June  r,  1896.] 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
855 
OUR  PREMIER  TEA  COMPANY. 
It  is  very  satisfactory  iu  the  interests  of  the 
Colony  at  large,  as  well  as  of  the  tea  enterprise, 
to  observe  the  exceedingly  good  account  of  the 
stewardship  which  Mr.  Rutherford  and  his  co- 
Directors  were  enabled  to  give  to  the  share- 
holders at  the  meeting  of  the  Ceylon  Tea  Plan- 
tations Co.  on  the  23rd  ult.  in  London.  This 
Company  is  we  1 entitled  on  every  account  to 
the  first  placs  in  the  long  list  of  Ceylon  Plan- 
tations Associations  in  the  present  day.  It  is 
one  of  the  largest— if  not  the  largest  Tea  > ul- 
tivatiug  Company — iu  the  world  ; it  is  the  oldest 
in  our  Ceylon  list;  and  it  is  among  the  most 
uniformly  successful. , It  is  interesting  at  such  a 
time  to  i-ecall  the  very  beginnings  of  the  Com- 
pany and  the  plucky  way  in  which  the  late 
Mr.  David  Reid— genial  as  well  as  specially 
shrewd  and  entei  prising — and  his  colleagues  iu 
Riilway  Contracting  and  Engineering— Messrs. 
Rutherford  and  Tod,  pioneered  the  way  in  “tea” 
on  Mariawatte  aud  other  estates  at  a time  when 
many  of  our  oldest  planters  and  merchants 
looked  askance  nt  the  new  product.  We  cannot 
but  recall  our  own  very  first  importation  of  tea- 
seed  early  in  18 18 — part  of  a larger  consignment 
f.  r Abbotsford, — which,  on  leaving  for  home, 
we  left  for  a “practical”  planter-partner  to  put 
in,  in  place  of  coffee,  iu  an  Ambagamuwa  pro- 
perty ; but  which  afier  vainly  tr  ing  to  sell  in 
the  Fort  of  Colombo,  he  took  aud  put  “ the 
stuff  ” in,  out  of  sight  at  the  top  of  his  coffee  fields 
wi'h  no  idea  of  milising  it  for  a clearing.  We 
merely  mention  this  little  incident  to  show  how 
narrow  was  the  ci  cle  of  believer i in  tea  from 
18  to  20  years  ago.  All  ihe  more  honour,  there- 
fore, to  the  few — Messrs.  Harrison,  Leake  and 
James  Taylor,  Sir  Graeme  Blphinstone  aud  the 
late  Mr.  David  Reid  and  Mr.  A.  M.  Ferguson, 
senr.,  especially— who  led  the  way  with  the  new 
product  which  has  conferred  such  unexampled 
prosperity  on  Ceylou.  n ■ 
As  xcgAi'ds  tho  present  position  of  our  i leniiei 
Company , nothing  can  be  added  to  the  very 
I xplicit  and  admirable  remarks  of  .Messrs.  Ruther- 
ford, Talbot  aud  Wm.  Mackenzie.  If  anything 
is  calculated  to  send  the  shares  of  the  Company 
still  higher  iu  value,  it  is  the  exposition  of  the 
policy  which  has  guided  the  workiig  manage- 
ment, of  the  Company’s  estates.  Bnt  it  is  note- 
worthy (as  both  the  Chairman  aud  .Mr.  Mackenzie 
pointed  crut)  that  while  the  TiO  shaves  are  now 
valued  at  £30,  the  actual  average  cost  per  acre 
of  tea  iu  the  Comp-iny’s  books  is  no  more  than 
£25,  or  taking  the  current  value  of  shares,  £75 
per'  acre — a figure  which  compares  favourably 
with  several  other  companies,  more  especially 
when  the  estab  ished  well-equipped  position  of 
the  Company’s  tea  estates,  and  the  large  Uesevvc 
Fund,  is  considered.  Indeed,  it  is  time 
tliat  the  company  should  have  “ Coconut  ralm 
added  to  its  title  ; for,  such  an  addition,  in 
view  of  all  we  know  of  the  Company’s  mvest- 
incnts  ill  this  product,  ought  materially  to  add 
to  the  stability  of  the  shares  aiid  the  future 
maintenance,  if  not  increase,  of  dividends.  Al- 
together, therefore,  we  have  only  hearty  cju- 
gratulalion  to  tender  all  round — and  notably  to 
the  working  Superintendents  and  overseers— on 
the  prosperous  position  of  the  Company  a 
perity  that,  as  we  said  elsewhere,  rertects  to  the 
credit  of  our  planting  enterprise  at  large  and  ot 
Ceylon  as  a Plantation  Colony. 
HE  INDIA-RUBBER  CROP  OF  LAGOS. 
