595 
duty will eimply eurich tbe importer and the grocer, 
who will thus be able to increase their ali eaidy large 
profits while the Govwrnmeut are using tbe fact as an 
excuse for pu\ting heavy duties upon ev^ry other 
article he consume?. 
But there is another aud most seiious view that 
has to be taken of the results that are hkely to 
be brought about if this proposed remission of 
duty is carried into effect, f.nd one that will 
make even the Government pause and consider before 
they finally adopt this policy. It is a well-known fact, 
and one that has been n ptatedly brought before tbe 
community in the public press, that tea is moit liable 
to adnlteratiou, and that the Chinaman loees no op- 
portunity of foisting an iut'erior aud adulterated atticSe 
open auy one that will allow him. To such an extent 
has ihia been done in the past that in Eugland, where 
a special law hiis been pass' d authorising confiscation, 
whole) cargoes have offeu been destroyed to preveijt 
them going in'o consumptio^i. In Victoria and 
Queensland, where specially quiilified oflioers have been 
iippointed to prevent the introriuctoa of inferior 
quality and uuUerated tea, thipments are often co i- 
demned anil prevented from entering the p.irls. Bat 
here iu New South Wales ro such precaLt ous have 
been taken. The only protection that exists is the fact 
tlattcaa imported are un3er Customs Housj super- 
vision, and are f-ampled and weighed by tbe Cui-ti in 
authorilios. Take away this 8Cilit>uj though flight 
gua: auteo by exempting tea from the payment ot liuiies 
and Ousto'i s control, E n ! we give a premium to the 
Chinaman to nnUe thid colony a receptacle, lor all the 
filth and rubbish they cau produce, the only act that 
exists against a lulteration being ab: olute'y inoperative, 
as its wordirg precludes tbe poss hility of inlert'ering 
with anything that does not actually endanger human life. 
Such being the actual potiiion in which the Govern- 
ment proposal places the general public, it remains for 
the so-cal ed " pjor working man" and '.he consumer 
generally to judge the amount of kudos they are entitled 
to for propo-ing to remit the turn of £110,000 duty 
upon tea and place an extra duty ol £836,000 upon all 
tbe ordinary requirements of everyday, life.— fsydney 
Evening News. 
CEYLON TEA 
AVERAGES 
FOR 1891. 
IN LONDON 
As the last public sale of Ci-ylon toa for 1S91 has 
been hi Id in London, we give below iu tabular form 
the results of Renter's and Messrs. Wilson. Sriiithett 
& Go's telegrams reoeived by us weekly during tbe 
la«t twelve mo iths, with similar fiffures for the pro. 
vious year, for the sake of effective comparlKon There 
has not been very much fluctuation iu the fijur( s for 
the weekly average ; and the monthly fl3;ures shew 
even less movement. The latter were as follows: — 
DUltliNO 1890 AMD 1891. 
1891 1890. 1891 
s. </. .s' d. s. d 
0 Hi July ... 0 103 
January 
Febr\ittry 
March 
April 
May 
June 
avuragks 
1890. 
.V. d. 
... 0 Hi 
... 0 10:1 
... 0 lOi 
... 0 lOA 
... 0 10 
... 0 10;; 
1 (10 August ... 0 lOi 
0 10;! Sept, ... 0 11 J 
0 lOif Oct. ... 0 112 
0 9:^ Nov. ... 0 Hi; 
0 9.i Dec. ...OH 0 10 
Prices during the early part of this ye.'ir wire higher, 
and ill tjio latter lov/er, than was Ihe case last year. 
[The aboi e from the looiil " 'J'imes " under- 
ratep, we submit, the fall in prioes in 1891. In 
1890 the prices never went below a monthly average 
of ICld. In 1891, the prioes for the (irat four 
months ranged at Hi^J, once naobing Is. Then 
came a drop to below 101 for 5 tnonth-i, the 
fii^uros for July and August being only 91. October 
lihowod 101, November 9VI, v/ith a recovery to 
lOd ill Deo tinh 'r. Tlio record of 1891 is that of 
the lowest prices over realizel for Ceylon tea, tlio 
rcdooming featuro being the ultimate good ott'octs, 
which wo may take to be oortain, of tho large 
quantity oonauiuod. — En. T. A.] 
