Jan. 1, 1903,] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
499 
does not amount to what the industry has lost 
yearly since 1899 Most of it pays altogether little 
more than commission on sales, tieinii!s, and ins^ur- 
ances, and beyond this will I never believe hequiie 
salisfaetoiy. Doubtless some acres of similar land 
have already lieeu abandoned duiing recent bad 
times; and, doubtless, if our piesent system 
coni inues, this too will be eventtialiy eliminated 
at a cost to us of many times its worth. 
What precedes this.suiely shows that iheiiulnstry 
is not overcapitalised. Tliatinthe npgregate it 
has cost its owners fully whnt it represents in 
paid-up capital. That the depreciation of its 71 
per cent, is met by the unpioved value of its 29 
per cent ; also that the laiger proportion could 
not wich full modern machinery huildinu's, etc., 
be opened at £31 the acre. I also think that it 
is satistactoiily shown that we are suffering 
from a small over-supply, which hitherto we have 
not had the courage to rightly face. The aciual 
depreciation, beyond what I call the normal 
value of tea properly, and from which we are 
suffering, must tor the present represent some 
£15,000 000 sterling; and ju Iging from what we 
see done elsewhere is quite capable of more per- 
manent re-establi>hiiient. 
THE EVER-RECURRING WANT OF ORGANIZED 
CO-OPKRATIOX. 
So far in this pap^r my chief aim and object 
has been to shuw where the unproKtalil^ portion 
of the industry comes in. It will be seen that 
it is represented by two-thirds of the total tea 
area, so practically incorporating all the medium 
ai d ciimmon teas, I tliink it may be assumed 
that the owners of the one-third with its 9 per 
cent profit are quite satisfied with their position, 
but how about the owners of the meiliiim 
and enmmon teas'? If the former average 91, it 
may surely be assumed that the latter are wot th, 
relalivnly, Sd. aid 7d , itisteail of something less 
tlian 7d. all rouitd. Now, is there no way of 
comint! togt^t'ier over these two-thirds of the 
industry? Even though the effort's have hitberto 
f-iiled over the whide, cannot a mo e successful at- 
tempt be made by the guardians of the two-thirds? 
To show how utterly we are beatini,- the air to no 
purpose, let me bring forward two extracts from 
sale reports, in which I need hardly add that the 
italics are mine : — 
A decide<l flatness wns noticeable in the earlier 
part <if the week, and became graJnally more 
pronounced, finally resulting in a round decline 
in price many large bm/ers keeping almost entirely 
out of the marlift. Ha| pily the auctions of both 
Indian and Ceylon teas, so far ad vertised for next 
week, are comparatively light, and may thus tend 
to rel eve the position, hut vnless supplies are 
brought forward moderately the depression may 
continue in spite of the improved statistical posi- 
tion, etc. 
" The average of all Indian and Ceylon tea sold 
for the month of October is a Id. per lb. under 
Innt ntnsnn's cnrres^onding m'-ntli. and is not 
justified by either the position or quality." 
'I'll. Yf is a veiy liitle oriyma'iiy in these leports. 
The -nine has bi'cn the ' shibboleth " for the past 
three years with oie exception, "the improved 
stati'tii'id position 111. w" ; and yet, notwithstanding 
this impriiveiiient, t^i s are Id lower t ban a year ago. 
In lit iter worils, liS slat isl ics in prove, so far prices 
are worse. D'obile-*, there may be? specii'l leason 
for this, but we want consistent prices, consistent 
with the conditions of the market, not these con- 
tinual suggestions for improvement, or, at least 
S(m.e really practical melhod of meeting this ever 
recurring difficulty. 
Sooner or later, but how much sooner orlatjr, 
in spite of strenuous effoi ts to keep a low level of 
piices, the matkft will make ."ome natural adjiast- 
ment, though not to the peimatient degree we 
require. So long as the larger buyeiscan, as tliese 
sale re|)oris tell us, withdraw their buyers 
if prices do not please them ; and so long as 
they act Cf>llectively, and we individually, 
they will have the advantage. So long as 
they can appoint one man each, to represent 
several buyers, i educing buying to a system, and 
when if a few hundred chests more happen to 
be put up than imni diate wants require ; I do 
not see pio-pectively, nor do those sale report.s 
help me to see ; how the tea industry can assume 
a permanently right posiiion, They are useful 
in their way, but they lack the method of an 
unmolested supply and demand market, which ours 
lias long ceased to be. Still the same difficulty 
is before us. The first buyer and first seller are 
unequally placed, and any position short of 
absolute inadequate supply, will be in favour of 
the fir-t buyer. Such vvuiild, if prices reached 
too high a range, entail an inru^li of cheap and 
common teas; and with them inferior Ubinas would 
reassume a position. Surely stopping short of this 
is onr right course. If stcHdily and firmly, during 
the past thiee year^, an effort in Lond"n hud been 
maintained by holding steadily three weeks extra 
supplies in our own hands throughout, the market 
I believe would have been steadied and our 
chief losses avoided. With a strong lead fr^m the 
heads in London all the markets would be 
strengthened, and restriction of output abroad 
would have a chance of pof-sibility. Weakness in 
the centie meano weakness thiciughout the whole 
organisation. Mr Andrew Carnegie tells us, that 
a prosjierous and strong market is the chief 
souiceof success, both at home and abroad, so 
Can we not in the future lake a leaf our of his 
book and strengthen ourselves by unity of action 1 
SHAREHOLDERS AND EMl'LOYEKS ALL SUFFER, 
It is desiralile that something should be done 
if only in the interests of supei annuated tea 
p'anteisand others, of widows and orphans; and 
the long string of suffering sharehoLlers who are 
deprived of their incomes from the defaulting 15 
millions before referred to. Neither does the 
pressure of these starvation, and, I believe 
needlessly starvation prices, stop at share- 
holders; they penetrate the whole indus- 
try ; garden managers, as--istBnts, and labour 
ate fill down on their lowest cut-down wages. 
Even the tea business in London is becoming a 
by-word by those employed. Kemove extreme 
pressure, and all will be relieved, and with them, 
1 believe, even the large and small dealers will in 
the long run benefit, for a too low market pro- 
duces a trying and unnecessary pressure on all 
affected. 
In the peiusal of what I have written, some 
may consider that I have overeat mated the cost 
of bringing tea into bearing. In my experience, 
I know of veiy few instances where 1 may say land 
has b( en brought from juoLde into bearing, upon 
the origitially estimated sum, especially in later 
years. Tin se low, sanguine esnmates never com- 
plete woik; hich usually means that the touith 
and fifth v< ais roinrns nr.- n-ed in fiuis-liinp up ; 
promised dividends are deferred, and thus estimated 