Returns  have  come  to  hand  from  Lagos  which  sub^ 
tantiate  the  reports  already  published  in  I i- 
iidia  Rubber  li'oiid  respecting  the  reiiuukuble  deve- 
1^1  nf  the  crude-rubber  industry',  so  recently 
KduLd  in  that  West  African  colony.  It  has  been 
108 
unprecedented  in  the  history  of  the  rubber  trade, 
for  within  a single  year  from  the  first  recorded  ex- 
ports Lagos  has  taken  rank  as  one  of  the  largest 
exporters  of  rubber  in  the  world — second,  in  fact, 
only  to  Pani.  A short  time  ago  some  figures  were 
printed  in  thi.?  journal  showing  the  increase  in  rub- 
ber shipments  from  the  port  of  Lagos  during  the 
first  half  of  1895.  Through  the  courtesy  of  her 
Majesty’s  actiug  collector  of  customs  at  Lagos, 
Reginald  R.  Gace,  Esq.,  it  is  now  possible  to  com- 
plete the  record  for  the  year — the  first  in  the  history 
of  india-rubber  iu  Lagos — as  follows  : 
Months. 
Pounds. 
Value. 
Average 
Value. 
January,  1895  . . 
12,131 
£ 1,213 
10 
3 
£0 
2 
0 
February 
15,888 
777 
0 
11 
0 
0 
11§ 
March 
26,316 
1,419 
7 
8 
0 
1 
1 
April 
39,763 
2,078 
16 
6 
0 
1 
04 
May 
216,916 
11,700 
0 
7 
0 
1 
1 
June 
268,619 
12,577 
2 
6 
0 
0 
Hi 
J uly 
461., 765 
22,593 
13 
3 
0 
0 
Hi 
August 
354,990 
19,951 
18 
3 
0 
1 
14 
September 
67H,ltiO 
36,172 
19 
9 
0 
1 
1 
October 
1,0.)9,158 
57,117 
1 
10 
0 
1 
1 
November 
983,394 
52,802 
13 
0 
0 
1 
1 
December 
948,404 
51,488 
9 
4 
0 
1 
1 
Total,  1895. . 
5,060,504 
£269,892 
13 
10 
£0 
1 
Oi 
The  Gold  Coast  Colony  had  previously  been  regar- 
ded as  a notable  example  of  rapid  development  in 
rubber  production.  But  the  export  from  that  colony, 
though  beginning  in  1883,  amounted  only  to  3,395,990 
pounds  in  the  calendar  year  1893,  according  to  the 
latest  official  figures  received  by  The  India  Rubber 
World  from  Accra. 
Samples  of  Lagos  rubber  began  to  reach  the  United 
States  shortly  after  the  first  receipts  from  that  colony 
in  Europe,  and  of  late  there  have  been  considerable 
receipts  of  it  at  New  York,  but  inquiries  in  the  trade 
bring  out  the  fact  that  American  manufacturers  have 
as  yet  treated  the  new  rubber  with  caution.  Consi- 
derable time  is  always  required  for  a new  product  of 
rubber  to  become  known  to  the  manufacturing  trade 
and  to  establish  a reputation.  Lagoa  rubber  has  been 
used  in  English  factories,  however,  and  to  some 
extent  in  Germany  and  Austria.  Up  to  date  the  total 
product  from  Lagos  has  been  shipped  direct  to  Liver- 
pool, where  the  quotations  lately  have  been  1/3J 'ffl 
Is  lOgd.  It  is  asserted  in  New  York  that  Lagos  rub- 
ber is  good,  and  that  it  has  been  improved  since  it 
first  began  to  arrive.  It  is  classified  as  “oysters,” 
“ strips,”  and  “ buttons.” 
Whether  the  heavy  production  in  this  little  Eng- 
lish colony  will  be  long  maintained  is  a problem  on 
which  no  one  seems  prepared  to  express  an  opinion, 
The  output  of  Accra  and  Benguella  rubbers  is  not 
as  lar»e  today  as  in  some  past  years.  Then  it  is 
remembered  that  at  one  time  Mozambique  and  Mada- 
gascar grades  came  foi'ward  in  surprising  qualities, 
but  fell  off  in  a short  time,  when  the  supplies  near  the 
coast  had  become  exhausted.  It  is  considered  proh  ible 
that  the  same  thing  will  prove  true  of  L^gos  rubber, 
even  if  there  should  be  enough  rubber  trees  back  oi 
the  coast  to  yield  a permanent  supply  ia  smaller 
quantities.  Already  advices  have  been  received  of 
smaller  receipts  at  the  Lagos  coast  since  January 
than  during  the  preceding  months.  There  are  no 
water-courses  in  Lagos,  as  in  the  Congo  country  to 
facilitate  the  collection  of  rubber  at  points  distant 
from  the  seaboard. — India  Rubber  World,  April  10. 
NEAV  TEA  FACTfdRIES. 
The  Eastern  Produce  and  Estates  Co.  are  at 
present  erecting  a large  tea  factory  on  Halwatnra 
estate,  Kalutara,  the  jiroperty  of  the  Nortli  and 
Soutli  Sylhet  Tea  Company.  AVhen  completed 
the  new  factory  will  be  capable  of  turning  out 
tlivee-<iuarters  of  a million  lb.  of  tea  per  annum. 
The  factory  on  Naiiiiriacooly  estate,  Passara, 
which  ill  addition  to  serving  the  estate  of  tliat 
name  will  make  the  tea  grown  on  Canavarella 
and  Moiisagalla  estates,  is  also  being  erected  by 
