March i, 1892.] 
FROM THE METROPOLIS. 
LoNBOM, Jan. 15th. 
THE CEYLON TEA rijANTATIONS CO., LD, 
Calling at the Minoing Lane cffioe of the Com- 
pany two dajs ago, I was fortunate enough to 
meet Mr. Euthetford, whom I had missed twice 
CD previous occaBiona; but eorry to learn that Mr. 
E,eid had left for Scotland the night before, 'ihe 
Chairman of the Company has, in fact, been far 
from well : he had a sudden and severe attack 
(connected with his Indian experience of dysentery), 
and had to cancel public engagements to epeak at 
political meetings. Ho is now ordered to bo very 
careful of himself or some time to come. Mr 
Rutherford, on the other hand, is in robust health — 
stouter and ruddier than in the Ceylon days. He 
gave me the news that the proposal to invest some of 
the funds of the Company in coffee in the Straits 
was solely to meet the reaommendatlona of their 
Oeylon Manager, Mr. Talbot, and by no means 
because Mr; Beid or he himself were eager for 
this addition to their busincEs ; indeed, if they had 
been, th'y could easily have outvoted the opponents 
led by Sir Wra. Gregory. But the suggestion was 
simply made to see what shateholdera thought of 
it, and it was Mr. Rutherford who quoted my re 
marks at the Royal Colonial Institute on the good 
prospects belore coffee at Povak. The Innancial 
World of Jan. 9th has an amusing article on the 
meeting of the "Ceylon Tea Plantations Co,' 
headed "Tea vs. Coffee" with an illuatraton of' 
the doughty chairman — (the future Unionist M.P. 
for Kinross-shire as we hope)— in full Highland 
costume in the act of pouring out the oonteats 
of a breakfast cup inscribed ''Straits Settiemenis 
Coffee." Toe subsorip.ioa to the engraving is 
"Mr. David Eeid is compelled to abandon his 
oolJee," The same journul, as Mr. Rutherford 
showed me, had, on 9th May last, a similarly amusing 
illustration on a meeting of the Ceylon Tea Company 
showing "how Mr. David Eeid, Sir W. Johnstone 
and Mr. Shand ei joy their tea" sitting at the 
board. I mention so much ; but I hope this mail 
will carry to you copies of the journals and 
" electros," so aa to enable you to republish both 
notices for the edification and amusement ol the 
numerous friends of those gentlemen in Ceylon. 
• However, all concerned feel now that it will 
be best to keep the name of the premier 
Tea Company of Ceylon free of extraneous 
speculation or investments and if need be start 
a separato and coffee company specially for the 
Straits. When I say "premier," I think I am safe in 
speaking of the Ceylon Tea Plantations Company as 
the most important in Ceylon tea, but Mr. Ruiher- 
ford tells me that the Eastern Produce and 
Estates Company Vias rather more acreage under tea, 
namely some 9,000 acres ; but a good deal of this 
must be on old coffee laud I fancy. 
TEA PRCDUCTICN AND CONSUJirTION. 
One subject that came up with Mr. Rutherford 
was the probable export of Tea from Ceylon for 
1892 : he is inclined to take a very moderate view 
of the probable increase (some 7 or 8 million lb.), 
considering that the enornioua rise in 1891 was 
duo very much to a very excepti nal season. 
But I pointed out the large addit ional acreage 
in our Directory planted between 1888 and 1889 
(2'2,000 acres), and 1 fancy Mr. Rutherford will 
agree that less than 7() million lb. can scarcely 
be eutimatod as the total export froam Ceylon this 
year. He ia hopeful, I am glad to say, about the 
future of consumption, though ho ntioipates the 
posaibility of ovon lower prices (by a shade) during 
tho ourrout year ! Such a result could not fail to 
givo Ihg dii 'jnice to the China trade whiob, 
indeed, no one expects to see assume its recent 
importance again, so far as the United Kingdom 
is concerned. 
CEYLON TKA IN AUSTRIA. 
It is very satisfactory to learn, ( ffioialiy from Mr. 
A. Philip, that the Tea Fund 'Committee are to 
consider and, it possible, act on some of tho 
suggestions I macte in reference to pushing the 
sale of Ceylon teas in Austria. I am hopeful 
that Messrs. Shand & HalJane will follow up 
t' eir trade in Switzerland by endeavouring to 
supply the Karlsbad market. Meantime I am 
gratified to have in addition to Mr. Philip's, 
another letter of thanks from Mr. Charles Osawald, 
Winterthur, for what I wrote about Vienna. 
Ho is confident that the sale of Ceylon tea will 
beeomo very considerable there, by and by. 
* 
BARK AND DRUG REPORT. 
(From the Chemist and Druggist. J 
London, Jan. 16th. 
CiKCHoKA.— The first auctions of the year took place 
on Tuesday. They Mere of sraall extent, but the 
assortment offered was a fairly good one. The catalogues 
comprised :— 
Packages. Packages- 
Ceylon... ... 48S of wliich S2'^ were so'd 
East Indian ... eOO „ GOO ,, 
Java ... ... 365 „ 365 „ 
Soutla American 2G6 ,, 265 ,, 
African West Coast 210 ,, 167 „ 
1,929 1,719 
The assortment of bark wag of good average quality 
yellow and grey barks being very plentiful in it, -while 
there were ali^o 2oi packages of Darjeeling bark from the 
plantations in Northern India. This shipinent was well 
competed for, tliough the prices it realised show a sad 
falliDg-o£f on those which the Darjeeling planters were 
accustomed to obtain for their bark whenm formed a 
rcgulr feature ofthe Ijondon aucticES. Fro the c(m- 
men ement the sales showed a decided improvement on 
their immediate predecessors, end as they neared their 
end competition became more pron unced. Nearly 
he whole of the bark offered was disposed of at an- 
tirregular advance, ranging from 5 to 15 (in some in 
stances even iO) per cent over the price of the last 
liondon auctions. The unit now stands at Ija to IM 
per lb. 
The following are the quantities purchased by the prin- 
cipal buyers :— j i- " 
Agents for the Mannheim and Amsterdam works... 112,624 
Messrs. Howards & Sons ... ... ... 6D237 
Agents for the Auerbach works 42,550 
,. American and fitalian werks 38,680 
,, Brunswick works ... ... 25 165 
,, Frankfort o/M and Stuttgart works 12,750 
Suudryi druggists.. ,., ... 40 850 
Total quantity sold ... ... 3-11 755 
Bought in or withdrawn... .., [[', 4o,'e35 
Total quantity of bark offered 382,400 
It should be well understood that the mere weight of 
bark purchased affords no guide whatever to the quinine 
yield represented by it ; firms who buy a small quantity 
of bark by weight frequently take the richest lots 
and vice versa. 
The Ajiebican Qdinine-duty.— From a statement 
in the O , P. and D. Reporter, it appears that 
the duty on quinine in the United States has been 
altered ten times since 1832, although the customs 
taiiff itself has undergone about thirty revisions 
since that year. Erom July 13th, 1832, to Aug, 
30th, 1842, the duty was 15 per cent ad valorem '; 
It was then changed to 40o per oz. On July 30th, 
1846, it became 20 per cent ad valorem ; on March 
3rd, 1857, 15 per cent; on March 2nd, 18G1, 
once more '20 per cent ; on August 5th, 1861, it 
was raised to 30 per cent ; and on July 14tb, 
1802, to 45 per cent. There it remained for ten 
years until May 1st, 1872, when it was lowered 
again to 20 per cent. On July let, 1879, the duty 
was removed altogether, and since then quinine baa 
remained on the free lisL—Chemist and Druij'jisi. 
