334 
Tlii TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
[Nov. ]. 1898. 
o increase tlio imjioil of tea into tlie colonies 
arid forcii'ii couiiU ies, ami to htop I lie prejn- 
tlicos and complaints constantly arisint; from 
slioi taf'e in \vci«;lits. Uq taw no reason why the 
dilliciiliy should nob be overcome. One cau.se 
could he at once reiijoved if liis res')huio!i in 
regard to factory hulked tea was adopted. For ti e 
nnhiilked tea lie thought that if the hical market 
was always trcateil hy iho.se J.-irj^ it in llie siime 
way liiat the inajorily of estates treated ihe 
London market when shipping on garden acfoniit 
the trouble would be en<led except in sucli case? 
ns that of weigliiiig inacliincs in factories 
getting out of order. His resolution Wiis as 
folio w.s : — 
"That the Selling liro'kers when drawing Sam- 
ples of Tea from Factory hulkeii packages of Tea 
shall mark the packages fioni whicli the Simples 
are drawn in such manner that they can he 
identilied by the buyers. 
The rules of the Tea Traders' Association stipu- 
lated that ten per cent of such invoices si:ould 
be inspected and the iriiiiliet of packages was never 
to be less than three. The result, taking 
A TVIMCAL LINK 
of 1.5 clients of 1,5UU lb., would be that they 
had ',i lb. of tea drawn from three chesl, out of 
the ir, and \lie invo cc lo the buyer would he 
1,497 lb. At jiresent there was no outward or 
visible signs— unless they found three chest.s 
Hior" knocked about than the others— to show 
from >vhicli three chests the 3 lb. of tea — 1 11; each 
— had been drawn. S'uppo^ing for argunients' 
sake that they shippeil the l, li)7 lb. of tea down 
to Australia the Cu.-<toiiis ;iul liorilies, following 
the plan obtaining in England,— an<l as far as 
he could make out the c(donics liail adopted 
that jilan, — would lake a certain number 
of packages and average the contents 
of those drawn. iS'ow it li id happened 
strangely enough, and, of course, there was no 
reason why it should not, that in some of these 
Rmaller line.s one of the sample drawn chesi.s in 
Ceylon, and in other instances two but one 
would be sutlicient,) was selected and the re- 
sult had been that the whole invoice bad been 
classed as containing 99 lb. of tea per package 
makiiii!; on the whole a loss of 7 lb., that was, in 
addition to the three alloweil for here, the tot.il 
weight thus being 1,490. This aggnivatetl both 
the .shipper and the importer and there wa« cor. 
respondcnce and claims. 
THE MA.N WHO .SCOIiED 
was probably the grocer or blender or whoever 
bought the tea. The remedy for that .seemed 
to him to be perfectly simple, viz., that when 
the broker.s were sampling the tea they should 
put some such mark as tlie letter "S" in red 
on the package so that the buyer could at once 
identify it. Ihe weight miglit be filled up to 
100 lb. or perhaps ea-ier still the 100 lb. 
might be erased and 99 lb. substituted. The 
Customs authorities in the country of import 
would get their full- duty, the shippers of the 
tea the full tea paid for, and the importer would 
receive the 1,497 lb. assuming that the factory 
marked weights were correct. 'J'his was a matter 
so obviously simple and so entirely within iheir 
control that, he presumed ithere could be no 
possible objection. Coming now to unbulked tea 
every package had to be opened and if Ibey 
followed up the example he had given of 15 
packages of 100 lb. they had three lb. drawn 
from these which was equal to 48 ounces or 
something over three ounces a package. 
Ship the tea as they liked it was impossible to 
get more than 99 lb. tfiveti in any country where 
the English rule prevailved. The first atgiiiuent 
might be that ihey should !ia\e the tea oj.enetl 
up ;inil live ounces put in every package. That 
might ap|dy in a country with a nice dry cli- 
mate lujt it was not applicable in lliii* countiy, 
and the depreciation in tlie r|uiliiy of tlie tea 
would be greater than ihe loss that might 
occur in tiie weigh*. Here came in lii» argu- 
ment, that tiiis difficulty couh! In' solved 
if the local market was treated in the 
same considerate way that the London market 
was treated. In this matter lie sjKtke from both 
sides of t!ic question. His firm sold tea in the 
local maiket and alwo shi))ped on garden ac- 
count, and he made no diflerence in all estnleu 
over which he had the control or itiflnerice. In 
eveij' package of lea whetiier for the local or 
London market, when the weiglit wa« aHpeiiained 
they put an extra four ounces of ten in, but he had 
heard of otkers doing more and putting in a« much 
as Couiices and of local nroprietors also putting in 
an e.vira amount. He could icniember the timew lien 
the local sales were very small, when all the tea 
they prodnceil |U-uclically went home, ami itwaH 
no uncommon thing to lind that the difference 
in weiglit lietweeu that accounted for in the ac- 
count sales and that shipped in ColonilK) was 
fully 3 per cent. The result of ex|>erience had 
been to show that it cuid be reduced to a mini- 
mum of 1 or li per cent by taking care of the 
packages, by being careful in their weights, and 
iiy putting in this e.vtra cjuantiiy of t*a. That 
had liecii his expeiience, and he had asked a 
great many both in Colombo and ujicountrj' and 
they were quite contenct to accept IJ or U per 
cent. Taking a typical line again of 15 chcKts 
of 100 1b. each anil putting 4 ounces into each 
that was (30 ounces, and when the account sales 
came back the owner of the tea was quite content 
if he got the tea paid for less 1} per cent . That 
ot course covered the trade allowance and various 
other things. If they look 1 1 per cent on l.") jiack- 
agcs that gave about 191b <if lea the loss of which 
in addition to the 4 lb put in originally the seller 
in London was quite content to accent. Against 
that the .3 lb givpu here w.-is practically insigni- 
ficnnt. He niaintainc<l that the interests of the 
sellers in Ceylon would be furthered if they all 
would in addition give to the local market that 
which many lirmsand many individual proprietors 
gave viz 4 ounces per chestexlra. If the seller wonhl 
give that to the local market he would be in the 
po.sition of having the unbulked invoices of tea i>afl- 
sed down at the original weights. From a seller's 
i)oint of view he objected to the 3 lb .sample 
at (irst .and wanted to be satisfied. He was 
satislied on the i)aint and contrasting with that 
what he was jierfectly willing to accept iu London, 
found the 31b was insignificant. He used the 
local market becau.se he thought it was a more 
advantageous market. All sellers expected to 
get more money for their lea in the local market 
and they got paid very much quicker. He 
tiiought it was a little unreasonable and unfair 
to the local market to shorten it of the privileges 
that they accor<lcd to the English market where 
they were content with much worse results. He 
oH'ered these remarks because lie thought it was to 
the sellers' interest to keep uj) this market, and that 
they believed in the local market was proved by 
the fact that whenever they heard of a new 
buyer coming in they conhally welcomed Juui. 
In lighting the battle of introducing their tea and 
probably Mith much keener competitiou than 
they had it was incumbent upon them tg 
