May 1, 1899.] THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULT CRIST, 
781 
-that any shareholder may desire to ask and 
now beg to move tlie following resoluiioti : — 
" Tliat liie report and accounts be adopted.'' 
The proposal was seconded by Wr. H. Tud and 
carried unanimously. 
Mr. White then moved the re election of the 
auditors Messrs. Harper Brothers, which was se- 
conded by Mr. Dangerfield and carried unani- 
mously. The meetino; concluded with a vote of 
thanks to the chairman, directors and managers. — 
//. ami C. MaU, March 22. 
TEA IN GKEAT BRITAIN. 
IS THE DUTY TO BE IISICEEASED ? 
This will be definitely known on April 13, when 
Sir Michael Hicks-Beach places the Budget be- 
fore the House of Commons, but the following 
remarks taken from the columns of the York- 
shire Post, a leading provincial conservative paper, 
seem to point to the possibility :— 
We are now within a fortnight of the end of the 
financial year. The Statist thinks that the revenue 
will much exceed the estimate which Sir Michael Hick- 
Beach placed upon it last April, and that the Chaa- 
cellor of tlio Exchequer will be justified in anticipa- 
ting a still larger yield in the coming year. Trade no 
doubt coutiiuiea good, the foreign and colonial out- 
look is better politically and commercially. If only 
our e.\penditure could be held in check the path of 
the Minister of Finance would be rosy. But that 
will not lio possible. We are already committed to 
an e.xpendituve which cannot be met by the existing 
standard of taxation, however buoyant m?.y be the 
sources of revenue. Assuming that we m.iy reckon 
on an income of £109,000,000 — which would probably 
be something like a million more than that of tlie 
present yea.r — there must be a deficit in prospect of 
at least three millions, for the estimated expenditure 
is not less than £112,000,000. We are still in the 
dark as to how this margin is to be met. The grocery 
trade is, we observe, somewhat agitated over the 
possibility of some of its staple commodities being 
affected by fresh taxation. Most of the controversy 
seems to circle round the item of sugar, but an Edin- 
burgh firm of tea merchants has had its eye upon the 
warning we offered ten days ago that the charms of 
tea might well attract the attention cf Sir Michael 
Hicks-Beach, and has embodied it in a circular 
which it is issuing to its customers on the sub- 
ject. The Grocer also takes note of the contin- 
gency, and counsels the trade to be on the alert and 
make provision against the evil day. It is unnecessary 
to say that wo pretend to no specific knowledge of 
what is likely to happen. What we said on the subject 
was said in the way oi' argument that if fresh taxa- 
tion is necessary it should come in the form of an 
indirect charge such as would fall equitably on all 
classes, and that there is no reason why the reduc- 
tion made in the ted, duty a few years ago should 
be regarded as permanent under all circumstances. 
No doubt there is a larger party in favour of a 
restoration of the sugar duties, and of course tiiere 
is behind this feeling a desire to hit the bounty-fed 
sugar and to assist the West Indian planters, liut 
if the Government selected sugar for revenue raising 
they would scaict-ly place the tax on the basis of a 
countervailing duty on bounty-fed sugar. They would 
be raising two thorny questions at once instead of 
one. The objection to reviving tlie duty on sugar 
at all is that tugnr has bec:iine the raw material 
for a very inipoilant indnstry in this (onntry, one 
that is vastlj- gi rater and moic widesni-ead :isa source 
of cmp'oynient tlmn that ot tiie rehneues, which 
were injiir^d by ilie influx cf cheap sugar from the 
bounty-giving cjuntiie-i. 
NO SUCU OlLTKCriCN 
applies to the duty on tea. It is a mere article of 
domestic consumption, and if we could afford to pay 
a sixpenny duty on tea a few years ago we can 
bett:er afford to pay it now, when the coat of pro- 
ducmg It IS lower and the wages of every class are 
higher than they were then. 
It is wliispere.l (say.'; another London Correspon- 
dent) in weli informed City circles that the 
tjovernment, instead of announcing increased taxa- 
tion in ihe forlh-coming Budget, will propose 
a loan, to be called the " War-ship Loan," with 
the object of paying for the nece.ssary naval in- 
crease. Particulars, it is understood,' liave not 
yet been delinitely concluded ; but the amount 
will, of course, be for some millions, and the 
interest iirobably 2h per cent. 
South African FnuiT.-Says the Spectator- 
Cape growers are not handicapped, as are those 
in the West Indies, by want of adeciuate steam 
service or easily reached markets. The hu<'e in- 
crement of wealth in the gold-lields has caused 
passenger lines to increase their steamersin number, 
size, and accommodation. These steamers, meant 
to carry those enriched by the goldf-elds, or those 
who in hope of being rich are careless of expei • 
diture, are the ideal vessels for fruit transport,— 
speedy, roomy, and furnished with ample cold 
storage. Yet Cape fruit, except the little black 
grapes, is very dear. It is still a cosily luxury, 
not a popular delicacy. The Japanese plums 
grown m South Africa were this week selling at 
a shilling a piece in Covent Garden, Cape peaches 
were eighteenpence each, and pears eightpence. 
Ihe quality of all three kinds was perlect, but 
they conld only be regarded as specimen fruit. 
\V bile the crop remains dear and uncertain it is 
not strange that little Cape fruit is yet imported, 
compared with the demand. The blame lies en- 
tirely at the doors of the groivers themselves. 
Iheir Government; is endeavouring to awaken 
Afrikander opinion on the .subject. They need 
teaching that only the best fruit is wanteil he're, 
that this must be carefully sorted, beautifully 
packed, so that in the package the fruit looks like 
a piece of decoration, or, at least, as fresh as 
when plucked, and that then the Engli.-.b public 
will pay a good price for it. At present the far- 
mers are iiio.stly too ignorant and indolent to do 
tills. Ihefimt, as the Government botanist com- 
plains, IS thrown into kerosene tins, or any chance 
receptacle, and sent off to be hawked about the 
local towns instead of being properly graded and 
sold m Europe and America. 'I'liey should be 
taught the methods of California. Unlike the 
Cape, California has no near markets, as at Cape 
Town and Johnnesburg. The shortest journey is 
to Chicago, two thou.'^aiid five Inindied miles by 
rail, whic!i costs £10 for every ton of frnt. New 
\orkis three thousand live liundered miles distant 
yet tens of thousands of tons are sent by rail 
to each city. They also .Miip their fruit another 
Uiree thousand miles by sea from New York to 
England, making six thousand five hundred miles 
in all ; and they make this p.ay, though their rea- 
son IS the same as our own. If California had 
the season of the Cape, and could get its peach 
and grape croj.s into our market in the winter 
and spring, it would double its indnsdy But 
the organi.-^ation of the Californian giower^ is per- 
fect. The Fiuit Grower.s' Union, in "acre shaies" 
so that the .smallest and the larg. st owners are 
members collect.s the fruit, dc'-patcbes it, and 
finds a market. The Cape growpis have only to 
study the Californian .'•y^tem of business and mo- 
dern modes of culture, and Nature will c<impleie 
an industry as valuable as the goldlields and more 
lasting. 
