359 
downward movement that has caused tremendous 
lo5sca, and iu many cases rniu, to those who have 
maintained faith in the marlset price of the arlielo. 
The largo deals, the excitement, and the final failures, 
occurring when a price of $3 was predicted na the 
bottom figure im 1880 and thereabouts, will no doubt 
be vividly remembored by many members of the tread. 
A noteworthy feature o£ the market for large bulk 
here for some time past is the fact that our prices 
are below a parity with those quoted in London. 
There are several the^rifs t 'uable an to the causes lead- 
ing to this condition of aff-iira. One of these in that the 
foreign manufaclurers u>-e this market as a dumping 
ground for their bulk goods, preferrintj to Fell bore when 
they find it necessary to realize, even ^it a little under 
current prices, rather tb»n to demoralize tbo markets 
nearer tLeir own houses. Another theory ia to 
the effect that owing to the speculative spirit of 
AmericftiiB much larger quantities of quinine have 
been carried by outside speculators here than is the 
case in L mdon. When one of these outside holders 
becomes disgusted and concludes to pocket bis loss 
ho is nearly always compelled to break the market 
in order to unloa'l. Still anoth r factor iu the market 
ia the change which lias occurred in the mstbod of 
handling the alkaloid. While pbysieian-i' prescriptions 
formerly offered an outlet for the bu'k of the drug 
used, now the prinoip d demand is from tbo public 
direct, who purchase the coated pil s in bottles o; 
100 each. Where half & dozen or a dtzen pills were 
formerly ordered by the phjsiciao ; be now merely saj s 
" get a boltlo of quinim pilip," and as a conse- 
qaeuco, the pill makers have come to be probably the 
largest purchasers of bulk goods, and purchasing in 
a largo way, they come to be very close buyers. 
The gradual increase in the percentage yield of cin- 
chona barks has also tended to reduce the uont of 
manufacture, and the heavy production of bark has 
kept the crude materia! at a low range of values for 
Bome time past. 
With these agencies militating against an advance 
the future of the drug looks dull indeed, and it re- 
quires a sanguine disposition to he able to predict any 
material change fvr the better. It ia true that a curu- 
bination ot the half dozen manufaolurtre might bring 
about higher prices, but iu view of the attitude as- 
sumed by some of the largest manufacturers such a 
combination is scarcely to be counted am' ng the im- 
raidiate probabiiiliea. — Oil, Paint and Drur/ Reporter. 
« . 
A TALK ABOUT TEA. 
(Jii/ the Pilgrim.) 
The abnormal weather still seems tbo chief topic 
among my Assam correspondents. F^oai D:brugsrh 
a friend writes, " I really believo it geis hotter every 
day instead ot cooler. Wo ara back again into the 
old blazing he-it, and I am nearly doue up, I have 
no'", felt the luas the whole se»Eon as much as I 
have doue the last few da^s. Xhsire has rot been 
a cloud in the sky for a week ; the sun juat Mazes 
from G a.m. till 6 p.m." 
Enargelic rushes rouud the Kanjari are out of the 
qu8Bliou under i-uch circuoisiauces ; ar^d naturally 
there ia a good deal of sickness amongst the coolies. 
It is very hard to get a full day's workout of them ; 
the unusual beat dispo^^'s them to s'ink iut i shady 
spots under couvenieut trees whenever the ''tojS-eyo" 
id oil' (hem. 
From Nowgoug it ia the same story; everything 
very much in want of rain, and a very uuhiultliy 
bcason i= tbo report. A correspondeat writes : " 'J'her- 
mometer at 9(i" iu the verandah toiiay, and the whole 
place parched up." One of my Tezpur correppoudeiit.H 
rays: "The weather I rcKistered iu my list contin;-ed 
until the 'lActX of September, when wo had a fall of 
I'll inches, so wo have now bad d'lS inches this 
inoiilh. This wi>h a total of 5''J9 inches for Augu^t, 
ab ut btiits the rtcord. (Surely wo must huve boaie 
rain to oo.no yet : 1 trm sure I hope so." 
