494 
fHE TftOPICAL AQRIOULTURlSt. 
[January i, 1892. 
MAEKET FOR TEA SHARES. 
To the E litor of the Home and Colonial Mail. 
Sir, — The atteatiou of my Bo.ird has beeu oalied 
to a state nent in your issue of 20th inst. under the 
above heading, in roferenoe to au offer for this 
company's property having; been unconditionally refused 
by the directors. 
The facts aro : — Two offers wore received, and both 
the offering cosnpaniea wore informed that the off vrs 
woald be stibmittel to the shareholdsrs, bat before 
this ooald be done both vv>>re witadrawa. I shall h-^ 
obliged by yoar iuaorti'ig this correction in your neit 
issue. — I remain, sir, yours &o., 
Edward *^a'-teu. Secretary. 
The Wilton Tea Company of Assiin, Limited, 
27, Augtiu Friars, London, Nov. 25th, 1891. 
THE INDIAN TEA COMMQNIfY. 
TO THE EDITOR OP THE "HOME AND COLONIAL MAIL " 
Sii', — I uotice that your corre^po'iden', iVIr. D F. 
Shillinsfto-i, responds, in you' last, to my letter of the 
previous wpeif. My remirk-i had rpfereaos, not so mach 
to mnt'er.^[fiujh as Mr. Sh-llini;''0n alludes t j, as tooi-hecii 
h-iying a wid'^r bearing such as the quest'oas of opea- 
ing lie 'v markets au ! jjenerally pushiiig the m°rita of 
Indian tea. I am fully in accord, howover, with Mr. 
Shiilinijton as to arrangiua; upon a beUer btsis >h ■ 
Biles in Mincing L'\iie, which are now s ) very larg s 
I believe nl0^t per-ions eaga^/ed iu tae tra 'e, .vbether 
irapori^era an 1 growe s on tiie one side, or d alers au 1 
buyers on the other, are agre d that it ia merely a 
matter of arraugem^nc ; unless, however, there is some 
pulling together and cor Hal co-opera' ion ara jngjt th-! 
priricipil parties contruUinfj the trade, it is mauifest 
that thin;ia willgo fro n bid to worse, vary much, as 
Mr. Shillingto:i pjintso'.it, to the dc'riment alike of 
buyer and seller. Last yeir at the urgent call of the 
most go iheiJ repreaiutitives of th.! larj^e imp )rtiug 
houses and c jmpaai-38, a sub-femmittrie was appoiutod 
by the la linn Tea Di.stricts' A sjcia'iou to deal with 
this matter, and an instruction t) them was to arrange 
with the Miucing Lane •' brokiua" firms to formu- 
late some Hcaeme wuich would obviate the present 
rtther auicidal system (or, rather, lick, of system) 
which prev lils. Unfortunatoly, the "broking " houses, 
powerful though they are, apppar to have altogether 
failed to accomplish what was require !. It is imon- 
oeivable how this has been the case, and the failure 
to effect tha desired object poiota as its cause to po tj 
jeilou iea amoupj the ' brokiug" houses V'^ry unwor'hj 
of the standing which they occupy. Perhipa it m*j 
put somT of them "oa their m^ettle " to ktiow that 
qiite recently proposals hive been made in certain 
quarters tor the formation of a co-operative selling 
agenov among the importing hiuses, wh.ch, if roi\lly 
carri 'd out, wouid probably result in doing away alto- 
gether with tha nooessity for the presently-existing 
broking houses. 
I do not meau to aver that such a schema is just 
•t present pracMcihle, nor even desirable ; butlall ide 
to it iu order to impress upou the " broking" frater- 
nity that owing to the Uck of combinative povver 
whioh appears to exist umo ig tae d, a scheme of this 
sort ii actually " in the air," and is regarded in cjriain 
quarters as not only possible but quite feasible 
B'ifore tea irapo-tcrs are driven to such a ciurse, 
surely the large " brjking" houses, who^e usdfulnesa 
the importers are quite ready to recognise, will he 
able to find home method whereby the present diffi- 
culty c»n bo overcome and tho uecaa=ity for such a 
step .lUogelher avoided. 
What .Mr. Editor, I would a">k, is tho Ro-ca'l;d 
Urokers' A-sociiilion doing tha' it porniit? a scheme 
Huoh as this, which would pra itically cnfr a.vay the ground 
from hooeath the feot of the whole Mincing Line 
br.jking fraternity, being every mooted?—! am, Sir, 
yours &c., 
LoudoD, Nov. !25th. Obsehver. 
