Sept. 1, 190b. J THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
167 
hear.) Now, while I am on the subject of supply 
and demand, I would like to bring to your notice 
another factor, a factor which I do not think 
has been taken into account, but which I be- 
lieve will be most important factor in the 
nearfutuiein the Ceylon tea enterprise. As you 
are aware, during;, the last three yrars the tea 
proprietors of the lowcountry have been certainly 
making no piolit, if they have not been working 
at a less. On that account, as you will remember 
in the days of coffee, when they turned their 
attention to cinchona, they are now turning tlieir 
attention to planting these tea estates with rubber. 
I was astonished to find it stated in the adminis- 
trative report of the Kegalla district that no les.s 
than 4,000 acres of rubber had been interplanted 
among the tea in that district. That is only one 
district, and if we consider what is being done in 
other districts I would not like to say how much 
rubber has been planted, but I would cot be at all 
astonished to learn that from ten to fifteen 
thousand acres ot lowcountry estates have been 
interplanted with rubber. In the Kelani Valley, 
Kalutara, and minor lowcountry districts there 
are 60,000 acres of tea, planted in land all more 
or less suitable for the cultivation of Para rubber, 
and producing about 25,000,0001b of tea. It 
beconaes a question that is worthy of considera- 
tion. What is going to happen ? and if we take 
also into consideration the possibility of green tea 
being a permanent production, even if it does not 
increase beyond the 12,000,000 lb now pro- 
duced, we are face to face with the fact that if 
this rubber succeeds better than tea the whole of 
that 25,000,000 1b may in time vanish altogether 
from the black tea output. Apart from the pos- 
sibility of this stale of affairs coming into exis- 
tence or not, we are face to face now with the 
fact that the British-grown tea available for this 
country at the present time, after allowing for the 
demands of other countries, is falling below the 
ever-increasing consumption of the people of this 
country. As a corroboration of this statement, I 
would refer you to that most excellent report of 
Messrs W aud'H Thompson published last week — 
a review of the tea trade in which they deal with 
this question. Now, what would be the inevitable 
result of this? If there is a shortage of tea it 
must be found by some other country. Java is 
steadily increasing its output, but China alone 
can easily fill up this shortage, and whatever may 
be said to the contraiy I think there is a risk of 
the consumer being foiced to buy China tea if 
cheapness is his only consideration. Now, what 
is our position? There aie remedies, though I 
almost diead to mention them. There are tl ree 
remedies, and two of them could be put into 
immediate operation, the remedy of coarse 
plucking, which we must continue to avoid ; 
the remedy of heavy manuring, and the third 
remedy, wliich would take some considerable 
time — I mean the opening up of fresh lands. No 
Association has power to i)revent any of these alter- 
ternatives being resorted to. But these considera- 
tions open up a very great field of thought which 
I am not prepared to enter into today, although I 
think they are well worthy of consideration. The 
view I have presented to you may be a startling 
one, seeing only a year ago we were bemoaning 
over-production, and it may bethought that I am 
looking too far ahead, but you will agree with me 
that seeing we do not look upon this tea industry 
as being of an ephemeral character, but as one 
which we hope has a permanent exi.steuce before 
it; it is therefore the iluty of this Association to 
study the signs ot the times, and to watch every- 
thing connected with the industry, and sometimes, 
at any rate, take our eyes off the small details of 
the day-to-day work of our business, and take a 
wider view. I believe the time is approaching, if it 
has not absolutely arrived, when it is not so much the 
exploitation and expansion of new markets that we 
have to look to, but to hold the markets we have 
already, at so much trouble and expense, been able 
to secure ; and I believe this can only be done 
by producing a quality of tea which consumers all 
the world over cannot do without. (Applause.) I 
move the adoption of the reports and accounts. 
Mr, R A BosANQUET seconded the motion. He 
said he had listened with very much interest to the 
■words which had fallen from Mr Kutherford, and 
he wished to endorse everything he had said with 
regard to the absence of Mr Bois. Having worked 
with Mr Bois on many occasions in Ceylon it had 
given him even greater pleasure to have an old 
friend to work with again at this end, and he 
hoped the day might come when, if not in the 
presidential cliair, yet still holding office in the 
Association, he might be well to the fore, and 
again taking an active part in its woik, (Hear, 
hear.) Mr Bois carried with him the confidence of 
men both at Home and in Ceylon, and it was a 
great thing, when work had to be done, that 
peop'e should be working together in harmony, so 
that when they took a pull it might be a long pull 
and a pull altogether. With regaid to the work 
done during the past year, a certain portion 
of it, as they knew, had fallen on his (the 
speaker's) shoulders solely because of the 
absence of Mr. Bois. Naturally it would 
have fallen to Mr Bois as the senior member of 
the Tea Clearing House sub-committee, and it 
was with great reluctance that he had taken 
upon himself, of necessity, the work which had 
devolved upon him. The result of it the members 
had laid before them at their last meeting in 
that room, and he could only regret that on that 
occasion their chairman, Mr Rutherford, was not 
present to occupy the chair. It would have been 
better for them and better for the Association, 
because what he had said that afternoon came a 
little late, and he (Mr Bcsanquet) had listened 
to him with a ceitam feeling of disappointment. 
He had thought as he went on his way in that 
work, laying as much as possible of what passed 
before Mr Rutherford by correspondence, owing 
partly to that gentleman's absence from London, 
that Mr Rutherford was very much of the same 
mind as he was himself. But he gathered today 
that Mr Rutherford did not agree with the steps 
that had been taken, and thought that the work 
of the executive council of the Tea Clearing House 
should be limited to the old routine of clearing 
lea and documents. He must say that at the 
general meeting, at which they passed the 
resolution in favour of the new scheme as 
it bad been drawn up, there was a lack of 
enthusiasm in that room in par'iing the reso- 
lution which was most marked. He had 
realised it, ar.d his feeling when the meeting 
was over was that they had not taken a step in 
advance. He could not lake the view of Mr 
Rutherford with legaid to the executive council 
of the Tea Clearing House and its work — not the 
work that it was immediately formed to do, but 
the work that if necessity arose, it might do. Every 
