THE TRDP10AL AGRICULTURIST. [SEPTEMBEk i, 1891. 
dyes or the most potent of drugs, it requires nO 
prophotioal- powers to anticipate the early period 
when opium also, which has decreased very con- 
siderably in quantity and value, will take rack 
below tea. That is, if over-production and the now 
formidable oompetilion of Ceylon do not impede the 
advance of tea production in oontinental India. The 
large figure for grain and pulse, is, Mr. O'Couor ex- 
plains, due to an exceptionally large export of rice 
from Lower Burma, in conaequeoce of the failure of 
the rice crop in Japan. Burmah was cirawn upon 
not only to supply places where Japan rice had 
previously gone, but to meet the wants of Japan 
itself. The results are the figure of nearly 20 
millions of Rx. pounds as the value of food grains 
exported, and Ex900,000 collected _ as duty on 
rice, that grain, from the necessities of the 
revenue, being the only article amongst ex- 
ports which is taxecl. The statesmen and finan- 
ciera of India feel the anomaly of this additional 
tax on an article of food which has already paid 
land tax, and th->y would gladly abolish it, if they 
could safely do so. Buc the Government must 
be carried on and the Pas Britannica preserved. 
All the imports liable to duty in a tariff as free 
trade as that of Britain gave a sum considerably 
below the export duty on rice, the total levied 
on liquors, salt, opium, petroleum, and arms and 
ammunition being only Ex774,000,— the aggregate 
customs duties being thus Exl, 674,000. Petro- 
leum was subjected to daty on the same principles 
as those applied to rice : the necessities of Govern- 
ment and the ease with which appreciable revenue 
could be levied on an article of exceptional 
magnitude, which it was felt could fairly bear 
the burden. The consumption of this mineral 
oil in India is enormous, and the tine in which 
it is imported are in use by the people for the 
most varied purposes, from Cape Comorin to the 
border of Afghanistan. Mr. O'Conor states:— 
Mineral oil has increased, and the vigour of Russian 
competition in this article with the United Stations 
is indicated by the fact that, though importations 
from Russia commenced only three or four years 
ago, last j-car 38 per cent of the total imports were 
from that country. It is perhaps not rash to anti- 
cipate that before long this proportion will be doubled. 
The oil is good, and as freights from thfi Black Sea 
Bra lower thaa freights from the United States, it 
c .n ! e sold more cheaply than American oil, and 
ciienpuess is what the native wants. 
And if EuBsia is ousting an American produot 
in the commerce of India, Germany is to a 
more serious extent superseding France. The 
combined effects of the bounties on beet root 
sugar and the extension of Gorman steam 
navigation to India are, that in the o.ie article of 
sugar, the imports into India had risen from a 
value of Ex550,000 average in the period 1874-75 
to 1879 90, more than an equivalent quantify being 
exported, to Exl,840,000 in 1886 87 to 1890 91, in 
which latter period the export was only El, 058, 000. 
India, therefore, the original home, probably, of 
the sugarcane, and in which it ought specially 
to flourish, has her markets overwhelmed with 
refined beet sugar from Germany, the result of 
sugar bounties and steam subsidies ; while 
the illegitimate attempts of the United States 
authorities artificially to raise the value of silver, 
have seriously and in many cases disatrously 
disturbed the money markets and commeroo of 
the world. The Indian Government has benefited 
largely by the higher exchange, the increased 
value of the rupee, and especially tbe extensive 
investments in rupee paper. But individuals have 
been injured and speculation, both in silver and 
in gold has been wild and in many oasea ruinous, 
tivit we must devoto more (ietailed atteutsoQ on 
a future occasion to Mr. O'Conor's able review 
of the almost anarchical position of exchange and 
the value of the precious metals, with the effects 
on commerce and industry, during 1890. 
The notice of Indian tea exports is as follows : — 
The export of tea has continued ou an increasing 
Kcole over 107 million pounds having been exported; 
but the iocrease (tbout 3 per cent) has not been so 
great as in former yeara, and it would seem that, the 
active cotcpetion of Oryloa — now that China has been 
beaten in tbe race — is bcginniDg to tell. The Uuitc-d 
Kingdom imported in 1890 about 101| million pounds 
from India, while the imports of China tea had 
fallen to Ibbs than 74 million pounde. But from Ceylon, 
ou the other hand, ihera were imported about 42§ 
million pounds, a remarkably large quantity consider- 
ing the recent commencement of tea cultivation in 
that island. Ceylon his certainly great advantaijcB 
iu its greater nearutsa to Eagliod aud to Australia 
than Calcutta and the consequent smaller freight 
that has to be piid, iu the cose proximity of the 
tea gardens to the port of shipment, in the abuiidint 
and cheap labour supplied to it from the adjacent 
ports of Southern India, in climatic conditions, imd 
in the excellent quality of most of th<; toa pro- 
duce. The planters of the island have also been able 
to profit by all the experience gained in India and 
to avoid the mistakes that were made here in the 
earlier days of the enterprise. It may be well for 
tea planters in India to recognise distinctly that 
the pushing competition of Ceylon must inevitably 
bring about i i the uear future a permanent fall in 
price unless we can largely widen our markets, the 
two largest markets in America and Australia being 
still practically held against ns by Japan aud China. 
What Mr. O'Conor says of the American 
market (including only the United Slates under 
this term, for the case of Canada is more hope- 
ful) is quite true ; but the review of the Austra- 
tralian tea market which we give elsewhere shows 
how rapidly Indian and Ceylon are gaining on 
China. Nearly 6,000,000 lb. of Indian tea and 
about half that quantity of the Ceylon product 
had been imported into Australia in the season, 
and these teas were fast advancing in favour. — 
A change this since 1880-81, when the repve- 
sentativea of India and Ceylon at the Melbourne 
Exhibition were subjected to virulent abuse for 
daring to speak or write in favour of products 
which threatened to disturb existing and very 
profitable monopolies in the import and sale of 
China, largely of the " post and rail " quality 
which was thought good enough for " the bush," 
«■ 
REVIEW OF THE AUSTRALASIAN TEA 
SEASON 1890-1. 
(From the Melbourne Argus, July 24th.) 
In following our usual custom of reviewing the tea 
season of the past 12 months, we find that important 
changes have taken place — changes that affect the 
various ports of shipment, the local mode of distribu- 
tion, aud the financial results. 
CHINA TEA. 
Under this heading we find Foochow sending to 
Australia and New Zealand only 15j million pounds, 
against 21 and 24 millions during the two preceding 
years; Hankow and Shanghai sending almost nothing ; 
and Hong Kong and Canton rather an increasing 
quantity — principally shown in a much heavier weight 
of Canton kooljo3 for blenders and a diminution of 
low-grade Tayshan congous. With the shipments 
from Foochow there has been, besides a marked 
reduction in the quantity sent forward, a far greater 
change in tbe relative proportions of the usual grades. 
The stronger demand from London diverted all the 
clean, sweet, oomon congous, leaving our requirements 
for "price" leaf to be badly filled with low, coarse 
