THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
837 
June  i,  1896.] 
bers,  seldom  work  for  more  thau  a mouth  at  a time, 
although  they  get  much  higher  pay  if  they  remain 
on  for  three  mouths,  so  that  to  depend  on  local 
labor  is  almost  useles.s,  as  one  never  knows  how  many 
are  likely  to  come.  Every  Saturday,  which  is  called 
by  the  niggers  “ the  day  of  pay,”  some  people  have  to 
be  paid  off,  and  the  superintendent  has  then  to  act  the 
part  of  a dra.  er  and  doles  out  calico  by  the  yard. 
Eortunately  there  is  a yearly  native  hut-tax — ds.  for 
every  hut,  and  to  pay  this  off  the  nigger  is  forced  to 
work  a month,  for  which  ho  receives  his  tax  paper, 
the  money  being  paid  by  the  superintendent  to  the 
district  collector  ; this,  of  course,  considerably  adds 
to  the  labor  supply , and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  the 
tax  will  be  raised  to  (is  in  the  course  of  a year  or 
two,  when  the  nigger  will  have  to  work  double  the 
time.  There  is  practically  no  permanent  labor,  the 
Atonga  which  come  down  from  the  lake  stay  on 
for  for  six  or  eight  month.s,  seldom  more,  but  as 
they  have  to  get  extra  cloth  to  buy  food,  their  pay 
averages  about  2d  a day  ; and  the  Augoui  which 
come  down  in  l.irge  numbers  during  the  dry  months 
remain  for  three  months  only.  Very  large  numbers 
are  employed  yearly  in  transport  work,  and  as  they 
prefer  that  to  estate  work,  besides  receiving  higher 
pay,  they  flock  to  Blantyro  from  all  sides. 
And  until  good  roads  are  made  by  the  Adminis- 
tration, and  cart  transport  substituted,  the  demand 
is  likely  to  increase.  Although  there  is  a heavy  tax, 
on  every  ton  of  goods  imported  into  the  coun- 
try, levied  for  roads  and  river  dues,  theie  is  little 
to  show  for  it,  at  least  in  the  vicinity  of  this 
district.  There  is  a track  to  Blantyre  and  another 
to  ( hiromo,  but  they  can  hardly  be  called 
roads,  as  in  many  instances  ihey  can  harly  be  dis- 
tinguished from  the  surrounding  plain,  being  so 
overgrown  with  high  grass.  The  climate  of  Mlauge, 
although  not  a health  resort,  might  be  a great  deal 
worse.  Like  all  tropical  countries  when  the  vegeta- 
tion is  heavy,  there  is  a groat  deal  of  malarial  fever,  es- 
pecially during  the  wet  season,  but  a great  deal  can 
be  avoided  by  careful  living.  There  are,  however, 
alwaj's  exceptions  to  the  rule.  I know  of  one  resident 
in  Mlange  who,  for  the  last  five  years,  has  had  no 
fever  at  all,  while  on  the  other  hand  there  has  been 
more  than  one  case  of  Blackwater  fever.  Taking  it 
all  round,  I think,  there  are  many  worse  districts 
in  the  low-country  of  Ceylon,  any  many  experience 
of  the  fever  is  that  it  is  not  so  bad  as  the  Ceylon 
low-country  intermittent  fever.  It  has,  however, 
scared  more  than  one  Ceylon  planter  away  from  the 
country  ; but  still  I hope  to  see  others  coming,  as  it 
will  tend  to  relieve  the  dreadful  monotony  of  the  lonely 
life  out  here.  At  the  same  time  I would  not  ad- 
vise men  to  come  out  on  spec  ; but  with  a small 
amount  of 'capital,  they  would  probably  do  very  well, 
provided  they  have  pluck  and  energy.  c.  m.  o, 
— Local  “ Times.” 
TEA  IN  AMERICA. 
New  Aork,  April  1. 
A very  quiet  invoice  and  line  trade,  with  the 
market  steady  and  without  new  feature.  The  grow- 
ing use  of  Ceylon  and  Indian  tea  is  the  noticeable 
feature  of  the  season's  business. 
Last  week  the  Montgomery  Auction  and  Commis- 
s;on  Company  sold  (i,200  packages  teas  as  follows  ; 
Moyune — 14.')  Hyson  5^  (b,  (ijc.;  52‘d  Young  Hyson 
26c.;  232  Imperial  6J  (W  17c.;  496  Gunpowder 
9J  (u  3-ic.  Pingsuey — 71  Imperial  ll|c;  685  Gun- 
powder 8f  di  17c.  Japan — 180  basket-fired  14J  % 17c.; 
1,5,69  Congou  9 d‘  17c.;  169  India  and  Orange  Petoe 
IB.I  20c  Ooloiig— 220  Amoy  7f  9c.;  2,085  Ecr- 
mosa  1,')^  @ 2ic. 
