630 
YhE tropical agriculturist. [March 2, 1891 
NOTES ON PEODUCE AND FINANCE. 
(From tha H. and C. Mail, Jan, 
A OosTLY Tea. — On tha 13th inst. Messrs. Arthur 
Oapel & Oo. knocked down in their Oeylon sale to 
Messrs. Whitworth, Hillyard, and Wade, tea dealers, 
of Idol Lane, E. 0., a small lot of extraordinary tea, at 
87s per lb. It consisted of only three boxes, each 
containing 6 lb. of Golden Tip, from the Galleboddo 
estate. Every leaf was of a bright golden colour, with- 
out any brown or black ones to mar the beautiful ap- 
pearance. This is the tallest price ever paid for a tea 
within the memory of living men. At this price, and 
allowing sixty cups of tea to the pound, each cup 
would cost Is 6d. The Times of yesterday referred to 
this sale of tea, and the following letter from Messrs. 
Whitworth & Go., appears in today’s issue. “ Your 
interesting paragrapli in this day’s issue under the 
above headmg would probably much surprise your 
readers. They will be still more surprised when we 
tell them, through your kindness, that we, who were 
the luycr-s at uiiciioii of the tea at £4 7s per lb., after- 
wiii-dr resold it at £5 10s per lb. ‘ A figure which 
has never been anything like approached in the 
annuls of the tea trade will therefore apply to the 
latter price, and not to the former, as the paragraph 
implies. At this latter price, cost to the consumer 
would be about Is 7d a cup. We trust that Indian 
and Ceylon tea planters will by this be encouraged 
to strive after quality in their productions in preference 
to quantity.” 
Speculation in Tea. — “Observer” writes to the 
Financial Mews as follows As considerable specu- 
lation has recently taken place in tea, and 
prices in the terminal market have risen 2Jd. per 
lb. above those ruling this time last year, it may be 
interesting to many of your readers, especially those 
engaged in the trade, to know the exact sta- 
tistical position of this article. The figures are taken 
from the brokers’ circulars of January and from the 
revised estimates of the Indian Tea Association;— 
Stock of all sorts actually in bond December 31st, 
92 800 000 lbs.; arrived, but not included in stock, 
1.200.000 lbs.; afloat, all sorts, 23,222,000 lbs. ; stock in 
bond in the outports, about 6,000,000 lbs. ; total, 
123.222.000 lbs. Balance of Indian crop to arrive, 
after deducting quantity afloat, as per revised esti- 
mate of Bengal Association, 23,000,0001bs. ; Oeylon tea 
to arrive before June 30th about 3^1,000, OOlbs. j Now 
make Congou to arrive before June 30th about 
1.000. 0001b ; total, 167,222, OOOlbs. Delivery for six 
months, taken at an increase of 6, 000, OOOlbs. per 
annum, 116, 200, OOOlbs. ; leaving a stock in hand on June 
30th of 51,022,0001b. (The new season’s China crop 
arrives in bulk in Jaiy.) From the above figures which 
are taken on the most favourable estimate, it would 
appear that on June 30 there will be a stock of 
61. 000. 0001bs in the country, which appears very much 
more than sufficient, considering the rapid deterio- 
ration of tea by keeping, especially Indian and Ceylon 
tea rendering the old season’s almost unsaleable 
when the new tea arrives. There is one extraordinary 
fact in regard to tea, that for forty years there has 
never been an insufficiency of supply ; there have been 
war scares, failure of crop scares, and insufficient supply 
Boares, under which prices have been raised madly, to 
the ultimate detriment of all concerned, but 
there has always bean amply sufficient teaj even when 
our sole source of supply was China. It seems hardly 
likely that, with India and Ceylon supplying nearly 
two-thirds of our consumption, and China able to send 
us as much as ever if prices are high enough, wo shall ' 
suffer now from any deficiency. , t, • 
Then and Now.— Three score years ago Great Bri- 
tain consumed thirty million pounds weight or tea, 
which was eight million pounds moro than all the rest 
of the world, while in the interval the Colonials and 
foreigners have done their best to reach the Britisher, 
with the l osnlt that their aggregate consumption vastly 
exceeds that ot Gr< at Britain. But the people of this 
oomitry now coiihume close upon 5lh. per head of the 
populotiou against ioz.in 1711 and 20os!s. in 1830. The 
rtduotion of duty last y eat caused an inoreaBed con- 
u mption to the extent of some 5,000,000 lb. while it 
seems that the combined exports of India aud China 
are likely to be very oouBiderably less than last year. 
