Nov. 1, 1899.] THE TEOriCAL 
AGEICULTUEIST. 
345 
THE CEYLON TEA INDUSTRY. 
(Pioneer, Oct. 21.) 
From an address by the Lieut. -Governor of 
Cey'ou to the Legislative Council of that islaud, 
la opening the winter session, it appears that, in 
spite of the ruinous influences of a one and 
fourpenny rupee, the tea industry in Ceylon is 
in a sounder and better position financially than 
ever : and the limit of development is not yet 
reached. Big as is the i)resent area under tea, 
large tracts of new tea-land have still to come 
into bearing. Hitherto the energy of those in- 
terested in increasing the consumption of Ceylon 
tea in foreign lands has always availed to keep 
the demand well abreast of the supply ; hence no 
anxiety is felt regarding the disposal of the in- 
creased production of the future. Not every garden 
of course is doing well : some estates indeed are 
now working at so fine a profit margin that any 
appreciable fall in price must throw them out of 
cultivation. But unstable concerns of this sort 
are few in number and form the exception to the 
general rule. The Lieut.-Governor did not pause 
in his jubilations to inquire why tea planting 
Eays so much better in Ceylon than in India, but 
e may have realised thao the answer to the 
question does not lie on the surface. One thing 
however is patent to anybody. — that whereas Ceylon 
planters command an abundance of cheap labour, 
Indian planters are always crying out for coolies. 
In every productive enterprise the labour supply 
must be the dominating factor, and so long as 
the teaming millions of Bengal remain loath to 
leave their village homes for distan* tea gardens, 
Indian planters will continue to be handicapped. 

OTTERY TEA COMPANY OF CEYLON. 
REPORT OF DIRECTORS. 
The Report of the Directors was tubmitted as 
follows : — 
The Directors have now the pleasure to submit to 
the shareholders their Eeport and Accounts for the 
year ended September 30th, 1899. 
The Crop secured was 141,5551b. against an Esti- 
mate of 160,000 lb., the shortage being due in great 
measure to unfavourable weather. 
After deducting E.1,000 from Reserve Account, as 
arranged last year, to pay for part of the amount 
•'Bpent on Manure, viz , R2,827-60, the Tea has cost laid 
town in Colombo cts.27 31 per lb., or without Manure 
dcs. 26 02 as against cts. 25 05 last year. 
The nett average price realised was cts. 46'91 as 
agaiusfc cts. 42'40 last season, which may be considered 
very satisfactory. 
After making provision for the Interest on Mortgage, 
(fee, the balance of profit available amounts to 
E24,466-52. Of this amount R8,940 was absorbed by 
the payment of an interim dividend of three per cent 
to 3 1st March last, and the Directors now recommend 
that a final dividend of five per cent be paid, absorb- 
ing B14,900, that a Bonus of R500 be paid to the 
Superintendent, and that the balance of R126'56 be 
carried forward to the next Account. 
In th« terms of the Articles of Association Mr. W. 
Kingsbury resigns his seat o» the Board, but, being 
eligible, offeri himself for re-election. 
An Auditor will also have to ba appointed for season 
1899-1900. 
PRODUCE AND PLANTING. 
Tea and Coffee in the United States. — Statistics 
ioEued by the New York Coffee Exchange show the 
remarkable increase in the consumption of coffee in 
the United States. Formerly a 10 per cent gain in 
consumption from one year to another was regarded 
a maximum increase, and even this was the ex- 
ception and not the rule. But the Nerr York corres- 
44 
pjondent of the " Grocer " properly points out if 
Americans would use Ceylon and Indian tea instead 
of China and Japan growths, then they would have 
a cheaper beverage than when using coffee, for one 
pound of good British-grown tea will make sixteen 
gallons of beverage at a cost of about IJd per gallon. 
Slowly, but, it seems, surely the people begin to 
learn how to make a right use of Ceylon and Indian 
tea, but there is an aversion to using them alone, 
and so the majority of such tea is used for blend'ng. 
The imports of tea for three years, ending June 30, 
were as follows: 1899, 74,088,1531b ; 1898,71,957.715; 
1897, 113,.347,1751b. The imposition of a duty of 10 
cents per lb. and the Tea Exclusion Act havp also 
hurt the tea industry, a point disputed by those who 
favoured (he tea law establishing standards. The 
imports of coffee were as follows: 1899, 831,820,3411b.! 
1898, 870,514,4551b. ; 1897, 737,645,6701b. Coffee is 
relatively the cheaper beverage, which accounts for 
the fact that it is growing in popularity, while tea 
is 25 to 50 per cent higher than it was three years ago. 
Australia and the Pound Draft Question. — Trade 
opinion in Sydney are elsewhere was, ns a rule, in 
sympathy with the effort of tea producers in their 
recent struggle to secure the abolition of the one 
pound draft. The impression in Australia seems to 
be that Indian and Ceylon producers should not only 
have been in thorough and complete harmony on the 
subject, but careful preparatory measures should have 
been taken both in London and India and Ceylon 
before the move was made. 
They will havs Tea. — It will interest tea producers 
to learn that tea is so popular with the public that 
any attempt to restrict its supply in the cup by 
those who prefer to push the sale of intoxicants is 
met with an outcry. Cyclists have complained loudly 
of the difficulty they experience in some parts of the 
country in inducing rural Boniface to supply tea. 
Numerous letters have appeared in cycling and other 
journals on this subject, It is suggested that the 
Cyclists' Touring Club should '' take up the cudgels 
and fight this matter out."— ii". and C. Mail, Oct. 6. 
INDIARUBBER IN QUEENSLAND, j 
The following from the Brisbane Courier will be 
of interest to those on the Northern Rivers who 
may contemplate taking up an industry that if 
carefully attended to may lead to an increase in the 
articles of production from this colony (New South 
Wales): — •' The news from Cairns that a number 
of local men are arranging to begin operations in 
the manufacture of ? indiarubber is important. 
The raw article can be obtained from indigenous 
trees in the shrub, and is said to be of first-class 
quality. What is perhaps more important, the 
supply is inexhaustible. One of the chief values 
attaching to the recent New Guinea concession 
was the practically unlimited quantity of rubber 
there obtainable. To find, therefore, that a 
similar condition of affairs exists within easy 
distance of a port like Cairns is to say the least 
encouraging. Then, as regards the industry itself, 
its outlook is as bright as it possibly could be. 
The marvellous demand for bicycles of late years 
has given an immense impetus to the rubber trade, 
Indiarubber being also a highly perishable article 
is another important factor in the question of 
supply and demand. The demand will always 
exist, 90 the supply must be kept going. There 
is one consideration, however, which these Cairns 
men will find obtruding on their notice sooner or 
later. That is the question of chief labour in 
collecting the article. This must be considered 
when it comes to competing with others. In New 
Guinea, for instance, labour is cheap and on the 
spot. Herein Australia we have practically none 
of this native labour. The nearness to a fporc 
