July 1, 1898.] THE TROPICAL AGEICULTUKIST. 43 
these in the hills awiiy above the estates are also 
there iu great Eumberg, the little red deer as ws 
call it in Ceylon, and what they call here jungle 
sheep, are about in numbers, (he roads, ihrough a 
300 aero field of ofSeinslis cinchona being thickly 
marked with them. Ju"gle fcwl and quail are also 
about, and altogether anyone fond of thooting woukl 
have a very good time of it, elephants alone being 
preserved, there beipg no ei\A cf a row if one is 
Fhct by anyoae, licences being refused to anyone 
applyi.'jg for tiifiu. 1 had almost foigot a'ccut the 
bison, they are a'.out in herds on the hil! top3 and 
slopes, a tire bnil l:avirig beea shoi; a few miles 
from here by the British Ecsideul., and another 
caught not long ago on this estate iu a pit, which 
had be,-.n dng for it. It was to have been sent to 
some Zoo, but he .broke out one night and got clear 
away, much ;o superintendent's disappointment. 
I had almost forgotten to mention cinchona. As 
I said there are over SCO acres here, and on the 
next estate a big lot of it also, all officinalis and 
hybrid, and looking very healthy, aUhough 1 have 
noticed canker on individual trees, but nothing 
evidently to alarm any one. If prices would only 
rise I dare say a large amount of bark would te 
harvested, but at present (although I note the prire 
of bark is going up) it is hardly worth one's while 
to bother with it. We are all busy preparing tea 
clearings for the S.W. monsoon which we expect 
will be on us very soon now, we have had almost 
daily afternoon rains nearly all this month, but 
evidently N.-E. rains. At present tiie weather is very 
mild even at this high el6\ation, and most enjoyable. 
"KLONDYKE." 
«> 
EXCHANGE AND THE TEA TRADE. 
To tlie Editor of the Economist. 
Sir, — The Secretary of the Ceylon Association 
in London has, in your la.st issue, favoured your 
readers with anotlier letter, on which I would 
make a few remark?. 
In my former letter I showed that, in the tiiree 
years subsequent to 1891, the fresh tea planting 
in Ceylon was more than double what it was in 
the three years subsequent to 1S91 (erroneously 
printed ISdO, no doubt my fault), and that the 
area of land under tea in Ceylon is now STo OOO 
acres. Mr. Leake says I am wrong, that " there 
are not, nor are there likely to be, 375, t-OO acres 
planted with tea in Ceylon. The latest estimate 
of the total acreage planted is 315,000, with a 
probable eventual extension to 350,000." The 
following, however, is an extract from " Kelly's 
Merchants', &c.. Directory of 1898," which is also 
borne out by the other particulars in my hands : 
—" There are now (October, 1897) 375,000 acres 
in Ceylon planted with tea, and it is proved that 
some parts of the country are capable ol producing 
a greater yield of leaf per acre tlian any other 
country in the world." So that the Ceylon Asso- 
ciation in liOndon is not up to date in so simple a 
matter as the area now planted they are wrong to 
the extent of 60,000 acres. 
Driven by Lord Farrer from holding out the tea 
trade of China as a blight example of the advan- 
tages of a falling currency, Mr. Leake lias now- 
turned to Java as a shooting example of the tlis- 
advantages of a steady currency. He^ays, quite 
correctly, that tea in Java has only in- 
creased (wonderful that it has increased 1) from 
7 million lb. in 1885 to 9 million lb. in 1896, 
wliereas Ceylon, Avhich only exported 4 millions 
in 1885, exported in 1896 108 millions. He writes 
as if the contrast were due to the resjiective 
currencies. But the increase in Ceylon is not 
due to the currency but to the cottee blight, 
which left so much excellent land to be replaced 
by tea, Java had no coffee blight, On th^ 
contrary, whereas in 1888 the exjwrts of coffee 
were .515,000 jjiculs, last year they came to 
7b7,361 piculs. How strange that the Ceylon 
Association in London seem never to have heard 
of ihe coft'ee blight ! 
'J he Ceylon Association do n^t deny tliat they 
would like to pay their coolies in dej'reciated 
rupees. But they wiite as if this were good for 
them, and that they enjoy it. " Eroni the point 
o' view of the coolie, his fixed daiiy wnge (which 
lias for fifty years past varied little from one- 
tl.ird of a rupee) lias brought him as muchiiee, 
provided at a lixed rupee rate, as much cotton 
cloth, curry, stuffs, &c. , when the rupee had 
fallen to Is lid as when it w as 2s." An article 
in the Economist of September 3, 1S92, analy- 
sing the figures in the latest Blue ]?ook on prices 
and wages in India, brings out that " they show 
a fall of more than 40 per cent, in the purchas- 
ing power of the rupee during the last 20 years." 
This agrees with the fact that the jirice of 
coolie rice in Calcutta, which, in 1872, A\as about 
2 annas per niaund, is now about 4 annas. So 
mucli as to his food. As to his clothing, brought 
from Lancashire, it is plain that at Is 4d ex- 
change it needs now 3 rupees to do the work of 
2 rnpees at 2s. Until the wages of the coolies, 
therefore, adjust themselves to the new Mint 
ratio a wrong is being done to them, of which 
they are not aware. 
Mr. Leake's letters, however, are extremely 
valuable, as showing the state of mind and style 
of reasoning of those who believe in falling 
CHrrencies, who would wreck and ruin the whole 
currency of the Indian empire to enable them 
temporarily to pay their workers less; and that 
altliougli the Indian labouier is cheaper and more 
effective, more docile, industrious, and thrifty 
than the clumsier and higher paid Malay and 
Chinese, or than the idoleiit negro or the weak 
mixed breeds of South America. — Y(jurs truly 
May lOih, 189S. Ea.st India Merchant. 
TO THE EDITOR OF THE " ECOXOMI--T." 
Sir,— Let me a.'isure 11 r. Leake that I do hold 
to my position, notwithstanding all that lie savs. 
I am not going to encumber your pages with 
a discussion of his irrelevant facts or of his 
curious " theories." I suppose I must not call 
them " prophecies," But 1 would ask him one 
question. If it is true, as he says, that "the 
daily wage of the Indian laboureirwhich in 1894 
and 1895 was equal to 4Ad,- has been raised to- 
day by the action of the Indian Government to 
5|d," by how much was that daily wage dimi- 
nished by the fall in the value of the rupee 
which took place before the closing of the Indian 
mints ? The rupee, which stood at 2s or Is lid 
before the great fall in silver, had fallen more 
or les.s irregularly until the closing of the Indian 
mints, when it stood at from Is 2d to Is 3d ; 
since then it has, with some variations, which 
brought it down nearly to ]2d in January, 1895, 
risen to nearly Is -Id. Again, I ai-*k, if iho rise 
of the ruiice from Is 2d or Is 3d to Is 4d, which 
has been consequent on the closing of the Indian 
mints, has raised tlie wages of the Indian labouier 
by one-Kfth or one-sixth of its previous amount, 
by how much mnst the fall in the rupee from 
2s to Is 2d, which preceded the closing of the 
Indian mints, have reduced liis wages ? 
I need not say that I do not indor.-^e Mr. 
Leake's figures ; 1 only point out what is their 
necessary consequence. Eauker, 
Abiuger Hall, May lOth, 1898. 
