74 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[AuouKT 1, 1896. 
Losses by Excuanoe. 
4. The Rate of exchange. — Here, again the planter 
individually is utterly helpless. The currency policy 
of the Government has raised exchange from 1-1 in 
1804 95 to 1-4 ill loOS. Three years ago an eight 
penny tea yielded the planter nearly ten p.nnas : 
to-day it only t ielda him eight. The loss, after ad- 
justments, is at leisfc li^ ann^i.s per lb., ii. r;hcrt, a 
bandsome profit whistled away on the wind. Ai this 
critical moment when Government it seeking to make 
this adverse rate of exchange permanent, and before 
it is too late, the planting body ought to rouse itself 
from its normal npathy and do something. Every 
tea Association in India, every tea pliinter, every tea 
agency house, and every tea shareholder should cla- 
mour against the proposed Government currency 
policy that threatens to wreck the tea industry and 
may bring rum in the near future to many engaged 
in it. Laisxer [aire folk will try and make believe 
that in the end prices adjust themselves to exchange, 
and that all will come right. They will tell you that 
exchange governs prices and if silver gets dearer so 
will tea. But in the last three years we have seen 
a rise of 3d. in currency silver and a fall of lAd. in 
tea, both gradually developed during the same period. 
Low exchange is killing the industry, whose cry 
should be heard loud in the land calling for an 
open mint and a shilling rupee. If planters can 
only get a quarter of this ideal, they will save them- 
selves from a fall from which many will never rise 
again. Agitation, prolonged, persistent, is the only 
way to reach the dull year of (Tovernmout. ^\■hat 
was the Ilbert Hill in its practical bearing on the 
welfare of the bulk of the planting community com- 
pared to this bulling of exchange that is going on ? 
The Indian planters shouted themselves hoarse over 
a sentiment. Here is a substance, and their protest 
against it, to be consistent, should be far more fervid 
KUd strenuous. 
5. Road aud Rail Freight to the Seaport. — I do 
not think the Association can do much more than 
it has done to minimise these charges. The reductions 
they have obtained for their members this year are 
very considerable. In 1897 it cost 07 of a penny 
to get a pound of tea from the factory to the sea- 
port: this year it is only costing us -o.')!. A railway 
to Palampur would probably reduce this to •40d., 
and the Association's efforts to obtain a Railway, 
it successful, will greatly benefit the industry. On 
a crop of 144,000 lb. the above figures work out. 
Road and Rail freight in 1S37 £ 402 
do 1SD8 „ H]5 
Probable cost with the railway to district ,, 210 
6. Steamer freight and shipping Charges- — These 
pre quit(' beyond the control of planters. Had the 
Mutual Line of steamers been in existence, the in- 
dustry might have been enjoying more favourable 
freights now. lint this would not have affected us 
in Kaugra, where we ship chiefly by Bombay and 
Karachi. Freights this year have gone up 40 ptr 
cent., showing an increase in the cost of carrying 
one pound of tea of from ■4r)d. to liS of a penny. 
Shipping charges work out '09 at Karachi and Calcutta 
and "ll at Bombay, where dock dues are very heavv. 
I think we should do well, when freights drop, to 
try and enter into a contract rate for one, two or 
three years. Last year a contract rate for only half 
the season worked advantageously for us. 
7. London Dock and Warehouse Charges. — In these 
there is a great scope for saving, though the effort 
would probably result in a battle royal between the 
tea industry and the bonded warehouse keepers who 
hold it 111 their clutches. I'rior to 1888 the whar- 
fingers allowed a discount of 20 per cent, on their 
fixed rates, and somei,imes eveu more to secure 
businej-s. They made the. great dock strike an ex- 
cuse to enter into a combination aud reduce discounts 
to 10 per cent,, at which ra e they stand at present. 
In the process they incidentally reduced the discount 
on rent, which was certs'inly not affected by the 
dock strike. The present dock and warehouse 
charges on a lOO lb. chest of tea weighing gross 
140 lb„ works out -50 of a penny per pound ; with a 
reversion to the 20 per cent, rate of diECOuut, charges 
would be reduced to '45 of a penny per poand. 
