762 
THE TROPICAL AQRICULTURIST. [May 1, 1901. 
the older portions of a garden the quality of leaf 
deteriorates, and a low class of tea is produced. 
Can this be surprising when for decades gardens 
are plucked season after season without an ounce 
of manure of any description being applied to liie 
soil to compensate for what has been so persis- 
tently taken from it ? 
"What is surprising, however, is that in Ceylon, 
where manuring is a great feature in cultivation, 
the average value of the tea produced is lower than 
that manutactured in India, where practically no 
manuring is done. This fact would argue that 
the effect of fertilizers is turned to account in 
Ceylon by increasing quantity rather than by im- 
proving quality by a system of plucking coarse 
overgrown leaf. This would go a long way towards 
accounting for the large proportion of coarse teas 
which have done so much to overstock the market. 
There is yet another practice which accounts for 
a large quantity of coarse tea— i e., the undue 
prolongation of the plucking season. I know, as 
a planter, how anxious every manager is to av»,a 
himself of every obtainable leaf towards the close 
of a season to enable him to get nearer tlie quan- 
tity estimated to be produced, but it is at the best 
only a low class of tea with an autumnal flavour, 
the product of a plant whose life energy is sap- 
ped by the plucking of leaf at a time long after 
the tea bush should have been at rest— recuperating 
itself— it left unplucked.— Yours truly, 
James Hodges. 
4, Birming'ham, Mareh 19, 1901. 
THE IMPERIAL TEA DUTY. 
TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE THE 
SECRETARY OF STATE FOR 
INDIA IN COUNCIL. 
My Lord,— I am directed by the Indian Tea Asso- 
ciation, London, to address you on the subject of the 
late enhancement of the Import Duty upon tea, with 
ft view to your urging the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
to reduce the duty to its former level of 4d per lb. 
The Industry which this Association represents, 
though supported by many millions of British Capital, 
is carried on in India, and is thus, perhaps, outside the 
sympathetic consideration of the Chancellor of the 
Exchequer, Indian interests are, however, especially 
within you» Lordship's cognizance and protection, and 
theAssociation ventures to hope for your sympathy aud 
assistance in the present highly critical state of the 
Industry. 
That Industry has brought 'wide and unhealthy 
wastes under cultivation, it supports several hundreds 
of thousands of native labourers, and it makes a mate- 
rial contribution to the Laud Revenue of the Empire 
of India. It holds an important position in Northern 
Bengal and Southern India, and is the very backbone 
of the well-being of the Province of Assam. Moreover, 
after some vicissitudes it has proved financially a 
Buocess, The Industry for a considerable period prior 
to 1897 showed a steady prosperity. It was found to 
return to English investors regular, and in some cases 
liberal dividends. This prosperity naturally attracted 
further capital, which was employed in making addi- 
lions to the area under Tea. 
These extensions were perhaps in some cases unduly 
large bat they would have had no serious effect upon 
the well-being of the Indian Tea Industry, but for the 
oocurrenco of two grave events. 
The first of these events was the action taken by the 
Government of India by which the exchange value of 
the rupee was fixed at about Is 4d. Without entering 
into the question of the effect of this action on the 
country generally, I am desired to point out that the 
policy adopted has undoubtedly resulted in heavy loss 
to the Indian Tea Industry. The artificial enhance- 
ment of the rupee has, in regard to Tea, greatly in- 
creased the cost of production, and has thereby 
reduced the margin of profit to an extent which can 
hardly be conceived. But for the very serious increase 
in the cost of production caused in this way, producers 
would now be able to accept with small risk of loss, 
the low prices of Tea at X-U'esent ruling. 
The second event was the addition last year 
of Ud per lb to the duty, \vji"h id proving most 
injurious to the producers of lodian tes. The 
increase in the duty cannot fail in one of two things : 
it must either, by an increased price exacted from the 
consumer, check consumption, or, if not paid by the 
consumer, it must come out of the pocket of the pro- 
ducers. The result so far appears to be that the in- 
crease has materially checked the regular expansion of 
consumption, and at the same time thrown upon pro- 
ducers the payment of a large share of the additional 
duly. 
These two events have so seriously affected the 
Indian Tea Industry — the first by raising the cost of 
production, and the second by reducing to the producer 
his net profit — that, coming as they do on the top of the 
increased production, they have brouglit the Industry 
into such straits that at the present moment but few 
tea properties can be carried on without loss. 
It is hardly necessary to point out to a statesman 
bow much the failure of a large proportion of the Indian 
Tea Industry is to be deprecated. The public 
revenues both of Assam and Bengal are much in- 
terested in the prosperity of Tea, and if, as seems 
probable, many estates must be closed up, the distress 
to the labourers employed on them will be very 
great. Moreover, I am to urge upon your Lordship's 
consideration that, both for ihe United Kingdom, 
where capital is ever seeking for new channels ot em- 
ployment, and for India, where capital is greatly 
needed, it would be a mistaken policy to allow the one 
Indian Industry, into which private capital has flowed 
freely from this country, to be crushed in its hour of 
weakness and difficulty by the addition of heavy State 
burdens. 
TheAssociation desires to draw attention to the very 
heavy percentage which the Duty on Tea now bears to 
the wholesale price of the a'-ticle. In 1881 the average 
price of Indian Tea in London was Is 5d per lb., the 
Duty being then Gd per lb. (about 35 per cent). In 1891 
the average price was lO^i, the Duty being 4(1, or about 
38 per cent. During the current se^ison the average 
price has been 7Jd, and at the present moment it is 
about 6d, while the Duty is also 6d, or 100 per cent, on 
the average price. Large quantities of Tea are now 
being sold at less than 4d per lb., the Duty here being 
150 per cent. Accompanying is ;i statement showing 
the average price of Tea from the Tea Districts of 
India, giving the above figures in the form of a com- 
parative statement. 
There is one further point to which the Association 
respectfully venture to draw your attention. While 
agreeing with the Chancellor of the Exchequer in 
thinking that " a very large class ot the population 
who do not pay incoine tax, who do not consiime 
elchol, and do not smoke, " should contribute towiuds 
the expemes of the South African war, they do not 
consider it to be equitable that Tea alone, of the com- 
modities used by that class of the people of England, 
should be singled out for an increase, of Dur.y. It 
seems to the Associat on that there are other commo- 
dities more capable than Tea of bearing increased 
taxation— Cocoa, Coffee, and Sug'ar for instance. 
The Duty on Cocoii,, the consumption of which 
has largely increased of late years, varies bi'tween 
Id and 2.^d per lb. for difftrent qualities, that ou 
raw cocoa being Id. The quantity of raw cocoa 
entered for home consumption in 1879 was 