Today  at  noon  the  Montgomery  A'  ction  and  Com- 
mission Company  will  sell  7,264  packages,  viz. : 2,334 
half-chests  Mouyne,  including  celebiated  chops  ; 
1,342  boxes  Pingsuf-y  ; 59  half-chests  Japan,  choice  ; 
H5  hulf-chests  Japan,  basket-fired — very  desirable 
fancy  leaf  ; 1,190  half-chests  Congou,  including  some 
strictly  fancy  Ring  Chows  ; 21  boxes  Capers  ; 2,86 
packages  India,  Java  and  Ceylon  Pekoe,  comjuising 
some  fancy  lines,  and  including  107  packages  Ceylon 
G ns  and  Ceylon  Siftings ; 45  half-chests  Amoy  ; 
50  half-chests  Foochow;  1,8.37  half  chests  and  boxes 
Formosa — a very  attractive  offering,  all  new  season’s 
and  including  a complete  invoice  of  731  mats,  boxes 
and  half-chests  of  strictly  fancy  new  season’s. — 
Atnetican  Grocer. 
HOW  DUTY  AFb'ECTS  TEA. 
The  tea  importers  in  urging  the  Congressional 
Committee  upon  Way's  and  Means  to  impose  a spe- 
cific duty  upon  teas,  a moderate  rate  upon  the  pure 
and  a prohibitive  duty  upon  all  that  is  colored  and 
adulterated,  take  the  position  that  the  change  would 
be  a blessing  to  every  consumer  and  particularly 
to  the  poor,  who  are  the  principal  consumers  of 
low  grades,  which  bear  the  same  relation  to  the 
good  article  that  the  coarse,  outside,  ground-trodden, 
worm-eaten  leaves  of  the  cabbage  bear  to  the  crisp 
and  nutritious  head  in  the  center.  It  is  argued 
that  the  imposition  of  a duty  w'ould  result  in  an 
improvement  of  the  quality  of  the  tea  exported  to 
this  country  and  that  it  would  not  only  be  a great 
advantage  from  a sanitary  point  of  view  by  keeping 
out  the  poor  grades,  but  would  bring  a large  re- 
venue to  the  government.  The  importers  assert 
that  good  tea  is  a great  deal  more  economical  than 
the  cheap  grades,  regardless  of  the  difference  in 
price ; that  the  nourishing  properties  increase  very 
rapidly  as  the  quality  of  the  tea  improves  and  that 
the  alkaloid  therein,  which  is  craved  by  all  the  hu- 
man race,  does  not  appear  in  the  low  grades  to 
the  sufficient  extent  to  satisfy  that  craving.  There- 
foie  tobacco,  snuff,  morphine  and  liquor  are  resorted 
to.  It  is  shown  by  statistics  that  there  is  far  less 
intemperance  in  liquors,  tobacco  and'’ opium  where 
good  teas  are  used — Interstate  Grocer, 
TEA  IN  AUSTRALIA. 
In  China  tea,  sales  have  been  made  of  100  half- 
chests panyoug  at  5d.,  200  half-chests  fine  panyong 
at  8d.,  300  boxes  fine  panyong  at  8|d.,  and  300  quarter- 
chests  S.O.  pekoe  at  6gd.  In  Ceylons,  290  packages 
have  been  sold  at  6d  to  8d.  Of  Indians,  140  packages 
have  been  sold  at  7d  to  8d.  At  the  auction  sales  on 
Tuesday  there  was  good  competition,  and  steady 
prices  were  realised.  Of  China,  tea,  1,530  half-chests 
were  offered,  and  sales  were  made  of  782  heavy- 
weights and  184  light-weights  at  4d  to  6d.  The 
quantity  of  Ceylon  tea  offered  was  the  largest  which 
has  yet  been  offered  at  auction  on  any  one  occasion 
in  Melbourne.  The  catalogues  amounted  to  954 
chests  and  367  half-chests,  and  the  quantity  sold  was 
659  chests  and  353  half-chests,  as  follows  ; — Orange 
pekoe  and  broken  orange  pekoe,  53  chests  and  27 
half-chests  at  9d  to  9Jd  ; broken  pekoe,  175  chests 
and  93  half-chests  at7fd  to  Is  Old;  pekoe,  363  chests 
andl52half-chests  at6d  to  lOd;  pekoe  souchong, 57  chests 
and  68  half-chests  at  5Jd  to  8|d  ; souchong,  11  chests, 
and  13  half-chests  at  44d  to  Australasian 
April  8th. 
THE  TEA  TRADE  OF  FORMOSA  : 
THE  JAPANESE  AND  CHINESE  CUSTOMS. 
“ Merchant  ” writes  to  the  Foochow  Echo  saying 
that  he  is  informed  on  good  authority  that  the  Japa- 
nese Customs  in  Formosa  are  now  collecting  export 
duty  on  Tea  at  the  rate  of  |1.12  per  picul,  and  the 
tea  IS  received  and  allow'ed  to  be  exported  from  Amoy 
free,  while  the  native-grown  article  has  to  pay  an 
export  duty  of  f3.84  per  picul.  In  commenting  on 
the  news  the  Echo  draws  attention  to  the  grave 
importance  of  this  statement.  “Of  course,”  it  says 
“ it  touches  most  nearly  the  shippers  of  Oolong  tea 
from  Amoy  and  this  port  to  America,  where  this 
description  of  tea  is  chiefly  consumed ; and  in  a 
less  degree  the  geneial  shipper.  Assuming  that 
the  Chinese  will  do  nothing  in  the  way  of  assimi- 
lating their  duties  with  those  of  Formosa,  the  Chinese 
teamen  will  have  to  reduce  their  prices,  or  be  pre- 
pared to  hear  the  buyer  say  : ‘ I am  quite  willing  to 
offer  yov,  Tta,  17,  for  this  string  chop,  less  Tls,  1.90,  to 
