i8o 
The  tropical  agriculturist. 
[Sept.  2,  1895. 
pondewce,  and  with  the  assistance  of  Mr.  T.  Christy, 
the  well-known  chemist,  w’ho  interested  himself  in 
the  matter,  a Port  Order  was  issued  by  Her  Ma- 
jesty's Customs  (copy  of  which  will  be  found  in  the 
Appendix),  which  eftectively  stopped  any  further  ex- 
portation of  sweepings  to  the  Continent.  These  teas 
are  now  “ de-natured  and  converted  into  “ caffeine.” 
A NEW  INDUSTRY. 
'•  Caffeine,”  or  “ Theine,”  is  a new  industry  by 
which  low  class  tea  dust,  as  well  as  primings  and 
injured  tea,  hitherto  considered  not  worth  shipping, 
can  be  converted  into  money,  much  of  the  material 
being  shipjped  from  Calcutta  in  bags  or  boxes  at  a 
low  rats  ot  freight  as  “ tea  refuse. 
“ADHATODA  VETICA.” 
This  is  a new  insecticide  which  has  been  discovered 
in  India,  in  connection  with  which  your  committee 
have  been  in  correspondence  with  Mr.  R.  J.  Doyle, 
the  Curator  of  the  Indian  Section  of  the  Imperial 
Institute,  to  whom  two  complete  sets  of  the  papers 
received  from  Calcutta  referring  to  this  plant  have 
been  sent.  A set  of  these  papers  can  be  seen  at  the 
of&ce  of  the  Association  by  members  at  any  time. 
[An  appendix  given  with  the  report  contains  the 
following  reprints,  which  have  already  appeared  in 
our  columns:  “A  paper  on  Tea  by  A.  G.  Stanton 
(of  Gow,  Wilson,  and  Stanton,  13.  Rood  Lane,  E.C.), 
read  before  the  Society  of  Arts,  January  2:1,  189.');” 
“ Foreign  Markets  for  Indian  Tea,  article  on  Indian 
affairs,  the  7'i/ae.s',  August  b,  “Ocean  Freights,” 
“ Sir  H.  H.  Howorth  and.  the  Tea  Duty,”  “ Treat- 
ment of  Coolies  in  Assam,”  “The  Antwerp  Inter- 
national Exhibition,”  “London  Tea  Sweepings.”]  — 
If  and  O Mail,  July  12. 
♦ 
ROAD.S,  RAILWAYS  AND  RL ANTING  IN 
PERAK. 
As  usual,  Mr.  F.  A.  Swettenhain,  c.m.g.,  renders 
a full  and  able  Administration  Report  on  th« 
State  of  Perak  for  1894.  Of  much  iniport.ance  is  it 
to  note  Mr.  Swettenham’s  sjympatlietic  deliverance 
in  reference  to  the  Planting  Enterindse  as  fol- 
lows : — 
If  the  falling  price  of  silver  is  helping  the  miners 
of  the  Malay  Peninsula  to  crush  all  rivalry  in  Corn- 
wall or  Australia,  the  same  cause  will  give  a mani- 
fest advantage  to  the  planter  who  sells  his  coffee, 
tobacco  or  spices  in  a market  where  payment  is  made 
in  gold.  The  conditions  of  soil,  of  climate  and  rainfall 
that  he  requires  are  here,  the  transport  facilities  are 
good  and  improving  yearly,  labour  is  cheap  and  may 
be  made  plentiful,  and  all  that  remains  is 
that  the  Government  should  be  libei'al  in  the  terms 
on  which  it  alienates  the  land.  It  is  the  opportunity 
of  the  planter,  and  it  is  also  the  opportunity  of  the 
Government ; it  would  be  a serious  blunder  if  the 
fact  were  not  grasped  that  the  interests  of  both  are 
identical. 
Failures  cannot  beneiit  the  Government,  and  at 
this  moment,  when  European  planting  in  the  Malay 
Peninsula  is  still  in  its  infancy,  the  man  who  brings 
us  his  capital,  invests  it  in  agriculture  and  loses  it, 
can  only  serve  as  a scarecrow  to  frighten  away  in- 
tending planters. 
Mining  is  and  must  ever  be  surrounded  by  risks ; 
it  is  an  unfortunate  fact  that  many  Europeans  have 
invested  considerable  sums  in  mining  ventures  in  the 
Malay  States  and  have  lost  them,  and  yet  it  is  not 
ani  has  not  been  urged  that  the  Government  has 
placed  difficulties  in  the  way  of  acquiring  mining 
land.  When  the  British  Government  undertook  to 
advise  the  Malay  Chiefs  in  the  Government  of  tlieir 
countries  there  were  no  alluvial  tin-mines  in  any 
liritish  territory  nearer  than  Australia,  and  no  ob- 
jection has  tliereforo  been  raised  to  the  regula- 
tions framed  in  the  Malay  States  for  the  oon- 
diiot  of  an  industry  that  has  now  no  rival  in  the 
w'orld  in  the  inagniliide  of  its  operations.  Wo  give 
to  the  minor  What  is  often  fine  land  covered  with 
magnificent  forest,  and  when  he  has  destroyed  the 
timber  he  turns  the  soil  upside  down  and  after  a few 
year.s  abandons  it,  leaving’ huge  stretches  of  country 
a sightless  waste  of  water-holes. 
