Feb.  r,  1896.] 
THF  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
54i 
if  it  were  announced  that  so  great  an  item  of 
revenue  was  given  up  while  the  surplus  was  so 
small.  The  debate  was  postponed,  and  when  the 
discussion  was  resumed  nothing  substantial  was  ad- 
ded, but  the  House  decisively  rejected  not  only  the 
proposal  for  completely  freeing  tea  from  a duty,  but 
also  several  suggested  reductions  of  the  existing  duty. 
“ It  is  interesting  to  contrast  this  action  with  what 
has  taken  place  in  Now  South  Wales.  When  early 
in  1892,  the  Customs  Duties  Bill  of  tho  Dibbs  Govern- 
ment was  submitted  to  the  Legislative  Assembly, 
the  second  clause  contained  a provision  for  wholly 
removing  the  duty  then  charged  on  tea,  3d 
per  lb.  Apparently,  nothing  but  antipathy  to 
anything  like  a purely  revenue-producing 
duty  animated  the  Ministry  in  this  pro- 
posal. In  England  the  duty  is  4d,  and  even 
the  staunchest  free-traders  approve  of  the  tax.  In 
the  nature  of  the  case  it  can  have  no  pi-otectionist 
incidence,  and  it  produces  a large  return  in  taxation 
without  being  unjust  or  burdensome.  At  the  time 
when  the  ad-valorem  proposal  was  adding  10  per 
cent  to  the  cost  of  every  imported  article  say  only 
those  subject  to  higher  specific  duties,  the  protection- 
ist Government  remitted  a Customs  charge  which 
had  been  in  force  for  many  years,  had  caused  no 
dissatisfaction,  and  had  given  the  Treasury  an  aver- 
age return  ot  £100,000  a year,  and  at  the  time  Mr. 
See  remitted  it  was  yielding  £125,000.  The  Treasurer 
had  nothing  more  to  say  about  the  remission  than 
that  it  would  benefit  the  working-man,  and  might 
be  set  off  against  the  new  duties  on  agricultural  produce. 
In  such  a light  frame  of  mind  did  the  Gibbs  Govern- 
ment surrender  revenue.  The  majority  which  that  Ad- 
ministration had  managed  to  get  together  was  equally 
ready  to  remit  a taxation  which  was  hardly  felt  and  to 
impose  other  duties  which  have  been  complained  of  ever 
since.  Thus  the  tea  duty  disappeared.  The  Treasury 
lost  a source  of  steady  revenue  which  not  even  the 
English  tariff  seeks  to  dispense  with.  The  loss  was 
an  argument  the  more  for  the  mischievous  ad-valorem 
duties.  The  consumer  was  not  benefited,  for  it  is 
not  found  that  the  public  at  once  and  wholly  reaped 
the  benefit  of  the  remission  of  duty  The  import 
trade  was  stimulated,  and  a salutary  check  upon  the 
introduction  of  inferior  teas  was  removed,  with  the 
result  that  we  are  frequently  hearing  complaints 
that  the  refuse  of  other  colonies  finds  a safe  market 
in  Sydney,  and  at  the  present  time  we  have  the 
City  Health  Officer  condemning  perished  teas  sought 
to  be  landed  and  vended  here,  in  such  ways  tnis 
community  has  to  pay  for  the  reckless  policy  of  Sir 
George  Uibbs  and  his  Treasurer.  The  Victsrian 
authorities  are  wiser.  They  know  that  to  remit  a 
tax  is  easier  than  to  reimpose  it — that  it  is  impolitic 
to  surrender  a duty  which  is  easy  to  collect  and 
which  the  public  hardly  feels,  and  especially  im- 
politic when  in  the  nature  of  the  case  other  taxation 
must  recoup  the  Treasury,  and  that  in  the  interests 
of  the  community  a small  Customs  duty  is  beuefical 
as  serving  the  purpose  of  a check  upon  ‘ lie  tea.’ 
“ There  hardly  is  available  to  a Treasurer  another 
article  of  consumption  which  if  so  fitted  according 
to  the  canons  of  taxation  to  bear  a duty  as  tea.  It 
is  nearly  universal  in  consumption ; therefore  al- 
most every  person  in  the  community  bears  the  bur- 
den in  proportion  to  his  use  of  the  commodity.  Conse- 
quently also,  a small  tax  is  immediately  and  steadily 
productive.  The  article  in  itself  is  not,  .like  alcohol, 
an  object  of  conscientious  scruples,  nor,  in  spite  of 
the  opinion  of  doctors  that  the  Australians  drink 
too  much  tea,  is  it  believed  that  the  taxation  raised 
in  this  way  represents  an  evil  done  to  the  moral 
welfare  of  the  people.  Next,  in  practice  the  duty 
incidentally  checks  the  importation  of  the  in- 
ferior qualities  of  tea  by  loading  them  with  a 
Customs  charge  which  is  heavy  in  proportion 
to  their  low  intrinsic  value.  A further  advantage 
is  that  the  duty  is  as  easy  of  collection  as  it  is 
lightly  felt  by  the  consumer.  Having  no  protective 
incidence,  it  docs  not  interfere  with  industry,  and 
does  not  coddle  a parasitic  local  interest  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  community.  The  article  is  wholly  im- 
ported, and  from  one  or  two  places ; therefore  the 
collection  of  Customs  is  facilitated,  and  the  bulk  and 
specific  value  are  deterrents  to  smuggling.  It  is  in 
all  these  points  of  view  an  ideal  subject  for  taxation, 
and  it  becomes  clear  that  the  duty  never  ought  to 
have  been  sacrificed ; or,  having  been  given  up, 
ought  to  have  been  reimposed  by  some  wiser  ad- 
ministration.”— II.  and  C.  Mail,  Jan.  3. 
