August i, 1890.] 
THE TROPICAL AGR!CULTUR1ST, 
chasing other properties. From the Chairman’s long 
and close connection with Ceylon, and from the inti- 
mate knowledge of the planting districts possessed by 
the Managing Director and the Ceylon Staff, the Com- 
pany has had exceptional opportunities of selecting and 
securing some of the best Tea Estates in the Island, 
and the Directors believe that these properties will 
materially strengthen the Company’s position. The 
Estates are all Freehold, and the following is a Schedule 
giving the acreages, districts, and elevations. Those 
maked thus * are the more recent acquisitions. (Then 
follows a list of 14 estates aggregating ; — 
C3 ^ . 
o 
acres. 
3,815 
e3 ,0 a 
e-S 
acres. 
1,098 
H 0) W (D OJC-I ^ 
grf d rtf 
ft c r; P S . 
fco g o -5 s 
CH 2 B r® 
C5 o 
acres. acres, acres, acres. 
392 127 2,328 7,760 
The small acreage under Coffee, at the present value 
of the product, yields satisfactory returns, and in 
addition to the area planted with Tea and Coffee, 
there are many thousands of Cinchona trees on the 
properties, which are also expected to prove a source of 
revenue, as practically no further expenditure is neces- 
sary for their cultivation. 
The Company is doing a large and remunerative 
business in manufacturing Tea for other proprietors, 
and also as agents, making advances against crops, and 
in carrying on a commission business in all matters 
relating to Tea Estates. 
The net profits earned last year were £23,370 14 8, 
and, it is expected, with the additional area under Tea, 
the profits for the current year, on a carefully pre- 
pared estimate will amount to £29,000. This would 
leave fully Eighteen per cent available for dividend on 
the Ordinary Shares and for Reserve, after setting 
aside sufficient to pay interest on the Preference Shares 
now offered. 
^ — 
OUR INTERVIEWS. 
THE BUDGET AND THE TEA TRADE, 
A Talk with a Tea Expert. 
Whether Mr. Goschen foresaw the extensive develop, 
ment of the tea trade which would follow when he made 
his Budget proposal to reduce the tea duty by 2d per 
pound, is open to question ; but the fact remains that 
there has been a very substantial increase in the deli- 
veries, for on comparing the months of April and May 
(that is the month before and the month after the in- 
troduction of the reduced duty) with the same months 
of last year we find the important increase of more 
than five million pounds. In fact, the result of the 
reduction of the duty justifies the contention of the free 
traders that increased trade follows removal of duty, al- 
though no doubt something is also due to the growing 
popularity of “ the cup that cheers,”, and the increased, 
sobriety and temperance of the people. The increase 
which during recent years has taken place in the pro- 
duction of tea has entirely revolutionised the tea trade, 
for the total supply of this country, which not long 
since was derived from China and Japan, is now prin- 
cipally drawn from India and Ceylon. The greater 
portion of the China crop has been gradually diverted to 
other countries, in many of which, even at the present 
time, it continues to be more appreciated than the less 
known produce of India and Ceylon. 
These facts were accentuated in an interview which 
the representative of The Oracle had a day or two ago 
with Mr. Wilson, a well-known tea broker, and a mem- 
ber of the firm of Gow, Wilson, and Stanton of Rood- 
lane. 
“ Yes.” commenced Mr. Wilson, “ the deliveries for 
April and May were immensely heavy as compared with 
previous years, though it did not surprise me, as I know 
the way in which the trade has been growing. Some 
of the increase may be accounted for by the fact that a 
good deal was hold over for the Budget, but even mak- 
ing allowance for that, the increase was very heavy.” 
” What will be the effect of the reduction of the 
duty ? ’’ 
“ It will benefit good classes of tea at the expense 
of the bad ones, by causing th“ demand to increase for 
the former, and decrease for the latter, hence it will 
help British grown tea, and the result will be that 
eventually China tea will be 
Squeezed out op the Market. 
Indian and Ceylon teas are much stronger than the 
Chinese article, so that it is really a battle between the 
weak and the strong, and we know which must go 
to the wall.” 
“ What do you think is the position of the public 
in regard to the reduction of duty ?” 
“ I think the public are buying better teas ; that is 
to say, they are paying the same price, but getting 
better tea for their money. The 2d. is really, at this 
moment, being divided between the planter and the 
consumer, but you must not forget that owing to the 
rise in the price of silver, the cost of pn duct'on has 
gone up quite to the extent of Id. in the pound of tea. 
I think the Silver Bill will have an effect on prices 
generally. The exact figure is I2J per cent added to 
the cost of production by a rise of 2d. in the exchange 
value of the rupee. All produce which comes from the 
East will feel the results of the rise in the price of 
silver, and if it goes too far there are many tea gardens 
which will not pay to work. That will very likely make 
A Crisis in the Tea Trade. 
In all the principal tea-producing countries, labour, 
and everything else, is paid for in silver, and if the 
price of silver goe.s up, ic will make everything dearer, 
machinery and all.* To show you the growing import- 
ance of the Indian tea trade, and the decay of the 
China trade, I will give you the figures fir April and 
May in this year. In April the deliveries in China 
tea amounted to 4,685 000 lb. which increased in May 
to 11,510,000 or about double. In Indian tea, in April 
the deliveries were 6,155,000 lb. which increased in 
May to 14,492,000 or nearly three times the amount of 
last year ; while in Ceylon tea the deliveries rose from 
1,334,000 lb. to 5,019,000, or nearly four times more.” 
The Annual Return. 
“These figures complete the statistics for the season 
1889-90, and show that India and Ceylon have ex- 
panded their deliverie.s — India having increased 16 
million pounds within the last two years, and Ceylon 
having more than doubled in that period. On the 
other hand, the deliveries in China teas have fallen 
from 116,810 000 lb. in 1887-8 to 87,60u,000 for the 
season just closed. The Foreign Office report, just 
issued, on the trade of Tamsui for the past year, 
says : ‘The tea season of 1889 has been most unsatis- 
factory, both to foreign and native merchants. The 
teas of the island, which formerly had a distinctive 
character, are rapidly losing it, owing to the reckless 
competition amongst Chinese buyers for the Amoy 
market, and the careless preparation and fraudulent 
admixture by them of the teas after they have come 
into their hands from the growers. With the increas- 
ing eompetition from India Ceylon, and Java, in the 
opinion of those most competent to judge, the 
Days op the China Tea Trade are Numbered, 
unless steps are taken by the Chinese themselves 
in the direction of radical reform.” 
“ Will the loss of the English trade affect China to 
any appreciable extent V’ 
“ Oh, no ! 100,000,000 lb. of tea is but a small drop in 
the ocean of what Chins could produce. Their own 
population consumes hundreds of millions ot pounds. 
There is no necessity for China to send us tea at all.” j' 
* Most of the machinery is imported and pnid for 
in rupees the full equivalent of its gold prices, so that 
we cannot follow Mr. Wilson here. — Ed. T. A. 
f Except in this way ; that not being able to pay 
in tea for English goods, she will have to pay more in 
the shape of silk or some other product, or iu money 
Or the Chinese will cease to consume much of English 
manufactures which they now use. In Canton, a city 
of over a million people, we saw very little of Euglish 
goods in the shops.— E d, T, A, 
