THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September i, 1891. 
getting rid of this trade allowance. It seems unreason- 
able that the buyer of a 25 lb. box of tea should have 
the same allowance made to him as the 
buyer of a hundred and fifty pound chest has, 
but if it were not bo you get into fractions and the 
trade naturally abhors the introduction of fractions 
into book-keeping; besides things are cut so fine that 
the buyer aeriously considers the draft when pur- 
chasing tea. 
Dismissing the question of trade allowance which 
must not be looked upon as loss, my experience of 
actual loss comes very near that of Mr. John Hamilton. 
The following is the result of the last twenty sales 
for which we have rendered accounts to Ceylon : — 
lb. 
Amount of tea invoiced . . 104,224 
Sold .. .. .. 101,975 
Draft on 1,478 packages . . 1,478 
Loss .. .. .. 771 
104,224 
There was a time when the Oolombo Wharf, the holds 
of ships and the wagons or barges which conveyed tea 
from ships to warehouses would have accounted for 
a good deal of this loss, but packages have much 
improved and I do not think there is much loss in 
transit now, and the want of an even tare is the root 
of the evil. 
Japanese chests as a rule tare more evenly than 
Ceylon. made chests, and there is consequently greater 
loss in the use of the latter. 
One of your correspondents wants to know what 
wo have to do with tare and why dealers cannot con- 
tentedly buy his chests said to contain 50 lb. of tea. 
This simple system would work well by conveying 
a tiu of biscuits from Abiam Saibo's shop to your 
oorrespondent's bungalow, but in sending goods from a 
warehouse perhaps over several different railways to 
their destination, tare cannot be dispensed with, Even 
with the check of gross, tare and nett weighing we 
sometimes find that a hardy grocer in the north 
defies Her Majesty's Customs certified weights and 
deolicies to pay for more tea than his own weighing 
mastine shows him to have received. 
Fine teas of course show greater waste in bulking 
than coarser teas, not because they are high-priced, 
but because of the finer grain, and your correspondent 
will I think find there is greater loss or dust than on 
any other tea. 
AVhat it is most desirable we should get at is how 
the tsre isaffected by the voyage home. 
Our London Association asked the Planters' Associa- 
tion to help us in a test case, but so far nothing has 
been done. If any planter will take this up and pack 
a break, say partly in Japanese and prsrtly in Ceylon 
chests, weighing in beam scales, which is the most 
reliable weighing machine of all, and arrange that bis 
agents should personally see the weighing done on 
this side, he would confer a benefit upon all interested 
in the growth of Ceylon teas. 
My experience is that the preventable loss is farless 
than your correspondents calculate, but is still a very 
serious loss of about three-quarters per cent which an 
even tare and a careful system of weighing can do much 
to minimize. — Faithfully yours, J. L. Shand, 
OUR LOCAL TEA COMMITTEE AND THE 
CEYLON ASSOCIATION IF LONDON. 
It is much to be regretted that there should 
have arisen any risk of friction between these two 
bodies. Lot us, before discussing the position, 
Hubmit to the minds of our readers the broad 
facts as originally existing. A Mr, Lough (sea 
notice of hie enterprise elsewhere in today's issue) 
has been foremost in the endeavor to introduce the 
practice of drinking tea among the Parisians. 
Desiring to extend the business he has created 
in the French capital, he asked for reoognition — 
not be it observed for pecuniary help— by the 
(^ejlQa AsRooiatioD in hoaioa, Xbq Tea Opm- 
mittee of the latter body met to discuss Mr. 
Lough's proposals, and with a single exoop. 
tion — that of Mr. Hutchison of the Ceylon 
Tea Growers Company— (Mr. Lough seems to be 
connected with the " Tower Tea Company,") 
accepted them in a limited degree. Mr. Hutchison 
stated Mr. Lough to be the vendor of packet 
blended tea labelled in a most deceptive way, one 
most injurious to the reputation of Ceylon tea, and 
he embodied his objection to the support promised 
to Mr, Lough in a letter, not intended to be made 
public, to an agent of his own company in Ceylon. 
This letter was submitted to the Tea Committee 
of the Planters' Association, and the ex-parte state- 
ments made by Mr. Hutchison were acted upon 
in a manner likely to give considerable annoyance 
to the Tea Committee of the Ceylon Association. 
The resolution passed was highly condemnatory 
of the course followed by the sister Committee 
sitting in London. The members of this body were 
summoned to consider the oommuaication received, 
and the purport of the letter addressed by their 
Secretary to the Planters' Assooiation was given in our 
London Letter by last mail. We cannot but think 
that the London Committee did wisely in refusing 
to either consider or pass any formal resolution 
on the subject. No doubt they felt much annoyed 
at the rebuke passed upon their aotioa, and this 
feeling would probably have found strong expression 
had any formal resolution been agreed upon. As 
it is, although we can hardly consider that the 
home Committee can be altogether acquitted of 
some rashness in dealing with Mr. Lough's appli- 
cation for recognition, the letter addressed by their 
Secretary in reply to the imputation, made clear, 
at all events, that there exist two sides to the 
question, and that they felt bound to sink some 
very natural feeling of annoyance at acts committed 
by Mr. Lough, in order that they might avail 
themselves of his services, these being, according 
to all accounts, of an exceptionally valuable 
character. The letter referred to urges on behalf of 
Mr. Lough that he could plead personal ignorance 
of the act of false labelling which had been 
going on under his name ; that when it was 
brought to his notice at the meeting referred to, 
he took immediate steps to put a stop to the 
course complained of and withdrew the objection- 
able advertisement relating to it which had up to 
that time appeared in the Grocer. He therefore made 
the amende honorahle in the fullest degree, in 
accordance with a promise made by him. Thus 
purged of further offence, the actual work done by 
Mr. Lough might be weighed in the balance, and it 
received full acknowledgement of its value by the 
Home Committee. Mr, Lough has undertaken at 
very great personal cost and trouble the labour of 
creating a taste for tea drinking among the French, 
and his efforts have had some considerable 
amount of useful result, in which he asked that 
Ceylon tea might share. It would, perhaps, have 
been hypercritical to have refused to grant to him 
the small support he asked should be given him by 
the Ceylon Association in London. It cannot be 
denied, we think, that our own local Committee 
wrote in too strong terms solely upon the authority 
of Mr. Hutchison's private letter, which had not been 
written to be seen by the Committee. We cannot 
be surprised that the rejoinder from London, in addi- 
tion to its other arguments, expresses regret that 
such condemnation as was passed should have 
been determined upon without prior reference of 
Mr, Hutchison's letter to the London Committee. 
We trust that the incident may pass over without 
further friction between the two committees, for that 
which has arisen is mugh to be regretted and its 
repetitioQ (lept9QAt§(}. 
