336 
Tea (OhiEs, almost entirely) 5 to 8 gu'den (Sb 4d 
to 16b 8d per lb.) 
CoiTEE (Cej Ion 1-10 gulden Is. lOd) 1 to 1-20 gulden 
(Is 8d to 28 per lb.) 
Cocoa (prepared in Vienca) -80 to 1 gulden (Is 4d 
to Is 8d per lb.) 
Cocoa (Van Houten's imported) 2 50 guldtn ('li 2d 
per lb.) 
I have further learned that the Hotels and Cafeitven 
when laying a comparatively large stock of tea, 
pay not less than 5 to 6 guldens or 83 to IO3 
per lb.— the duty being but lOd. Now let the 
charges for " handling " at Trieste be what they 
may— the railway freight we know is very moderate 
and great facilities exist in Austria for sending 
even large packets or parcels by post — 
it is impossible that Cojlcn tea retailed at half 
ihe current rates would not show a largo prctit. 
„nd can it be any wonder that the people never use 
:a? Again and again, our answer when pressing the 
^ rtues of tea, has been " Who can a^ord an article 
fOr household use at 6 florins (lOd) the lb? 
While doing the cure or out on holiday at 
Karlsbad, wo enjoy our little pofc of tea (costing 
5d toGd for less than two cups of tea) ; but no house- 
keeper could go on at that rate." Again, one 
Dalmatian lady friend has said :— " 1 am very fond 
of tea ; but a kilo is about all I use in a year," 
against I suppose somo cwt. of cofl'ee ; for her 
husband holds a high ofticial position in Sppolat. 
Again, a poor fruit-eelier's view ot the matter is 
worth giving: — "For 3 kreulzers {little more than 
Jd) even, I can buy an appreciable number of 
beans of coffee; but to get an equal proportion of 
tea, I should want 40 kreulzers!" OE the poor 
agricultural population, cf course " drinking coffee " 
really ireans the slightest flavour from a very few 
beans to the sugar and a large quantity of milk. But if 
once they got to know good cheap Ceylon tea the same 
thing — and even greater economy — v/ould hold good. 
I have done; but before closing 1 should like to 
make one or two suggeetioDs more to the Ceylon 
Tea Fund Committee. I think the publication, end 
wide though judicious dissemination of a pamphk-t 
in German giving an account of Ceylon Tea, its 
growth, preparation, analysis, different kinds and 
corresponding qualities, together v/ith information 
respecting tea generally, in a popular form, could 
not fail to do much good, moro particularly 
throughout Austria — in Vienna and Earlsbad 
especially— but also throughout Germany and all 
the German-speaking parts o£ Northern Europe. 
If illustrated, the pamphlet would be all the more 
useful in aiding the sale and uce of Ceylon teas. 
Again, before the opening of the next Karlsbad 
seaeon, or early in 1892, I thick the Committee 
should arrange to send free packets (cs samples) 
of Ceylon Tea to every Medical Doctor, Hotel, 
Cafe or Kestaurant in Karlsbad, with their com- 
pliments and perhaps one of the ' Tea Circulars" 
prepared in the Observer office, wrapped round each. 
♦ 
THE INDUSTRIAL FUTURE OF AUSTRALIA. 
At a time when political changes are going on 
in our Australian colonies — when in a sense they 
are approaching political manhood — "An Ausira- 
lian " takes ccoa=ion to survey their condition 
and cftfit their horoscope. Wo need to be re- 
minded of the things described in tho r.rticles 
entitled " The Commonwealth of Auofmlia," the 
second of which wo publifh to-day. They m.-iko 
us understand Ihc p'trdonablo impatience of colonists 
at the ignorance ot EijgliHhmeu as to the great 
Ifilaud Continent, peopled by thoir own kin, and 
they give the imprcKsions of na Australian, who. 
visiting England and senng its industrial achieve- 
menta, is not the less pleased with them, because 
he knows that in his own land the same race is 
repeating the triumphs which made England what 
it is. Our contributor takes stock of the re- 
sources of his country, at a time when its political 
future may be uncertain, but when ils industrial 
future is assured. In days whtn Australia was 
very little known, it was supposed, for slender and 
fantasiic reasons, to ba doomed for the moat part 
to sterility. Its fauna and flora seemed to be 
imperfect monstrosities. Ihe gum-tree and the 
kangaroo were products of Nature bungling or at 
her worst, and geographers wrote Ic-arueuly about 
the invincible barrenness and inheient poverty 
of the land. Even after the gold discoveries 
had given an impulse to Austraha, it was taken 
for granted that it could have no feature com- 
parable to that of the United t-tates. But all 
tuch predictions havo turned out erroneous; a 
vigorous race, full of resources, has set them at 
nought. The whole of Australasia is more than 
26 times as large as the Unittd Kingdom, more 
than 15 times as largo as France, and almost 
equal to the Continent of Europe or the United 
.States. Such are the figures, as given by Mr. 
Coghlan, the Government statistician of New South 
Wales — whose investigations respecting the amount 
of crime in the different colonies have made him 
known here, and our contributor shows that, far 
from being stricken with barrenness, very much 
of that tract may be utilized by Englishmen. The 
whole ot New South Wales, South Australia proper, 
half of Queersiand, more than half of Western 
Australia, all Victoria, Tasmania and Nbw Zealand 
— that is, about 1 985,500 square miles — lie in the 
temperate zone. About two-thirds as much is 
wi'.hin the tropics ; but no small part has proved 
to be fit for Englishmen to live and labour in. 
" A tropical temperature," our contributor observes, 
" has never yet deterred gold-miners from working 
on a payable fi^ld. The quality of the wash-dirt 
or quartz, not the story toJd by the thermometer, 
decides their movements." And so he writes with 
confidence cf the case with which difficulties of 
climate can be overcome ; and undoubtedly there 
are scarcely limits to the capacity in this respect 
of an industrious race. Tho Lombard peasant 
works longer, harder, and 10 more purpose, under 
a fir-rce sun, tb'an the Irish peasant farmer. The 
industry of the fellah or the ryot is scarcely 
surpassed by that miracle of pertinacious thrift, 
a French peasant proprietor. Moral causes have 
as much to do v.ith the matter as physical; the 
''white trash'' in South Carolina and Georgia, 
who did not work because — as was said in slavery 
days — ot the climate, now begin to do so, when 
slavery, is gone and the opprobrium connected with 
work has passed away. We should give no heed 
to the pt'Esimist views about the capacity of 
Australia, and indeed all parts of Australasia, to 
be the homes of a vast people, if tropical heat 
were the only obstacle. But the tabular statement 
of tho rainfall of Australasia reveals a more 
serious difficulty. " More tlian one-third of Austra- 
lasia has to get nlont^ as best it can with an 
average annual rainfall of less than 10 inches. 
More than a fourth can only boast of between 
10 ir. and 20 in. And throughout all this dry 
country the rainfall is irregular as well as scanty." 
Even within the 10 in. line irrigation can do, and 
has, in fact, dene, much ; sheep are reared, and 
the finest wool is grown, wheie once was pnly a 
desert, varied by sparse, stunted vegetation. Tanks 
and wells are being dug ; in New South Walea 
alone a sum of four millions sterling has been 
expended upon the construction of tankst The 
