i76 
THE TROPICAL A'QRICULTURfST- 
[September i, 1890. 
without any weighing at all. This should be seen 
to it such a practice prevails, for two pounds 
excess in a quarter chest is a serious one for your 
shippers and planters. 
After this digression by way of warning state- 
ments, I may get back to the third heavy item 
of expenditure to be incurred by the bonders, and 
that is the repair of broken boxes. When a bad 
voyage has been experienced, probably a dozen out 
of every hundred of metal or wooden boxes receive 
injury and require repair before being issued to the 
trade. I saw some of the metal boxes so bulged 
as to crack, and others with the lids so dented in, 
that, if left out in the rain, water stood in a 
pool on the surface and gradually leaked through 
the disturbed joints to the tea. As for the China 
wooden boxes, some of them scarcely deserved 
the name on arrival, and all of these had to be 
made good by the bonder’s staff. So you can realize 
that the charges mads on tea received here are 
not representative by any means of clear profit, 
though very probably some agencies manage to 
add considerably to the warehouse charges when 
their accounts of receipt and expenditure are made 
up for consignment to their constituents. 
My reference to tea boxes reminds me to make 
mention of the fact that all the tea received ex 
“Carthage” in the etanley-Wrightson chests has been 
sold this week at full prices, it being in “ real 
good condition." This fact being ascertained, and 
confirmation to it having been afforded by the 
price paid by experts for the tea, the next step 
the Syndicate will take will soon have to be decided 
upon. You have already had sketched out to you 
by me an outline of what is contemplated by it, 
viz., the establishment of a factory for the 
manufacture of the board required from mana grass in 
order to avert the existing uncertainty attending the 
importation of the board from Holland. To 
carry out this programme efficiently, more capital 
than is possessed by the present Syndicate will 
of course be required, and the first step for consi- 
deration must be how this money is to be obtained. 
We observe that you have been noticing lately 
the use of a lead paper introduced — so we under- 
stand you to say, to the Ceylon planters by Mr. 
Kirwan. When reading your observations upon 
this new material, I felt desirous of learning if 
anything was known about it by the tea trade 
here. As the result to my inquiring I found 
that this lead paper is well-known and freely sold 
in London, and that it is the same as that in 
which the tea arriving home in the Stanley- 
Wrightson chests was packed. My examination of 
the paper of those chests proved to me that it 
was an admirable substitute for lead, and of course 
far less weighty and costly, while to those ad- 
vantages it adds that of economy in space occu- 
pied. An expert who examined the chests with 
me told me he believed the days of the use of 
lead for packing tea to be fully numbered. — Lon- 
don Cor, 
♦ 
Thbke Samples of Tobacco, grown in Madras, were 
recently submitted for the opinion, in regard to their 
quality and value, of the leading tobacco brokers 
and manufacturers of the United Kingdom. The 
reports of the 14 specialists to whom the samples 
were sent, including among others Messrs. Sales, 
Pollard and Co., and Messrs. Charlesworth and 
Austin of London, Messrs. Cope of Liverpool, Messrs. 
Lloyd and Son of Exeter, and Messrs, Thomson and 
J^orteuBof Edinburgh, seem to afford encouragement 
to the efforts which are being made to improve the 
cultivation of tobacco in tho Madras Presidency. — 
M. Mail, July 24th. 
INDIAN, CEYLON AND JAVA TEAS IN 
LONDON. 
Owing to differences of climate, Ceylon tea has 
appeared in the Mincing Lane markets, since the 
commencement of the tea season, in larger quantity 
than Indian, while the increase this season in Java 
has shown well in proportion to the increase in 
Indian. The figures for Indian from 1st June to 11th 
July were ; — 
Packages. 
India: — Season 1889-90 ... 40,118 
Do 1890-91 ... 51,325 
Increase ... 11,207 
^ <i rv Ir Q . <7 0 a 
Ceylon:— 1889-90 ... 68,429 ' 
1890-91 ... 93,111 
Increase ... 25,682 
In absolute quantity Ceylon shows not far from 
twice the number of packages of Indian tea, while 
her increase on last year is considerably more than 
twice the increase which Indian tea shows. 
Java is advancing, the comparison being : — 
Packages. 
1889- 90 ... 5,001 
1890- 91 ... 7,751 
Increase ... 2,750 
The exports from Britain of Indian and Ceylon teas are 
increasing, but as yet the vast proportion of teas ex- 
ported are China kinds. The deliveries of tea in 
June were 8,6.30,000 lb. of Indian and 5,163,000 of 
Ceylon, — the aggregate being 13,793,000 lb. against 
6,059.000 China. The ehange since June 1888, three 
years ago, has been remarkable. The deliveries of 
China, then, instead of being less than half those of 
its two competitors compared thus : — 
lb. 
Deliveries of China tea ... 8,438,000 
lb. 
Irdian...5,360,000 
Ceylon...!, 594,000 6,954.000 
Difference in favour of China ... 1,484,000 
The difference against China in June of this year is 
indicated by the following figures : — 
lb. 
Deliveries of Indian and Ceylon teas 13,793,000 
China ... 6,059,000 
Difference against China ... 7,734,000 
There has seldom been so complete a revolution in 
a trade and in public taste. 
Sugar in Fiji.— Among the passengers who left 
Suva for Sydney by the S. S. “ Waroonga” was 
Mr. Wm. Good, Sydney manager for the Fiji 
Planters’ and Fruit Growers’ Co-operative Asso- 
ciation and Agency Company, who returns to the 
scene of his operations. Mr. Good takes with him 
some splendid samples of an accidentally obtained 
variety of cane which he has cultivated recently 
to some extent, and which is called the Muanawini 
(after the plantation). This new variety shows 
remarkable strength and vitality, united to good 
density, and is so straight in growth as to render 
less expensive many of the operations of cultiva- 
tion and subsequent handling during conveyance 
to the mill. Doctor Kottman, Chemist in Chief 
to the C. S. B. Co., also returns from a visit of 
inspection to the scene of the Company’s opera- 
tions in Fiji, in reference to the disease which 
has appeared among the ‘ Honolulu’ cane. The 
new Muanawini variety, referred to above, may 
meet the difficulty , — Fiji Times, June 21st, 
