July 1, 1898.] 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST, 
49 
COFFEE PESTS AND LADY BIRD 
BEETLES. 
With less than 15,000 acres of coffee— inchid- 
inw Liherian as well as Arabian vavieties--n(>\v on 
the Ceylon plantations, Mr. E. E. Green and the 
Planters' Association will agree witli us that our 
interest in the " J ady-Bird " exijerinient is limited, 
as compared «itli tiiat of the Madras Presidency 
wliere, including Mysore. 290,000 acres of coli'ee are 
.still reported. SVe woiikl by no means discourage 
Ceylon sharing" in t!ie experiment, tjuite the 
reverse. We think it ■would be the greatest 
pity in the world if some of the "lady-birds" 
were not got to be tried in Pandaluoya under Mr. 
Green's direct care, as well as in Haputale, Badulla 
and other Uva districts. But at the same time, 
our outlay .should be proportioned to our 
position as a collee-growing country and our 
Madras neighbouis will, from the above, be aljle 
to judge that our siiare sliouhl be in propi)rtion s.iy 
to that contributeil by Travancore which has close 
on 5,000 acres cuffee, while Coorg has over 100,000 
acres, and Mysore close on 170,000 acres. We 
think the fair way would be for the Ceylon 
rnoprietois owning coftee, as per Directory, to 
raise a certain sum ; for this to be sujiplemented 
by the Planters' Association as a grant-in-aid ; 
and then for the Ceylon Government to giant 
an amount equal to the aggregate of the other 
two. Altogether if Ceylon gave B2,000—H 1,000 
from the Government and R1,000 from the P. A. 
funds and special contributions from Uva — we think 
it would do well. Of course, it may be argued 
that our interest is greater than the 15,000 
acres ; because if the lady birds proved a suc- 
cess, coffee might once again be planted. But 
with the present great depression in the coffee 
market we scarcely think there is encourage- 
ment in this direction. Nevertheless, we should 
feel very great regret if Ceylon took no share 
in the Lady-bird Experiment of the Madras 
coffee planters. We feel sure that His Excellency 
the Governor, with his usual enlightened pro- 
gressive spirit, has only to have the matter put 
fairly before him, in order to sanction a moiety 
of whatever grant it may be proposed to make on 
behalf of Ceylon Coffee. — It must be remembered 
t hat the Government represt nts native coffee gardens 
besides the jdantations with 15,000 acres 
INDIAN AND CEYLON CURRENCY 
AND EXCHANGE. 
One_ ef the very sanest dissertations we have 
yet read on this subject is contained in a pamphlet 
written by " H. F. B. " entitled " Tne Indian 
Finance Dilliculty : a Solution " and published by 
Effingham Wilson, Royal Exchange. " H. F. B." 
whoever he may be, is a thoroughly sound 
financier and knowing a gold standard to be 
impracticable for India, he boldly shows — writing be 
it rememberevl some time before Sir Robert Giffen — 
that the true solution of the dilticnlty is only to be 
found in the re-opening of the mints and a 
recum to an honest silver currency. Tlie gloomy 
picture of tlie state of Intlia previous to closing 
the mints drawn by Lord George Hamilton is 
well met by " H. F. B. " when he states : — 
To me the situation of the country at that time 
Beamed quite otherwise. The revenue had been rapidly 
increasing. D.bt was amply covered. Thi los& by 
exchange {aa stated by the Government) was to a "reat 
extent fictitioua, and whore real had been easily met. 
Loss to the Government officials had been couipen- 
7 
sated. The flow of capital to India had not been 
checked. Local enterprise was active. Trade was 
flourishing. The fluctuations of Exchange were not 
especially embarrassing. The purchasing power of 
the rupee in India had not diminished. Whence 
then came the supposed necessity for the clo.sure of 
the iJliats? 
The position of the countrv was perfectly sound 
but the Government required money for its ever- 
increasing home and military expeuditnre. To obtain 
this, two alternatives presented themselves— to iucrepse 
the Customs duties or to tamper with the currei-cv 
They chose the hue of least (political) resistance • tiieV 
tampered with the currency. 
What has bc-oa the resuU of that action ? On the 
general question of success or failure, perhaps the 
most conclusive answer would bo, the appointment 
of the present Committee. But I will tabulate some 
o uhe results .-the internal trade sapped of its life- 
blood; the external trade thrown out of balance' the 
opium revenue half lost; the tiov.'.of En--.!ish ca'pi^pl 
reversed; local enterprise checked; monetary crisVs 
rendered annual; ordinary banking accommodation 
unobtainable; fluctuations of exr^hansje more violent 
Nor has the Goverumenfs objeof been attained'. 
Hor althoiign there has been an occasional spasmodic 
clutch of the one-aud-fourpenny rupee, this has been 
reached, not by the closure of the Mints, but by the sus- 
pension of Council drawings and iucr.jase of sterling 
debt ; in other words, by aagmeuting the evil it sou^rht 
to cure. ° 
" H. F. B." then proceeds to illustrate the trade 
ettects by various statistics and incidentally he has 
a passage of special interest to Ceylon readers — 
It seems to me that Mr. L^ake has every reason for 
anxiety as to the future of his Cevlon tea trade. 
Fortunately for Ceylon and India they, so far possess 
great advantages. They have superior quality, more 
concentrated and better cultivation, and honester 
manufacture. But who can say that, in the coming 
development of China, European methods may not be 
applied to tea enterprise there, if so, doss any tea trader 
feel confident that— other things being thus equalised 
—he would ho able to compete with his rival shipper 
in China at the present Jifference of sterling exchange 
which IS, I make out, about 6d. per rupee iu favour 
of China. 
The same argument applies to our Indian cotton 
yarn trade with China, which is now under serious check. 
Who can say whether, under this immense incuinbua 
of exchange, we may not only have to cease our 
export to China, but even suffer competition from a 
reversal of the trade current by imports of S'nan<'hai 
yarn into India. 
• T'^Sj indigo planters atid other growers of produce 
in India also complain that they are suffering from 
the artificial rupee; but no doubt this point will be 
amply elucidated by the present Commission. It is 
unnecessary to demonstrate it to any practical trader. 
There is only one way iu which India can meet 
her liabilities— namely, out of the produce of her 
soil and manufaolures— so that the first duty of the 
State should be to foster the Export trade. The 
majority of mercantile opinion in India recognised 
this, and the Mints were closed against emphatio 
protest. 
He then shows the effect of the present policy 
on the balance ot trade : — 
Here is the analysis of the Manchester Guardian 
of 28th April :— 
EXCESS OF EXPORTS, EXCLUSIVE OF TREASURE. 
1895- 6 ., .. E316,669,050 
1896- 7 .. .. 195,7iO,6JO 
189(-8 .. .. 178 •101,910 
Ihese are the official trade returns from April to 
January of the financial years quoted, and upon which 
that excellent .auUiority comments as follows:— 
"We showed recently that, at the end of thefiist 
eight months of the current fiscal year, the decline 
iu tlis merchandise balance in f.ivour of India siuce 
1891-1) was nearly iO per cent., and the de line in 
the Hit bUancs, including treasure, close upon 70 
