Oct. 1, 1898.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
267 
Tliis shows a satisfactory increase of 34,-t70 
acres on ilie foiJiier year," Tliis beats Ceyion 
with a vengeance ! We only put out 55,000 acres 
in 2i years. 
The following pertinent remarks from the 
Pioneer of September 1st, are very applicable 
to Ceylon : — 
The anaual report of the Indian Tea Association 
recently pablished offers some food for reflection to 
the many shareholders in tea companies resident 
in this country. Within the limits to which it has 
confined itself the Association has done good work, 
and the recent resuscitation of local btauches in 
districts, such as Sylhet, where they had disappeared, 
is a healthy sign of its influence. A strange omission 
in the repoi-t is the absence of any reference to 
the present condition of the tea industry. ' We 
search in vain for some indications of the serious 
troubles under which, we so constantly hear, tea 
planters are lab)uring. So far as this document, 
published under such distinguished authority, is con- 
cerned, the industry might be sailing in smoothest 
seas. And yet only a short time ago, Mr. Buckingham, 
the Chaitman of the Assam branch of the Associ- 
ation, publicly statedjiu his speech before that body 
that the tea industry is passing through a crisis 
probably worse thxn that which was experienced 
in the sixties, when tea shares, it will be remem- 
bered, were begging buyers at a few annas each oa 
the stock exchange. If it to be true the industry 
is in this parlous state, it seems x^assing strange 
that the Indian Tea xVssDciation's annual report 
should cjmpletely ignore so grave a matter : the 
more so as tho existing depression might have been 
legitimately urgud to give weight to the argument 
that union ia strengh, and to summon all interested 
in tea to marshal their powers and combine iheir 
forces to meet the difficulties ahead. Unfortunately 
combination is not a characteristic of tea planters, 
wherefore it is ^ill more the important to encourage 
it, and if necessary compel it. 
In the matter of exploiting America as a new 
market for Indian teas, the Association in alliance 
with Ceylon has a good record to point to. We think 
it is wiso in its decision to continue the campaign for 
another ye ir, notwithstanding the demani already 
established, which ahsoilied over five million pounds 
of Indian tea in 18J7. But we could wish tho Asso- 
ciation had exhibited equal interest in other markets 
for Indian tea, and corresponding energy in invading 
them. The greatest market of all is India itself. If 
such impoverished countries as the Central Asian 
Khanates, Persia, Afghanistan and Kashmir can 
afford to drink Indian tea and pay highly for it too, 
it is strange there should be so little consumption of 
the artic'e in India proper. An industry that spends 
over a lakh of rupees yearly in establishing a trade 
of five million pounds in so distant a country as 
America, may reasonably be asloid why it does not 
capture the market at its very doors. Tea is almost 
universally drunk in China, but the qualities in com- 
mon local consumption consist chiefly if not entirely 
of dust and coarse leaf. We observe from week to 
week the sale of hundreds of chests of dust tea at the 
Calcutta and Loudon auctions at values which 
create wonder. In a recent sale, for instance, 300 
packages fell to the liammar at prices ranging from 
ten pies, or two and a half annas per pound. Are 
not these the very teas with which to tempt the 
thrifty native of this country to make a start and 
squander his anna on what is at first a luxury, but 
speedily becomes a necessity ? A direct benefit would 
ensue by the relief afforded the Loudon market if 
three million pounds of dust tea were taken off it, 
and that amount is probably a fair estima'e of tho 
annual production of this quality. It is obvious that 
at the prices quoted it cannot pay the plan'er to 
pack such teas in lead and sell them on the public 
market. It ia also obvious from the Association's 
report that many plantations shirk contributing their 
quota to the American market fund. A planter who 
may be a miser with his money, is often prodij^al with 
his tea, as missionaries and charitable institutions 
are aware. Why not start an Indian market fund, 
and in lieu of monetary subscriptions assess con- 
tribulious in the shape of dust tea, packed-lined 
boxes or even bigs, and to be sold for what it will 
fetch in the chief cities of the Empire ? It is hardly 
possible there could be any loss on such operations ; 
for carriage and sale expenses from one end of India 
to the other would not exceed one anna per pound. 
Force the article on the natives by puttin" it ia 
their midst and leaving it there. They are" bound 
to try it, and the taste once acquired would probably 
lead to tea becoming as necessary to the people of 
this country as it is to those of Central Asia and 
Persia. 
The Indian tea industry is made up of three com- 
ponent parts : the shareholder, the planter, and the 
middleman. In the latter category must be included 
every in.lividuil or corporation which deals into the 
tea from the time it leaves the factory until it reaches 
the consumer. Of such are railway, river, and ocean 
steamship companies, agents, directors, brokers 
exchange banks, bonded warehouse keepers, whole- 
sale buyers, retail sellers. All these exact their utter- 
lUDst dues with unfailing punctuality from every 
pound of tea before it is sold over the counter to the 
consumer. Agency houses reap as much profit for 
the work done as any other folk. They and the brokers 
charge the same percentage for their .services now 
that tea is selling at a loss, as they used to do 'when 
it sold at a handsome profit ; and we certainly have 
not hitherto observed any reductions in the Calcutta 
or London cost of administration of tea companies 
We are creditably informed of companies pxyin" 
their directors and agents the same remuneration now 
that they are working at a loss, as they did when their 
operations resulted in handsome profits. The value 
of the hundred million pounds of tea produced in 
Assam andCachar in 1897 is given at about (5 annas 
10 piys par pound in the Association's report. After 
deducting the tribute demanded when runninc' the 
gauntlet of the various raiddlonien, the bare balance 
that remains to the shareholder or planter in the 
majority of cases does not in many cases repay the 
cost of production. This the scores of tea compaaiet' 
reports for 1837 that we have looked into, show to be 
a proven fact. 
The time has come when further economy cannot be 
enforced at the plantations by the barbarous method 
of dismissing manager after manager who cannot pay 
a profit as well as his Calcutta or London expenses 
The economy of the future must be extended to a re- 
duction of the cha'ges and taxes levied on teas in Cal- 
cutta and London. But aho is to enforce this The 
Ch airman of the Indian Tea Association, in his 
speech dealing with the report, let drop a pregnant 
remark. Alluding to a certain matter he said it 
ought to have the attention of " our managers." That 
puts the position in a nut shell. The planter, whose 
whole stake is in the tea industry, is to the members 
of the Indian Tea Association merely "our manacer'' 
— !iot our confrti-c. IIov/ shall the subordinate control 
the master? It is too much to expect the Indian Tea 
Association to reform itself. There is no dismissal 
for its mojnbers if Calcutta expenses are too high 
And yet, in order to place the industry in a healthy 
condition, it is the members who control it, who should 
bs, as a community, subjected to criticism and control 
If they will not take up crying abuses to which their 
attention has been publicly directed, then some one 
else must. There is still room for a modicum of 
profit in tea planting if the same economy is enforced 
at Calcutta and London as has been achieved under 
pressure at the plantations. Unfortunately the 
Indian Tea Association in its reports displays but a 
quarter-hearted interest in the reduction of the 
excessive charges which are known to every tea 
planter, and should be made known to every share- 
holder. We fear the Association is not the orn'anis- 
ation to deal with the evils indicated, [t is the^plan- 
ter whose voice should be heard now at the council 
tabic of t'oe Association, and he should be backed 
and supported by the shareholder. It is the planter 
who has made the Indian tea industry, not the Gal- 
cutta or Loudon agent, who has merely passed on 