♦ 
CINCHONA BARK IN HOLLAND. 
Amstbedam, Jan. 14th. — All the analyses for the 
cinchona-bark sales to be held in Amsterdam Jan. 22ud 
have been published now. The manufacturing bark 
contains about 7 tons sulphate of quinine, or 3'6 per 
cent on the average, divided as follows : — About 23 
tons contain 1'2 per cent ; 52 tons, 2'3 pet cent ; 43 
tons, 3 4 per cent ; 33 tons, 4’5 per cent ; 11 tons, 5'6 
per cent ; 8 tons, 6-7 per cent ; 12 tons, 7'8 per cent. 
— Chemist and, Druggist. 
♦ 
WHAT A CEYLON TEA ESTATE PRO- 
PRIETOR DOES WITH SOME OF HIS TEA 
IN THE EAST OP LONDON. 
{Communicated.) 
Perhaps your readers will be interested to hear 
of the undoubted destination of some of the Ceylon 
tea, as well as of the good work done in East 
London by Mr. P. E. Buchanan, sometime tea- 
planter in Assam and proprietor of Blaokwater 
estate in Oeylon. 
Unlike some of those noisy shallow philan- 
thropists who, in their ignorance, aggravate in their 
eflorts to cure, the diseases from which our old 
mother country is suffering, Mr. Buchanan deter- 
mined to know the poor before he attempted to help 
them. So he and his wife settled down inEastLondon, 
simply living among the people, making no fuss, 
bringing no nostrum, not even enjoying the slight 
dolat which surrounds the position of the Church 
of England clergyman even in the poorest parish 
of Bast London. Two things he learnt the poor 
needed (besides, of course, the one thing needful 
which no man can give his brother) — both of which 
he oould help them lo : one was places other than 
the public-houses where they could meet and have 
really good fellowship unfettered by any individual’s 
particular fads. So he started a Club which soon 
became popular in lln beat sense. The men 
adopted it as their own, worked for it, cared for it, 
sacrificed for it. Mr. Buohanan added lectures, 
classes, a co-operative shoe-making establishment and 
a co-operative oabinet.making shop, billiard tables, 
&c. The second need he noticed among the poor 
was their want of good food, a want hundreds had 
noticed before him, but which he determined to 
remedy in a way that could not pauperize. So 
he started food houses— honest food, honestly cooked, 
honestly sold, honestly paid for. There a man can 
get his plate of beef tor 2d, his bit of pudding for Id, 
his basin of soup for l^d. “ Pay, yes certainly it 
pays some of us,” said Mr. Buchanan, “it pays me, it 
pays the men, it pays the tea growers, it does not 
pay the publican.” Anyone who buys food can buy 
tea, 1 lb. of good Ceylon tea at Is 2d, good dusty at 
lOd, pekoe at Is 4d —and excellent it is ‘ Where do 
you live?” asked the writer, of a dear old woman 
who was folding J-a-lb. in her checked and spotless 
apron. “ Out Battersea way — but I always come up 
once a fortnight to get my tea here; it does me better than 
anyone else’s.” To Mr. Buchanan’s “Teetotums” 
working men pay the compliment of using them. Of 
many philanthropic schemes it can be said that they are 
used by all for whom they were not intended. But 
the Teetotums are in this sense exceptional — the 
lights, the cleanliness, the abundance of the news- 
papers of tho day, the fair weight, the hot food, 
the air of iadependenoe that is in the places are 
all understandable goods to the workman’s mind, 
