;iad teas sold in Colombo some 
ten years a^o you will find very fair averages, com- 
paring with Ceylon, for Knduwa Karuani, Bon 
Ami, Ptn.hur-it, Mount Glenniary, 
" I wonder when we shall l^^gin to hear result of 
sales of gi een teas in Ameiica : why do not we see 
the prices quoted for te;is like Brunswick, Moray, 
Darrawella, etc ? If they are fairly good it would 
stimulate the ni.inufacbiire and they cannot be very 
had or timse estates would not continue making. 
I think the '30 Committee ' should when payinar 
the bounty on green tea insist on having copies of all 
sales sent them." 
We commend the closing hint to the 
consideration of the '* Thirty Committee.'' 
^ . 
JAVA CINCHONA BARK. 
Cinchona planters in Java have thrown off the 
yoke of a German ring of dealers, who had com- 
bined to keep the price of bark down for the en- 
riciiment of quinine manufacturers. They have 
started a quinine factory of their own at Bandong 
in .lava, ixnd arranged to sell their quinine ab 
Batavia by auction. The German monopolists 
have threatened to start a rival quinine 
factory in Java. A German quinine manu- 
facturing 111 ni intends to carry the war into the 
enemy's country in a different way. It proposes 
to sell quinine pills in Java,— that is, quinine 
prepared for direct consumption,— at a price cor- 
responiiing with that of P. mdong quinine at the 
Batavi.i, fiui'iioiis. The firm will certainly suffer 
loss by tlii:*, but the Bandong factory will have 
also to st(rp the making of quinine pills, and will 
thus lose a main source of piuRt.— Straits Times, 
Maich 19. 
WESTRALIAN ROYALTY ON GUANO. 
The Minister for Lands recently received 
an application from Messrs. Broadhurst, 
M'Neil, and Co., who are associated with 
the guano trade, asking that the Govern- 
ment should remove the royalty on guano 
exported to the eastern States to the extent 
of 10s per ton on live and 8s. 6d. per ton 
on dead. They maintain that, now that the 
States are federated, the embargo should be 
abolished The Government was asked to 
consider the application, and the decision 
that was arrived at was that, as the amounts 
levied were not - regarded in the light of an 
export tax, but simjily a royalty for the 
removal of certain matter from Crown lands, 
it was not possible to accede to their request. 
—P. M. Herald, March 15. 
95 
THE CHAIRMAN OF THE INDIAN TEA 
ASSOCIATION ON THE PROPOSED 
TEA CESS. 
{To the Editor of " Planting Opinion") 
Dear Sir, - I notice that in your issue of 9ih 
March you perpetuated an error made in report- 
ing by a Calcutta Daily papei ; and in doing so 
you not only put into Mr. Toppintc's mouth what 
1 said, but you niidke me out an opponent in con- 
junction with Sir Patrick Playfair of the pro- 
posed tea cess. Instead of "Mr. H S Ashton 
and Sir Patrick Playfair have spoken," yon should 
read " Mr. II S Ashton said Sir Patrick Playfair 
has spoken" and so on. 
Inasmuch as I have, just been elected Chairman 
of the I T A, it is perhaps advisable that it should 
be clearly understood that 1 strongly approve of 
the proposed cess. The proposal has been made 
as an alternative to the present method of 
obtaining voluntary subscriptions for advertising 
purposes, which for seven yeais has resulted in 
an annual collection of about a lakh. In 1893 
this sum might be considered respectable, but I 
think I am justified in saying that the failure 
to increase subscriptions as the output of tea 
has increased damns the voluntary system as 
inefficient, and justifies a resort to other methods 
if new markets are to be thoroughly exploited by 
Indian tea. Of course there are proprietors who 
deny the value of advertisement by other than 
private enterprise, and their influence may be 
sufficient to block the way, but it is also quite 
certain that there are a number who are willing 
to share the cost of exploiting new markets, 
and who do not now subscribe, if provision is 
made to protect them against subscribing more 
than their shares. Tlie cess will meet their views, 
whilst I think it must be pretty obvious thao 
those who have for years been doing more 
than their share will get tired of the present 
system, because, if for no other reason, "it is so 
difficult to tax and please" and tliere is just as 
little pleasure in the process whether you impose 
the tax yourself or nob. 
There appears to be another body of people in- 
terested wlio approve of all the exploiting that 
can be done, and who suggest far more ex- 
pensive sihenies than any yet abtenipted. At 
the same time they deprecate the intervention 
of Government, who, they seem to fear, would 
keep the tax on when the object for which it 
was imposed ceased to exist or, in other words, 
would divert, ab some timeorobher, bo bheir own 
uses, funds specially here marked. In view of 
blie proved efficacy of bhe Ceylon system and in 
view of the practical failure of the Indian volun- 
tary system, I would ask such people whether it 
i-! worth while opposing the tax because they hold 
the theory that bhe Governmenb of India is shame- 
less, for that is what their argument amounts 
to. Sir Patrick Playfair's suggestion is to dis- 
tribute over 5 million lb. of tea (3 per cent of the 
crop) this year in India, and he thinks the 
cosb of administration may be covered by 
sales, bub not any part of the value of the 
tea. I thoroughly approve of someihing of 
the kind being done, but after seven years' experi- 
ence on the I.T.A. Committee, during which the 
diffi(!ulty of obtaining money has been in constant 
evid<-nee, and the crippling eflects upon all oper- 
ations of the uncertainty as to funds voluntarily 