Whilst  the  operations  last  the  Government  secures 
a large  revenue,  and,  as  I htve  already  explained, 
tint  revenue  has  been  very  usefully  employed. 
• The  case  of  the  planter  is  the  exact  reverse.  He 
converts  the  jungle  into  pro  luce-yielding  fields,  he 
nettles  on  the  soil,  it  is  to  hii  interest  to  foster  to 
the  utmost  a property  which  will  only  give  him  a 
fair  return  after  the  investment  of  capital  and  years 
of  toil.  His  object  is  to  keep  the  land  in  cultivation, 
and  when  one  product  fails  (as  coffee  failed  in 
Ceylon)  he  immediately  turns  his  energies  to  the 
introduction  of  another. 
Here  also  there  is  a permanent  revenue  to  be 
gained  from  the  export  duty  on  produce,  and  it  wants 
no  great  effort  of  imagination  to  see  a day  when  the 
duty  on  agricultural  exports  may  exceed  that  on 
minerals.  The  returns  in  the  latter  case  are  much 
more  rapid ; but  to  make  it  easy  to  mine  successfully 
and  difficult  to  plant  with  profit  may  be  good  shop- 
keeping, but  seems  indifferent  administration. 
I feel  very  strongly  that  the  Government  cannot 
pursue  a wiser  policy  than  the  encouragement  of  the 
planter.  I have  Ibeen  told  that  the  terms  in  which 
land  has  been  granted  to  planters  In  the  Malay  States 
under  the  regulations  which  I drafted  are  too  liberal, 
that  they  are  thriftless,  and  I have  failed  to  safeguard 
the  future  interests  of  the  Government  and  retain 
the  power  to  share  in  the  rising  value  of  alienated 
lands.  The  revenue  returns  of  the  last  five  years 
given  in  paragraph  (53  ante  are  some  indication  of  the 
result  of  the  policy  hitherto  pursued  in  Perak,  a 
policy  which  was  endorsed  by  the  great  experience 
and  sound  judgment  of  Sir  Hugh  Low.  Up  to  the 
present  time  planting  in  Perak  has  been 
confined,  with  very  few  e.xceptions,  to  small 
native  cultivators,  but  while  the  Government 
retains  the  power  to  determine  the  ampunt 
of  the  export  duties  and  while  there  remain 
millions  of  acres  of  land  available  for  planting,  and 
the  total  area  granted  is  only  1.57,209  acres,  I do 
not  think  the  interests  of  the  State  can  be  said  to 
have  been  greatly  neglected  in  the  past  or  seriously 
endangei'ed  for  the  future. 
SEVEN  CEYLON  TEA  PLANTATION  COM- 
PANIES DECLARING  HANDSOME  AD 
INTERIM  DIVIDENDS. 
At  the  office  of  the  Agents  and  Sccret.arie.s — 
Messrs.  Whittall  iV  Co. ,— the  Directors  of  tlie 
following  Tea  Companies  met  on  3rd  August  and 
declareil  the  very  liher.al  ad-interiin  ilividends 
mentioned  opposite  each  name  : — 
Y.\tiy.\ntot.\  Tea  Coy.  Ld. 
We  Oya  Tea  Coy.  Ld. 
Dunkeld  Estate  Coy.  Ld. 
UiTEii  Maskeliya  Estates  Coy.  Ld  . . 
Gl.asoow  Estate  Coy.  Ld. 
Aoha-Ouvah  Estates  Coy.  Ld. 
Maha  Uva  Estate  Coy.  Ld. 
It  should  be  noted  that  theaboi  e are  the  actua 
[lercentages  to  be  paid — tlie  rate  per  cent  pa 
aiiniiiii  being  of  course  double  tlie  above  figures. 
10  per  ct. 
10  per  ct. 
9 per  ct. 
8 per 
8 per 
8 per 
8 per 
ct. 
ct. 
ct 
ct 
Indi.V  POS.SK.S.SKS  IN  ITS  T.VMIL  POPUI.-VTION 
a wealth  of  re.sourco  that  it  has  not  projterly 
realised,  says  the  Madras  Tivirn.  Wherever 
Tamils  they  are  acknowledged  to  be 
Avonderfully  ailept  agriculturists  or  planting 
coolies  ; they  are  cheap,  even  as  imported  labour ; 
and  they  are  generally  more  law-abiding  than 
the  natives  of  the  places  they  .sojourn  in.  'i’his 
being  the  case,  why  are  tfiey  not  made  more 
use  of  at  home‘(  Why  is  tin'  Indian  planter 
crying  out  for  labour,  and  why  are  numerous 
imlustries  in  which  the  'I'amil  cooly  could  shine 
neglected  or  untried  altogether. 
