September i, 1890.] 
THE TROPICAL At^TOlSULTUmST. 
185 
GOLD MINING IN SOUTH APEICA. 
A correspondent writing from Barberton says ; — 
*• These fields (‘ Dekaap ’ — or Barberton) though olds'" 
are of very much less importance than those at the 
‘ Rand ’ (or Witwaters Rand) which have sprung 
so wonderfully into prosperity — and now lately 
are under such a deep wave of adversity. This 
gold mining is a wonderful sort of business, scarcely 
business at all : it is a mass of speculation and 
ma' revring on a thin basis of actual mining. I often 
wish I was in some other line. I was not sharp 
enough to make a lot when the first rush occurred, and 
money could have been made ; and since then, the 
reaction has been continuous and severe. Every- 
thing is very dull, and no one can predict when the 
next wave of prosperity will be. Capital seems to fly 
about the world like a swarm of insects, alighting now 
on one industry or locality and now on another, alter- 
nately helping and blighting. At present South African 
mines are out of favor with capitalists, but I suppose 
their turn will come again, when they increase the 
oufput of gold. That is the great thing, and it takes 
years of work and experience like building up any 
great business.” 
■ ■■ 
NOTES ON PRODUCE [AND FINANCE. 
What is a Blended Tea ? — The action of the Ceylon 
Association in prosecuting tea dealers for selling tea 
not correctly described has caused a flutter in the retail 
trade. One correspondent asks : — “ May I ask what 
is a Ceylon blend ? — or, as we are now learning what 
some so-called Ceylon blends are, I will vary the 
question, and ask — What should a Ceylon blend be ? 
Should it be a blend of various Oeylon teas, or a 
blend of which Oeylon tea forms a prominent or prin- 
cipal part ? Men are going round and trying to 
frighten grocers by saying that if they sell as a Oeylon 
blend an article containing any other tea than Ceylon 
they can be prosecuted. Now, the decisions in the 
cases of Paget and Piggott and in Kearley andTonge 
were given upon issues differing from that now raised. 
For years grocers have safely sold as an Indian blend 
tea.s that were Indian only in part. If the word 
blend protected the mixture of Indian and China tea 
why should it not protect the mixture of Ceylon and 
Indian? Although the scare which is being created 
is ostensibly in the interests of Ceylon planters, it 
may be questioned if it will ultimately prove to be so. 
Another point raised in Kearley and Tonge was that this 
firm did not import their own teas though their label 
said they did. But surely it is not an indictable offence 
to style oneself an importer. Is every aspiring baker, or 
notable porkbutcher, or enterprising milkman, or wor- 
shipful greengrocer, who on the strength of having 
purchased a dozen pounds of tea from a neighbouring 
grocer calls himself ‘an importer of tea’ to be hauled 
before a magistrate for this heinous offence ? This is 
mighty fine for the lawyers, but I hope you, sir, will 
protest against this dangerous and revolutionary doctrine, 
bhould not these assertions be taken in a Pickwickian 
sense? It is something new for tradesmen to be caUed 
on to prove their assertions or be mulcted £10, and 
COS’S £5 5s.” Another correspondent writes to the 
Grocer: — “In censequ nca of the prosecution of two 
firms of wholesale -ea dealers at the in tince of the 
Ceylon Tea Growers’ Association (Limi'ed), under the 
Morcha' disc Marks Act, tor misleading descriptions of 
Ceylon pick, ted teas, there is a d' al of misunderstand- 
ing among grocers as to what they shou d and shoo'd 
not sell. I am selling a packeied tea beating the 
followiog description ‘Ceylon Blend.’ The firm from 
whom I buy the tea guarantee it to contain 70 per cent, 
of pure Ceylon. Taking it for granted that such is the 
case, can i be couvicted of false description under the 
aforementioned Act?’’ 
Enemies or Tea and Coffee.— Dr. Mendel, of Berlin, 
a well-known physiologi.st, lias made an attack on coffee 
and tea, especially the former. So far from believing 
that two pence olf tlie ]iound of tea or coffee will 
reduce “drink bill,’’ ho contends that, by 
permitting the poorer classes to buy more of these 
stimulants, the cheapness will conduce to the 
spread of what he has described as “coffee inebriety,” 
a form of intoxication which very frequently leads to 
the more alarming, but not actually more dangerous, 
form produced by alcohol. Dr. Mendel does not say 
much about tea but he infers a great deal. Eminent 
physiologists mnat attack somebody or something, 
otherwise their occupation would be gone. Tea and 
coffee, like other good things, require to bo taken in 
rhoderation. The increase in the consumption of tea 
vexes the souls of believers in the good old days of 
John Barleycorn in this cnnntry, A correspondent of 
the St. James's Gazette, who might — by reason of his 
sentiments— be a brewer or distiller, writes as follows: 
— “ Any one who watched the recent prooese'On, 
especially the teetotal varieties, must have been pained 
to notice the stunted forms and poor physique of the 
greater part of the crowd composing them. Stalwart 
men were conspicnous by their absence, and the greater 
number would fail to fulfil even the present very easy 
comiitions of military service. A hostile foreigner 
would have rejoiced at witnessing what, if not checked, 
may prove the ruin of England. Though much h aa 
been done for them by increasing wages and lesse n- 
ing hours of labour and paying more attention to 
sanitation, still the habits and mode of living of oar 
town population fully account for their degeneracy. 
They marry while in their teens and rear their squalid 
children on tea. The women especially drench them- 
selves with tea to the ruin of their nerves and diges- 
tion. Though no one is more willing than lam to 
admit the evils of intemperance, I firmly believe that 
tea has done more harm to the working classes th^n 
beer, and nearly aa much harm as spirits.” The in- 
ference that our national decadence has set in and that 
we are becoming a nation of dwarfs because we drink 
too much tea, is droll, — II. and C. Mail. 

THE PRECIOUS METALS. 
The idea propounded by a correspondent, that 
the supply of silver in the world and its annual 
production are limited rather than excessive, 
is novel and startling. Most of us have been 
under the impression that nations on the Continent 
of Europe were embarrassed to know how, without 
enormous loss, they could dispose of the accumu- 
lated silver which they had demonetized ; while 
recent legislation in the United States was un- 
doubtedly promoted in the interests of the “ Silver 
Kings ” of Nevada, who found their product de- 
preciated by the demonetizing policy in Europe 
and over-production in America and Australia. It 
would require more and better authenticated facts 
than have been yet adduced to lead us to abandon 
this conviction, and the additional one that when 
the present boom caused by the proceedings at 
Washington has abated, the value of silver and 
that amount of “exchange” which depends 
on it will revert to the standard which 
recently prevailed. While the production of 
silver has largely increased in tha past forty 
years, that of go'd does not seem to have muoh 
exceeded an average of about twenty to twi-nty- 
five millions per annum. This limited production 
of an arti-.le which in Britain has been long the 
sole standard of value, and which has now been 
adopted as such by many of the leading Continental 
nations, has naturally led to an appreciation of 
gold over silver, far beyond the proportions which 
once prevailed, and which bimetallists fondly hope 
they can restore, of I to 15 or thereabouts. 
Mulhall, in his “ Progress of the World,” published 
in 1880, brought together what we suppose are 
fairly accurate figures regarding the world’s 
accummulated wealth and the annual supply of 
the precious metals, at which it may be interesting 
