460 
THE TEOPICAL AGKICULTURIST. 
[Jan. 2, 1899. 
TALIPOTS IN BLOOM, 
Fieqiieut mentions in the press of talipots in 
flower to be seen u|)eountry just now, k'd uie to 
keep a careful watch on my journey up 
lately, and to count accurately the nuniher 
visible from the line. There were 20 in all, 
between llauibukkaiia and Kadugaunawa. The 
first is on the rif,'ht imnie<liately after qnittinf; 
Ranibukkana etation— a magnilicent head of 
bloom. Nos. 2 and 3 follow soon after on the 
same side but further out. Then on the left we 
see Mos. 4 and 5 not far apart. Ne.\t comic a 
grouii of hve, cou)i)aratively close to^^etlier, but 
far away from the line. Then on the ritjht again 
No. 11 comes in view ileep. down in a hollow, but 
towering well above the surrounding trees, and 
standing out finely a^'ainst the dark ground- 
work of green. No 12 is nearer to the railw.ay. 
No. 13 appears decj) down in the valley ; then 
iive more away across the river, picturesquely 
grouped on rising ground, and at our feet No. 
19 on the river-bank is soon outlined— a mass 
of golden white— against the brown flood. Dark- 
ness was gathering, but a glimpse of No. iO, al.so 
on low ground, was obtained ere we turned the 
last corner up to Peradeniya. — 
THE VOGAN TEA COilPANY. 
PLUMBAC.O MINING. 
An extraordinary gener.al meeting of the sharo- 
holders of the Vogan Tea Comimny of Ceylon, 
Ltd., was heUl on the 'iOth Nov. m the offices of the 
agents and secretaries iSIessrs. I.ee, Hedges \- Co.. 
to consider a proposal to authorise the ilirectoi.s to 
epend money in working and mining plumbago. 
Mr W. B Kingsbury occuiaed the chair and 
the others present were : the Hon. W W Mitchell, 
Co) McComb (by his attorney Mr. Shattock), 
Messrs. E M Shattock, J McAiiish, G E Wood- 
man, F Liescbing, Henry P.ois by his attorney 
H G Bois, C E Haslop, Capt. Whitley, \V 
Lawrence. C Link, Percy Bois, G W y'jhien, R 
Davidson, W E Mitchell and A J G Field re- 
presenting the at;ents and secretaries, atd Mrs. 
M E Bois by her attorney Mr. Percy B .is. 
Proxies were received in favour of Mr. L M 
Shattock from Mrs. L H Deaker , in favour of 
Mr. GE Woodman from Capt. Kutherford an(l 
Mr. C M Buckworth ;in favour of the Hon. W W 
Mitchell from Messrs. M J Alderson, P CduS 
Leather, K W Harrison, C Ross Wright. C Henly 
and E B Creasy and Sir A Murray : in favour ot 
Mr. J McAnish from Messrs. W C Go wans, 
W Finlayson, and J C Bell; in favour of Mr. 
W B Kingsbury, from Messrs. Thos. Moore, Jonn 
Emerson, A L Kirk, R C Wright, E C Ebert, 
W P Metcalfe, A Bethune E Bowden Smith, 
F G A Lane, N Orchard, C Davidson and J Dor- 
reian J E Dunlop, W L Tisdail, F C KadclifFe, 
A F White, W Moir, V A Julius, M Lynam, 
S E James, C F H L Liescbing, J M Lay aid, 
A Leighton, C J Jones, and J K Foster Mellior 
Miss L E Mayes and Mary C Layard. 
The notice convening the meeting was read. 
THE chairman's SPKECH, 
The Chairman said— Gentlemen I have no doubt 
that you have all perused Mr. Feildmg's report 
which has now been in your hands for some- 
time I think it should be borne in mind 
that very little prospecting work has been 
done hitherto so that it must be rather 
a difficult matter for him to give more than- a 
geaeial Oinaion gf what Ue oousiaered your pros- 
pects were as regard.^ plumbago; but your direc- 
tors tliougiit it advisable to invite liini to vinit 
Iddagodde, prior lo this meeting so as Ui place 
before the shareholders an lOnglish iniuiii^ expert's 
report and th>il he might advi.^e them what c<JUi»e 
they should adopt in future operations should 
you sancticm the small outlay u«fked for in the 
motion before you todaj'. The rebulis far, 
from a |)ecuniary point of view, have been ex- 
ceeilingly encouraj»ing— far more co than we ever 
anticipated. We have obtained between •> and 7 
tons of plumbago of the v.alue of lietween K!KK> 
and Hl,00() for an ex)>endilure of about U"i,.'l<K> 
but I wish to impress upou j'ou tlmt the rea 
object for which we ask lt5.« <)(j is iirofpect 
ing and you must not be disappointe<l if we 
do not go on obtaining the same proportion of 
the mineral as we have done hitherto. What 
we propose to do" is to follow the lines sketched 
out in Mr. Fcihling's report, that ik, to sink our 
pre.«ent shaft and the i>rop<i8ed one near the 
northern boundary till we get down to solid 
country, and let the result decide our future ac- 
tion. Whatever we do we shall work on a Euro- 
pean system, not on a native one which both 
Capt. Tregay and Mr. I'Vilding condemn in the 
highest degree. From what 1 have heard from 
one or two .shareholders who are 
AGAINST KUIITHKB I'llO.SPF.CTING 
their objections appeared to be three in nuniljer. 
One is that no Euiopeans have been known lo 
make money out of plumbago mining liiiherLo, 
and therefore they can nevei do so. The second 
is mining on piinciple, and the third, the tear 
that as iroon its this K.j.Of'O is spent you will be 
asked to x ote further sums of nionej'. Now a.s re- 
gards No. 1 there is a superstition amongst the white 
po[>ulation of Ceyion that no Eurc|)eans vnn 
mine plumbago at a prolit, and the origin of 
this superstition is deriveil from one fact only— 
that no European with sufficient capital and suffi- 
cient knowledge of iiiinin<( has ever gone in for 
it. Now things are altered aud I happen to 
know of more than one in.stance where plumbago 
is now being mined by Europeans at a profit, 
and I have permission lo mention ^lo^an- 
kande and Springwood are two places where the 
results so far lia\e been highly satisfactory. As 
regards saddling the shareholders with 
KUKTUEU K.\Pfc.NDITURE. 
and the objection to mining on principle as we 
are a Tea Coinp uiy, I can most emphatically assure 
you that your directors have no intention whatever 
of asking forfurther money, but they do think 
that we are more likely to be otFere<l better terms 
by others who might be inclined to lease or 
purchase our land if by spending a certain sum of 
money, we are able to show actual proof of the 
existence of plumbage than we should do if we 
sat still and took no interest in the matter. I 
think there is no doubt that European capitalists 
at anj' rate w'ould be more likely te approach 
owners of mines which have been worked on a 
scientific principle than of those where there 
is no system whatever. 
OUR MAIN OBJECT 
-therefore is to prospect and to endeavour to make 
our properties more valuable from a mining point 
of view. We have no intention of mining in the 
ordinary sense of the term, although we would 
most certainly take out as much plumbago as we 
could consistent with systematic and proper 
development. 
The Hon. W. W. Mitchell.— I cannot 
say, sir, that I have very much to add 
to what I stated at last ueeting beyond tbiS| 
