740 THE TROflCAL AGRICULTURIST. [May 1, 1903. 
Home Consumption of Indian and Ceylon Tea Compared wiUi that of China and Othek 
CouNTKiEs last year, live yearp, and ten yeats previously taken from the Board of Teade Retuens : — 
1902. 1897. 1892. 
Per centage of total. Per centage of total. Per centage of total 
Indian .,. ]i8,72S,000 lbs. 5S 4o 124,500,00011s. 58-76 109,500,000 lbs. 52-88 
Ceylon ... 80,541,000 33-C2 85,.500,000 ,, 37-00 63,100,000 ,, 30-46 
China 20,171,C00 7-93 21,870,000 ,, 9-24 34,500,000 ,, 16-66 
Total ... 254,440,000 lbs. 231 ,370,000 lbs, 207,100,000 lbs. 
Re-Exports of Indian and Ceylon Tea Compared with tliat of China and Otheb CouktbieS last 
year, live year.s and ten years ago taken from the Board of Trade Returns : — 
1902. 1897. 1893. 
Per centage of total. Per centage of total. Per centage of total. 
Indian ... 13,92-2,000 lb?. 30-60 5,497,000 lbs. 15-04 3,762,roo 10-11 
Ceylon ... 17,352,000 ,, ;-'.8-]5 10,502,000 ,, 28-74 3,448,000 9-26 
China &c., 14,216,000 „ 31-25 20,547, 5ij0 ,, 56-22 30,014,000 80-63 
Total ... 45,490,000 lbs. 36,546,500 37,224,000 
LABOUR AND PRODUCTS IN BRITISH 
CENTRAL AFRICA. 
We have received on the above subject an in- 
teresting letter from the Kev A Hetherwick, D D, 
head of the Blantyre Mission in British Central 
Africa. W itli regard to the suggestion that Central 
Africa .should be opened up from the Kile to the 
Zambesi as a recruiting ground for native labour 
for the mines Rhodesia, tiie Transvaal, and the 
labour markets of the Soutli African colonies, Dr 
Hetherwick writes : — " The proposal has caused 
grave anxiety here to all whose interests are bound 
up with the welfare and progie^s of the Protector- 
at;e of British Central Africa tind its people. These 
are so closely connec e 1 with the labour supply 
of the country, that any attempt to draft natives, 
out of the Piotectorate will be fatal to the very 
existence of the agricultural and commercial inter- 
ests that have done so much to open up Central 
Africa to the pacifying and civilising iuHuences 
of legitimate trade. At present all recruiting of 
natives for service outside of the Protectorate is 
forbidden by ordinance of his Majesty's Commis- 
sioner. This ordinance was enacted in view of 
the fact that the supply of native labour has in 
past years barely sufliced for local needs." The 
necessity of a railway across the Shire highlands 
to .set free for the agricultural industries of the 
Protectorate the labour now absorbed in transport 
work between the upper and lower Shire rivers has 
at last been recognised by his Majesty's Govern- 
Mint, and a concession granted to a private com- 
p i,ny for the construction of a line from Chiromo 
tj B'.antyre, which it is expected will be com- 
menced in Ajiril next. "For the construction of 
this railway a larger amount of labour will be 
demanded than the Protectorate is able to provide. 
As I write, the cry from the transport and planting 
companies is for more labour. The Labour Bureau, 
the one organisation sanctioned by Government for 
the proper distribution of the available labour 
imported from the outlying districts, has on its 
books at the present moment demands for upwards 
of 5.000 which it is unable to supply. In such 
circumstanceB, to allow any of the labour to be 
drafted out of the country to the mines of the 
south, is to cripple most seriously the commercial 
and agricultural institutions which are at present 
struggling to maintain tlieir foothold in the country. 
These institutions have invested during the past 
dozen years no small amount of capital. The 
three chief transport companies are valued at 
£3.30,000, while a new company which has secured 
the concession for the constiuction of the railway 
has been registered with a capital of £1,000,000. 
The necessities of the country itself 
demand the retention of the labour of its people 
for the cultivation of its soil and development 
of its own re^'ources. Central Africa has no in- 
digenous product such as will form a staple export. 
The supply of native rubber is e.xhau.sted, and 
so, too, is the ivory trade. Coal there is on the 
hills above Lake Nyasa and iu the Lower Shir6 
valley. There is gold in the Machinga mountains 
on the borders of the Congo Free State. But the 
true wealth of the country lies in its soil. There 
are thousands and thousands of squire miles of 
land along the river, vai:eys and over the countless 
hill slopes now lying w isle and arid, waiting for 
the hoe and the spade or the plough. Given 
labour and capital, together with easy transport 
and direct shipping connection with the honi« 
markets, and these wastes might become fertile 
fields of cotton, tobacco, sugar, chillies, &c. 
Without its labour Central Africa will never be 
developed, will never become a self supporting 
asset of our Empire. The climate forbids any hope 
of the utilisation of tlie white man in manual 
labour, and all hope of advancement depends on 
a sufficient supply of native labour being always 
assured. To remove the native from the country, 
which itself needs his labour so sorely, is to 
throw an insuperable barrier across the future 
progress of the Protectorate."— London Times, 
March 24. 
Blub Hydranobas. — The cause of the blue colo ra- 
tion has been the subject of multiple discuasion, but 
80 great is the oonliiot of evidence, that it cannot 
yet be said any satisfactory conclnaion has been 
arrived at. In a recent number of the livue Borticole 
we find a statement to the effect that certain plaints 
whose, roots wore iu contact with a fragments of slate 
had fallen from the roof of mansion produced blae 
doWera. Elsewhere, where fragments of tiles were 
mixed with the soil, the flowers were of a rose colour. 
Here is another experiment which nugkL.be twd ftt 
Ohiawick, — Hardciiei-a' Chroiiide. 