The tea industry now is in a far more indigent 
state than the wharfingers were in l8h!9 when they 
increased their rates. Their charges are very high 
— no less than i-2>j for a K'Olb. chest. Learning a 
lesson from them, 'the tea industry bhould ccmbiue, 
and endeavour to get a reduction in their charges, 
and this, I venture to think is a matter worihy of 
the attention of the Indian Tea Association. 
Reverting again to the charge for rent, the whar- 
fingers do what they c;ill "commute it " to 1'2 weeks. 
This means a fixed charge of 9d. on each chest of 
100 lb. lint it sometimes happens that long before 
the 12 weeks are up the chests have been taken 
away, and the planter is consequently made to pay 
rent when no rent ought to be charged. 
This is hnotber matter the Indian Tea Aasociation 
might tiike up. Let us be charged actual and iiot 
commuted rent. Let us have value for our money, 
which at present it is my firm and tiied belief we 
are not having. 
Jjulking and Taking. 
I now turn to anotlier matter which intimately 
affects every Indian planter. I allude to the charges 
for London bulking and taring our teas. There is 
a sliding scale, but for the purposes of this paper 
I take a chest containing 100 lb. nett and grosuiug 
110 lb. 
An immense sum comparatively speaking, can be 
saved by factory bulking and taring. It can be ac- 
complished by any planter willing to devote a decent 
amount of trouble to save his proprielois unnecessary 
expense, and I take it all planters worihy the name, 
are willing to do that. There are. 1 admit, con- 
siderable difficulties can be overcome as I shall 
proceed to show. 
The London Customs regulations require that the 
tares in a break shall not vary more than 2 lb, 'J hus. 
for instance, an invoice may consist of three breaks 
of, say. 
20 chests Broken Pekoe net 1201b. gross l58 Ar l.';9 
30 „ Pekoe ,, 100 „ ., 139 iV 140 
50 ,, Pekoe Souchong ,, 90,, ,. 127 A 128 
If any of these breaks gross any other weight than 
those given (as e.xamples) the "whole 20, ail, or .")0 
chests are turned oat, aud the entire parcel tareJ 
at the Loudon Warehouse, and I need scarcely say 
charged for. 
Now every planter who saws his own planks and 
makes up his own chests knows the enormous diflS- 
culty, witb the wietched and often httcha jungle 
timber tbat we have available, of getting a given 
number of empty chests to weigh the same. They 
dry off when the hot teas are poured into them: 
they absorb moisture and consequently extra weight 
in a few hours on a wet day ; they apparently in- 
crease or decrease in weight in a most irrational 
way. In short they set a manager tearing his hair 
as well as taring his boxes. I may mention as an 
instance in my own experience that chests made 
from tire planks, cut and dried for six months, have 
varied from 24 lb. to 36 lb. each. Wherefore I sub- 
mit that a margin of 2 1b. on the arerage tares of 
a break is not surficient for pr.actical purposes. If 
that margin were increased to 3 lb. the difficulty of 
factory taring would be greatly reduced ; if it were 
increased to 41b. every planter could easily factory 
tare his own breaks. 
I cannot see what harm the Customs in London 
would suffer if they raised the margin of permis- 
sable variation in tares irom 2ib. to 41b. Planters 
are not such fools or rogues as to pat more into 
their cuests than they stencil on the outside. All 
that ttie Ci.itoms w.uit is to ensure a correct net 
weight of tea; and if a variation of tares up to 4 lb. 
were permitted, I fail to se- iu.w this would mate- 
rially interfere with the essential point aimed at. 
Nor have I ever been able to fathom the philosophy 
whicli deters the Customs from weighing net, instead 
of weighing gross aud then deduciiug the tare. 
A few nails or snips or lead tumbled into the tea, 
may deduct from the tare and increase the net, and 