SUPPLIES OF INDIAN AND CEYLON 
TEAS. 
Judging by tho corroapondence in our last two 
issues, it is evident thf,t the future supply of Indian 
and Oaylon te»s ia causing both buyers and eellera 
to look forward with some degree of apprehen^fion. 
Wo have always favoured the view that the more 
the better, and that if it became a choice between 
Inriiiu an 1 China tea the latter would be displaced 
rtther than thf? former; but since <,'eylon tea has 
arrived in BU';h rapidly increasing qutntities year 
by year the situation ha<! become more complicated, 
and al' parties are now agreed fhat th'' consuming 
poA?er of the English market has beeu overtaken by 
sjch a superabundant supply that nnl^as new out- 
lets can be opened there mus^ be a farther deolme 
in values to an utterly ur rerauof rative point. Our 
cont-mporary, the Produce MarJcets' Review, makes 
the following very psrtment observations on the 
subjf'ct : — 
" Tho future development iu the production of Indian 
tea points to a large increase, and acjord^ng to the figures 
recently issued byth-Iniiau Tea Planters' Asaocia- 
tioa, it will reauh 150.0)0^001) ib. during tho next two 
yea's, witlioutany additi .nal area of cultivation. This 
coupled with a pro'iabie increase of from 30 to40 per 
cent in the pro3uctioo of Cevloo tea d'lring a similar 
pjriod, will give a supply more than pq :al to 'he total 
delivery of all tea, bo'h for home cou-umptioo and 
exp )rt, for tho past twelve mouths. ^Shojld this take 
pi ice, and it is certiiniy not improbable, it will be 
tieoassary to open up new ontleti for the surplus 
supplv, as o'herw -e prices must lall to a disa-trously 
low level, which woi.d, howevt^r, hive th-) effect of 
ch=!okin .'production. Tho export < of In Jian tea a though 
comp ir^.tiv ly sm^Jl, are sto.i tily increasing, but they 
will requi'e to bo greatly accelerated if they are 
to keep pace wi&h the increas'sd supplies. Those 
intvtrestad in this industry, thoreforo, wdl do well to 
study both th« manufacture of the tea aud the likely 
pacsag's to meet with favour, wliare tha prospeota 
a^e most encouraging 'or breiking n>iw ground. Judg- 
ing of the probabiiitifs of tho future export demand, 
tho United Stales of Aimrici and Oinada are the 
countries mos*^ likely to show the greatest developmeut. 
One of tho moat importtnt considerations is to assi- 
milate the leaf to thit of Ohina Congou, as appear- 
ance is a leading feature. Thora is also an objection 
to the largeness of present Indian packages, and 
to meet this complaint it will b ; obviously neca^iSary that 
a certain port'o i of the tea, an 1 e'pacially that most 
suitable for export, should be pioiied iu half-eh sta 
containing from hfty to sixty pounds, an J at uniform 
ta'Cs." 
We see no reason why our own E istern dependencies 
shoull not saek to supply the world with tea Every- 
Wiare iu which Indian an I Ceylou teas havehitU-rto 
found amirket, the result has been a cectaiu grorvth 
in the don^nd an 1 a ra»nifeit apneeiition oi the 
quality. But, we confes", we view with regret the 
ve-y mirke I deprec it on in the avsrage quality of 
the tea ssut to th L mdoa m irket this season. AVe 
cannot tlii.jk that the best interests of either India or 
Ceylou are serve i by unduly increasing the production 
of wli\t the buyers class as vcrv third-rate. Piites this 
sea oa are probably at the lowest point ever seen, and 
we must add that never in our recollection have we seen 
nuch an undue proporticn of undesirable tea offered. 
There his, no douht, been a steady decline in the 
generally Rcce,pted htandard of quality for several 
years past, owing to competition among retailers and 
" present " tea shops ; but the descent this season 
haa even outstripped, iiimmy cases, the desires of 
tho Dio.st hungry seekers after "tea for price." It be- 
comes, therefore, matter for very grave consideration 
whether it would not pay planters much better to stay 
their hands somewhat in regard to fresh exteusiona, 
and try to manufacture a rither smaller quantity of 
rither better tea. (yhina tea has been displaced simply 
because tha quility did not bear oomparisoQ with 
Indian aud Ceylon growths. But the retail dealer in 
tea has now aoqnired a very oeamopolitan tastS) and 