The mosl curious part of the matter is that, iiot- 
wilhbliiuding all this abnormal drought and beat. 
outturn does not seem to bo suffering, to any practical 
extent, so fwr, at least. The correspondents from 
whose letter.^ 1 have quoted above seem all pretty happy 
on the subject of their crop for the se.asou. The 
Dibrugarh man is keeping well up to a revised increased 
estimate; Nowgong smiles oheerfuUy as he saya 
"done fairly will, nevertheless; over 300 maunda 
aheid of last year to date;" while my Tezpore 
frieurl talks of thousands in a lordly way, that takes 
the wind out of poor managers who atrugle for tena 
and o'-dy meution hundrels when they are " balking" 
after dinner. /V man who can make 1,800 manuiia in a 
dry moLitb like this So;)tcmber has been, who ex- 
pected to close over 9,000 maunds, and who placidly 
remarks "that will average about 13J miunds per acre" 
— such a man ought to filter out bis information in 
instalments. It seems a size too large to grasp en 
block. I am very much afraid, however, that unlesla 
Ooto' ec turns out pretty wet which there seems very 
little chance of it doing at present, the dry weather 
and beat of the paat month must tell ; and a rapid 
decrease in outturn aud an early "shut up" all round 
may he lookei for. 
Prices nro very far from being a chterfdl 
subject jost now- It ia significant of the slate 
of the market that not a single garden iu Assam 
and Oachar, and only one iu Darjiling, got 
an average of two fii,ures in last week's sales. There is 
only one garden iu Darjiling which bais scored up to 
eleven annas. And the solitary two figure Darjiling 
eleven suna average is contributed by Pekoe and broken 
Pekeo. no lower class teas. The average of the sale 
appears to be ebout six annas, and this is not exhila- 
rating. The homo sft'es are a trifle more cheerful, and 
average of a shil ing aud a half-penuy for Assam cn 
8,48-1 packages having been attained, and some ixiarks, 
notably the well-kriown Jukai Company's PanitoUa aud 
Hakanpukri mark-j showing up gradually with aver- 
ages of to I5, Oschar aud Sylhet do not come out 
so well, averaging; S^d. lor 3,701 packates. Darjiling, 
as usual, tops the fitt with 2,432 piickages, avera- 
ging 1-1 i- 
One consolation, as I rsniarked in my last letter, is 
that if this extraordinary weutber co-itinues, and out- 
turn consequently suttiTS, prices must eurely rise, as 
supply will fall below estimates considerably. Every 
sorrow La? its twiu joy. 
I see " Sam. Hoeaith" is to the fore again on the 
labour quention. Ho did yeoman's service in the 
"brutal planter and poor oppressed coolie" business 
a c juple of years ago, when the Native press were 
suffering from an unususlly severe spasm oC righteous 
indignation ; and iiis invitation to Gaugooli' Babu, 
the secretary to some Assoeiatioa whose august de- 
aiguation 1 forgot, to come and sea things for 
himself choked thiit geutlemau aud his colleagues 
off for a while. I thiuk tbis is " Sam's" first ap- 
pear.auce iu print since his return from bis trip 
home. "More power to bis elbow." If he ciii, by 
ctirring up tbo Calcutta Tea Association, the Dis- 
tricts Labour Aesociation, or any Association at all, 
ouly Ducceed in getting that wretched arlcatti sys- 
tem of recruiting knocked on the head, he will 
deserve a statue uppo.sUo the Diiirugarh Club. I 
ftar it is iaipossiblo, as has been attemptof, to re- 
tain the system under proper checks and restrio'iouj 
these look love'y on papo.-, but they don't work, aud 
there is nothing fur it but to abolish the arkatti, extir- 
jiate him root and branch, and rely upon sidari re- 
cruding, pure and .simpio. There may be, undoubtedly 
tlie e would be, a grout deal of difficulty at first. 
Gnrdea sirdars sent do.vu to recruit are often 
utteri7 UiiSuccessful ; hut tliat again is chiefly due 
to the mscbinaiiees of the arkatti. L ;bour mu-it be 
had ; and if sirdais can t set it, it must be bought 
aeiiuehow. Mr. HogHrib iu his pan:. 3 and the follow- 
ing one clearly thowa the uL'erly objectiouublo poiuti 
oi the arkatii sjstem, and the ditticulties the sidar 
labours under, as opposed to him. His last paragraph, 
too, is deserving of ii.ost aerions considor.ition. That this 
disgraceiul system of "man selbng " has grownup, 
and tliat lh.,< planter has to tiepcud on it thieify lor 
his labeiir supply, is no fault of his, but ia directly 
I due to the native agitatious against the then existing 
