i'EB. 1, 1899.] THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
539 
THE WYNA.A.D TEA COMPANY, LIMITED. 
The following is from the report to be presented 
at tho fourth annual meeting of shareholders, to bj 
held at No. 'iC, E latcheap, at the office of the Ceylon 
Tea Plantations Company, Limited, on Monday next: — 
The directors, in presenting to the shareholders 
the profit and loss account and balance-sheet for the 
year ending April .80, 1898, have the pleasure to report 
that the Peringodde Estate, purchased from Mr. E. K. 
Walker, has been duly transferred to the company, 
and that, on tho other hand, the sale of the Neli- 
munda Estate, sanctioned at the extraordinary gene- 
ral meeting, held on May 27 last, has been carrifd 
oat, and the purchase money, B45,000 remitted to 
London. The operations during the past season 
have mainly consisted in the erection of the teafio- 
tory, the cultivation and extension of the acrear;o 
under tea, and the up-keep of tlie company's coffee 
and cinchona. The company is now provided with a 
tirst-class factory, fully equipped, and capable of 
turning out SaO.OOOlb. of tea per annum. The crop 
of coffee and cinchona harvested during the season 
1897-98 has only yielded a net income of £1,071 17s 9 j, 
a small amount of pepper, and a first shipment of 
tea, making up the total to £1,093 lis 2d. Prices of 
coffee and bark have ruled much lower than in 
previous years ; the coffee crop only amounted to 
11* tons, and realised G43 3d per cwt. net. The 
ainount charged to revenue account being £2,723, 
there is a loss of £1,629 ISs lOd carried forward to 
the debit of profit and loss. Under these circum- 
stances the directors regret they are unable 
to recommend a dividend for the past season. 
The prospects for the season 1898-99 are much 
brighter, the coffee crop, estimated at 35 to 40 
tons, has been sold to arrive at 78s per cwt. 
cost freight and insurance, and the pepper crop, 
chiefly from Peringodde Estate, estimated at 15 to 20 
tons, at £45 10s per ton, landed terms ; besides which 
regular shipments of tea have now begun, and 50 
chests are advised as being shipped this month. The 
directors, therefore, hope to have a' balance at. the re- 
sult of the 1898-99 season to the credit of profit and 
loss account. Owing to the large ©utlay on the factory 
and on the young tea on Cootacovil and Chundale 
debited to capital account, together £4,,521 lis lid, the 
company is atiU considerably in debt, after deducting 
tho amount of about £3,000, realised by the sale of 
the Nelimuuda Estate, The directors are anxious to 
reduce the debit balance as soon as possible by the 
issue of the remainder of the preference share", amount- 
ing to .3,937, reserving the issue of the balance of 
the ordinary shares, numbering 6,552, for a 
later period. The above-mentioned heavy outlay 
is now drawing to a close, and as the area under 
tea, which comprises 530 acres, is gradually coming 
into bearing, the annual returns should show a gra- 
tifying increase during the next few years. The 
.directors trust that the shareholders, who have done 
80 much for the company in the past, will come 
forward once more to take up the remaining pre- 
ference shares, the intrinsic value of which is about 
£2, taking the value of the company's property 
cultivated and available for cnltivation at over ±'30, "OO. 
Under the new arrangement with the Ceylon Tea 
Plantations Company, Limited, Sir William Joho- 
eton has succeeded Mr. F. A. Labouchere as secretary, 
and the London expenses will be considerably less 
than during tho past season, — II. and C. Mail, Dec. 16. 
THE "PRODUCE MARKETS REVIEW" 
AND THE TEA TRADE. 
To the Editor of 'Ihc Home and Colonial Mail.) 
Sill,— The articles which you have lately quoted 
from the I'vaduce Markets lieview deserve attentive 
considor.xlion. The writer is a high authority in tho 
branch of trade with which lie is connected— and if 
all his conclusions cannot be accepted, we may wel- 
come his independent attempt to explain what no 
one olbc has yet been able to account for — viz., II e 
continuous docliuo iu the value of tea. It is iw- 
possible to maintain that overproduction is the cause 
in face of the fact that between June 1, 1890, and 
•June 1, 1898, we used more tea than was imported. 
In the interval Indian tea declined 2d and ceylon 
te.i. 3d per lb. in average value. 
The position at the moment is perfectly anomalous. 
Trade is good ; there is abundance of capital at 
command of buyers, owing to the resources of the 
large joint stock companies which now handle tea. 
Statistics are unusually favourable, and yet prices 
for most kinds stand at almost the lowest point on 
record. All experience of the relationship which supply 
and demand bear to sterling value is contradicted. 
Now the writer of the articles trie3 to find reasons. 
and he suggests two principal causes for the deprecia- 
tion of value. 1. The excessive number ot separate 
samples put upon the market by producers, who will 
not take advantage of the Customs' permission to 
bulk together in the London warehouses the small 
invoices which it suits thtm to send down from 
factories. 2' The system of what is, practically, 
forced public auction as the only mediuca of busi- 
ness between seller and buyer. 
To anyone familiar with the practical working of 
the public sale system under present conditions, in- 
stability of value seems to be the natural and inevit- 
able result. 
His diagnosis of the complaint leads him to suggest 
remedies : I. By reducing the assortment of the 
leaf, in order to put upon the market much larger 
lines and a greatly reduced number of separate 
samples. 2. To resume sale of tea by private con- 
tract as an alternative to the auction room. The 
first proposal has been made by London brokers 
year after year, but without much effect. The second 
suggestion is a new one, and if it would effect what 
the writer has in view — viz., the rehabilitation of 
the wholesale dealer as such, the result would 
probably be benefical. Of late years the market has 
suffered from the successful efforts of four or five enter- 
prising and wealthy firms of comparatively modern 
origin to get the bulk of the trade into their own hands. 
Upon their action the strength or the weakness of the 
market now depends. There is sound sense in tho 
argument that producers would benefit if the buying 
powers of the trade were more diffused and contingent 
profits more widely distributed. The debatable point 
is whether facilities for buying privately will set the 
wholesale dealers on their legs again, for they surely 
cannot expect to enjoy them to the exclusion of their 
modern supplanters. 
But I am not writing in order to debate, but to in- 
duce importers to consider the points raised ; and I will 
conclude with a hint to those who desire that sales by 
private treaty should be resumed. They must meet 
sellers in a businesslike spirit, take wider views than 
some buyers do, and not haggle over the farthings ; and 
they must be prepared to hear with equanimity of 
transactions to which they have not been pirties. The 
essence of such business is its privacy. It would have 
been developed years ago if it had not been for the 
obstacles raised by the dealers themselves, owing to 
their jealousy of each other. — Yours, etc., A Seller. — 
//. and C. Mail, December 16th. 
INDIAN TEA ASSOCIATION (LONDON,) 
The following is an abstract of the proceed- 
ings of a meeting of the committee held on 
December 13; — 
Present -.—Mr. D. Gruickshank (in the chair), Messrs. 
A Brvans, II Lyell, J Kiddell, A G Stanton, and 
W H"Verner. 
The Secretary read the notice convening the meeting! 
Minutes cf last meeting, held ou November 29, 
1898, were read and conlirmed. 
Correspondsuce with Mr. Blechyndeu (New York), 
and with Calcutta, which had b'een previously c r- 
culated to members, was laid upon the table. 
INLAND an AMr.K agiiek.ment (.amended). 
.\fler di:;cas.sion it waa decided to recommend 
members to accept the new agrcenuut ai revisud, 