COFFEF  cultivation  in  INDIA. 
Mr.  J.  E.  O’Conor,  Director-General  of  Statistics 
to  the  Government  of  India,  has  drawn  up  the  fol- 
lowing statemeht : — 
At  the  end  of  I89l  there  were  289,080  acres  of 
land  under  coffee  in  India,  all  of  it,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  10,746  acres  in  Burma,  being  in  Southern 
India.  The  cultivation  of  coffee  is  in  fact  restricted 
for  the  most  part  to  a limited  zone  in  Mysore, 
Coorg,  and  the  Madras  Districts  of  Malabar  and  the 
Nilgiris.  In  Mysore  there  are  136,052  acres,  in  Coorg 
71,181  acres,  and  in  the  Nilgiris  and  Malabar  45,65^ 
If  to  these  are  added  6,587  acres  in  Travancore 
and  Cochin,  we  find  about  90  i or  cent  of  tho  coffee- 
bearing  area  of  India  concentrated  in  the  hilly  re- 
gion above  the  south-western  coast  where  the  rain- 
fall is  heavy  and  the  climate  generally  approxi- 
mates to  that  of  the  coffee- bearing  area  of  Ceylon 
In  tho  Madras  Presidency  coffee  is  not  grown  to  any 
extent  except  in  the  two  districts  already  mentioned 
and  in  Salem  and  Madura.  The  only  other  province 
in  which  coffee  is  grown  is  Burma,  mostly  in  Toungoo, 
and  the  industry  there  is  of  recent  origin.  In  the  de- 
cade under  review  the  area  in  the  Madras  Districts  has 
fluctuated,  remaining  in  1894  at  but  little  above  the 
level  of  1895.  In  Coorg  there  has  been  a sudden  and 
large  increase  in  1894,  in  Mysore  there  has  been  a 
steady  and  considerable  increase,  while  in  Travancore 
and  Cochin  there  has  been  no  advance : in  Travancore 
indeed  many  coffee-growers  have  abandoned  that  in 
ustry  for  tireless  precarious  cultivation  of  tea.  The 
yield  has  fluctuated  greatly  ; in  1894  it  was  about  35i 
million  pounds,  which  was  but  little  larger  than  in 
1886,  notwithstanding  the  increased  acreage.  Taking 
the  figure  100  to  represent  both  area  and  production  in 
1885,  the  ratio  of  yearly  increase  or  decrease  is  shown 
in  the  subjoined  table  : — 
1885 
1886 
1887 
1888 
1889 
Area. 
. . 100 
. . 97 
. . 103 
..  104 
no 
Production. 
100 
90 
109 
76 
85 
1890 
1891 
1892 
1893 
1894 
Ai-ea. 
. 114 
. Ill 
. no 
. 116 
122 
Production. 
63 
113 
97 
118 
101 
In  1894  the  yield  varied  enormously  in  the  different 
localities,  the  returns  giving  472  lb.  an  acre  in 
Toung  o;  354  lb.  in  the  Nilgiris;  157  lb.  in  Mvsore ; 
104  lb.  in  Coorg  ; 76  lb.  in  Malabar.  A noticeable 
feature  in  the  returns  is  the  record  of  a yield  of 
1,511  lb.  an  acre  in  Cochin  in  1893  followed  by  a 
yield  of  175  lb.  in  1894.  The  brief  explanation  given 
by  the  local  authorities  is  “ that  it  appears  that  the 
crop  in  the  previous  year  was  good,  and  that  a good 
crop  is  almost  invariably  followed  by  a poor  one.” 
It  is  not  explained,  however,  why  in  Cochin  in 
1893  the  yield  should  have  been  as  large  as  15,1111b 
to  the  acre  when  in  the  adjacent  region  of  Travan- 
core in  the  same  year  the  yield  was  only  1701b  and 
in  Malabar  only  701b.  There  would  seem  to  be 
defects  in  the  statistics,  to  which  the  attention  of 
the  local  authorities  might  with  advantage  be  directed. 
According  to  the  returns  there  w-ere,  in  1894,  37,903 
persons  permanently  and  118,014  temporarily  em- 
ployed on  the  coffee  estates,  making  a total  of  155,917 
persons,  which  is  equal  to  about  one  person  (107)  to  two 
acres,  while  in  tea  estates  the  average  is  over  2^  per- 
sona to  two  acres.  The  difference  is  explained  by  the 
much  greater  labour  required  in  the  repeated  plucking 
of  tea  and  in  the  subsequent  processes  of  preparing 
the  leaf  for  the  market. 
The  following  figures  are  the  average  of  the  five  years 
ending  1894-95  ve^eais 
Indian  Coffee 
Do. 
Do. 
Foreign  Coffee 
Do. 
Do- 
Production 
Exports 
Ac/'<  171  India 
Imports 
Re-exports 
Left  in  India 
lb. 
34,444,087 
31,595,514 
2,848,573 
1,820,426 
585,245 
1,235,181 
