January i, 1892.] THE TROPICAL 
NOTES FROM- OUR LONDON LETTER. 
INADEQUATE SAMPLING OF CEYLON TEAS— .SUC+- 
GESTIONS WITH BEGABD TO MINCING- LANE 
SALES — MB. BOGIVCJB's MISSION IN BUSSIA — 
CEYLON AND INDIAN TEA IN FBANCB — CEYLON 
TEA IN AMEEICA AND ME. BLWOOD MAY — 
STANLEY AVBIGHTSON TEA CHESTS — CEYLON 
ESTATES TEA COMPANY — LANKA COMPANY — A 
NEW COMPANY FOR BRITISH NORTH BORNEO. 
London, Nov. 20. 
My last letter contained very full reference to 
the question at present under discussion with 
respect to the insuffioieaoy of time allowed lor 
the effioient testing of the .samples of Ceylon 
teas. During last week the Tea Committee of 
the Ceylon Association considered this matter, 
but was unable to arrive at any decision as to 
the course to be taken, though it made several 
suggestions to be conveyed to the parties interest- 
ing themselves aa to some remedial action being 
taken. The nature o£ these suggestions has 
already been conveyed to you by me, and the 
leading brokers have expressed the opinion that 
i£ they can be aotod upon great relief will bi 
obtained. 
Bat the experience of last Tuesday's sales 
proves very conclusively that the real remedy 
rests to a very great extent with the brokers 
themselves, though these complain that they 
are not free agents in consequence of the 
pressure referred to in my previous letter put 
upon thein by their constituenls to press 
sales on. Now the sales of Ceylon tea of 
last Tuesday week included no less than 18,716 
packages in 798 breaks. In each of the 
latter there was a sample. These were not, 
except in a few instances, available for tasting 
before the day preceding. It was a manifest 
impossibility for the intending purchasers to 
properly test these before the sales opened. 
Competent authority has expressed the view that 
the irregularity of the sales and the depressed 
prices obtained on that particular Tuesday were 
almost entirely due to this fact. On the Tuesday 
in this wesk there were less than half the number 
of breaks offering as compared with the week 
previous. The result to ihis was thus expressed 
in the market report of the day following the sale: — 
" 17th November 1891. Supplies were offered in a 
more manageable quantity of samples, there being 
less than half the number of breaks that were 
ofiered last week. Consequently the sales passed ofi 
with a very firm tone, and the irregularity noticed 
last week has to a large extent disappeared." 
Manifestly it is the duty of the brokers to so 
arrange their sales that such an overcrowding of 
the market on any particular day should be avoided. 
It cannot be diffloult, one would think, to average 
the supplies to be put forward. If your planters 
are to secure the proper result to their labour, they 
should take steps to place the brokers in a position 
to do this ; and this can only be done by allowing 
to them a greater latitude in selection oE a day 
for oflering than is at present given to them. 
27i(; Citizen of the 14th November contained the 
following paragraph, certainly extracted from Messrs. 
Gow, Wilson & Stanton's tea circular. You will 
see it embodies the main point upon which I have 
previously written you: — 
" The foUowi'jg will interest those ia the tea trade : — 
'The present rulo of devoting MondayR and Wednes- 
days to auotiouiug Indiiiu tean, Tuesdays to Ceylon toi, 
aud TUuradays to both kiuds, has now been ia force 
more than throe years. Since its inatitntion the output 
from both ooauttiea has ho va3tly iuordaseJ, that ru 
alteration ia the acraugeoieut of public suotions is now 
AQRIOULTUmST. 481 
generally recoguised as likely to be beneficial to both 
iudU3t-i63. Not oaly have Mouday'a auctions of lodian 
tea of late besn occasionally very heavy, but last Xu?f- 
day's CeyloQ sale of 18,716 packages comprised so large 
a number of breaks (798) that it was iin[JO)fible for 
buyers to give careful attention to the entire sale — Ibe 
result proving most untortuuate for importers. The 
obvious course to pursue, cow that Oeylou has grown 
so enormously siuce tbt; present plan was adopted, 
seems to me to devote luore dayo to the t.a!e of Ceylon 
tea. This would euable dealers to distribute tlieir 
purchases over a longer time ins! eat of operating 
praetioally only oucc a week, as they are now compelled 
to do, owing to the objection of Oeylou importers lo 
sell late on Thursday?. To iacilitate tfiis operation, it 
may become necestary to hold auctions of Coylon tea in 
a separate room from Indians, a result which might 
u!timat;ily be advaut^igeous to both imlustnee, although 
perhaps at first attended wi'h tome slight incot- 
venicncep." 
With reference to the final suggestion of the 
above extract, it has been mentioned to me that 
if Ceylon sales were to proceed simultaneously 
with Indian sales, and in a separate room, buyers 
would be placed in a considerable difficulty. 
They might want to purchase of both kinds, 
and it would be impossible for them, of course, 
to be in both rooms at ouoe. Some, how- 
ever, think that this difficulty would prove 
in practice to bo mora fancied than real. Aa 
to the provision of a second room, I have been 
told this week that it would be perfectly practicable, 
there being no sparsenoss ol the accommodation 
required in the existing building. What course will 
be determined upon remains yet to be seen. 
Possibly, I should say, all the remedies I have 
suggested may be given a trial to, or even all of 
them, V'Z : — ^Ist, greater discretionary power given 
to the brokers by you: consignors ; 2od, the 
averaging of quantities to be offered on particular 
days ; Brdly, the conducting of the Oeylon sales in a 
separate room from that devoted to Indian, and 
simultaneous selling ; and 4thly, an alteration in 
priority of offering at the Thursday's sales. Either 
one or other of these several courses must afford 
coasiderable relief, and it seems certiin that the 
trade will not allow the present unworkable system 
to much longer continue. 
My letters recently mentioned to you that Mr. 
Rogivue had experimented with a Oeylon tea kiosk 
at the great Russian fair at Nijui Novgorod. At 
the time of my writing, the source from which 
funds for this experiment had been derived 
was unknown to me ; but from what has 
since reached me it would appear that Messrs. 
Spenoe, Willis & Co. undertook the whole finan- 
cial responsibility of it. From what has 
before been written you upon this matter by 
me, you will have learned that Mr. Rogivue con. 
sidered the result of that firm's enterprise to have 
been a suocessful one. 
You will recollect that very recently, as the final 
result to rather disagreeable correspondence between 
the Ceylon A:sooiation in London and your Planters' 
Association, the latter approved of suggestions 
made by the first-mentioned body as regards the 
agency i.r the sale of your teas in France. In 
this connexion it will interest you to know what 
progress has been made by that agency which works 
the Palais Imlicii tea houses in Paris. At the statu- 
tory general meeting of his Company the Chairman 
gave very full details of what had been accomplished, 
He told his au iitors that their work had been taken 
up in continuance of what had been done 
at the Paris Eshibition, and to prevent the 
fruits of thoir labour there from being lost tea- 
rooms had been fitted up in the Iniian style in 
the most frequented parts of the city, at which 
pttre Indiau tea ia sold iu uup aud iu packets. 