THE OEIGIN OF "PADDY." 
la reply to the first queatioa put by our corres- 
pondent " 0. S. V." elsewhere, we would quote the 
following from Yule's " Hobson-Jobson"; — 
Paddy, s. Rice in the husk ; but the word is 
also, at least in composition, applied to growing 
rice. The word appears to have, in some measure, 
a double origin. There is a word hafl/f used by 
some writers on the west coast of India, which 
has probably helped to propagate our uses of padd;/. 
This seems to be the Canarese batta or bhatta, 
'rice in the husk,' which is also found in Mahratti 
as hhat with the same sense, a word again which 
in Hind, is applied to ' cooked rice.' The last 
meaning is that of Sausk. bhakla, which is perhaps 
the original of all these forms. But in MaAsij jiadi, 
.Tavan. part, is ' rice in the straw.' And the direct 
parentage of the word in India is thus apparently 
due to the Archipelago ; arising probably out of the 
old importance of the export trade of rice from 
Java (see Baffles's Java, i. 239-240, and C'raw/wd's 
JU^f., iii. 345, and Descript. Diet. 368). Crawfurd 
(Jouni. Iiid. ArcJ/., iv. 187) seems to think that the 
Malayo-.Javanese word may have come from India 
with the Portuguese. But this is improbable, for 
as he himself has shown (Desc. Diet., u. s.), the 
word ])ari, more or less modified, exists in all the 
chief tongues of the Archipelago, and even in Mada- 
gascar, the connexion of which last with the Malay 
regions certainly was long prior to the arrival of 
the Portuguese. 
It will be seen from the above that the origin 
of the word "paddy" is somewhat uncertain. With 
regard to the second question (or rather questions): 
(a) The word "paddy " is used generally throughout 
the east by Englieh-speaking persons, (h) This ia 
a more difficult question to answer. There is no 
doubt that the word was introduced into Ceylon 
by the English. The Dutch invariably used the 
Tamil word neli for rice in the husk, following 
the example of the Portuguese in this. Vieyra's 
Portuguese-English Dictionary has "nelle, rice that 
has not been peeled." The word is still current 
in the Ceylon Portuguese. Knox does not mention 
the word " paddy" at all ; and the first writer 
on Ceylon that we know of who uses the word 
is Pybus, who in tho account of his mission 
to the King of Kandy in 17G2 speaks of " paddy 
plantations." Hugh Boyd in the journal of his 
embassy to Kandy twenty years later also mentions 
" paddy." Peroival writing at the beginning of this 
century says : " What is commonly called paddy 
ia a very inferior grain." Cordiner writes 
"paddee." From the first of the following 
quotations given by Yule, it will be seen that 
the word was first brought to England from Java 
in the 16th century : — 
1580. " Certaine Wordes of the naturall language 
of Jaua . . . Faree, ryce in the huske." — 8ir F. 
Drake's Voiiarie, iu flakl., iv. 246. 
1598. " 'There are also divers other kinds of 
Rice, of a lesse price, and slighter than the other 
Ryce, and is called Batte . . ." — Liufiefioten, 70. 
1600. " In the fields is such a quantity of rice, 
which they call bate, that it gives its name to the 
kingdom of Calou, which is called on that account 
Baleeahu." — Liicena, Vida do I'adre F. Xarier, 121. 
1615. "... oryzae quoque agri feraces quam 
Saturn incolae dicunt," — .7(h/u:, Thesaarux, i. 461. 
1673. " The Ground between this and the great 
Breach is well ploughed, and bears good Batti/." 
— Fri/er, 67, see also 125. But in the Index he has 
Paddi/. 
1798. " The paddee which is the name given to 
the rice, whilst in the husk, does not grow . . . 
ill compact cars, but like oats, in loose spikes." — 
Slarorinun, tr. i. 231. 
Wilcooke, the translator of Stavorniup, adds the 
following note to tho passage quoted above (the 
author is speaking of Java) : — 
