THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST,  [July  i,  1896. 
OPENINGS  FOR  RRITISH  CAPITAL. 
“The  one  great  object  of  these  interviewp,  Mr. 
Shand — and  I should  explain  that  this  is  only 
one  of  a series — is  to  make  City  people  acquainted 
with  the  vast  resources  of  our  colonies,  and  the 
opportunities  they  offer  for  the  introduction  and 
profitable  employment  of  Jiritish  capital.” 
“There  has  been  a great  deal  of  capital  sent  into 
Ceylon  during  the  last  ten  years,  and  up  to  the 
present  it  has  all  been  most  advantageously  invested. 
But  the  area  of  land  suitable  for  tea-planting — and 
bear  in  mind  that  this  is  now  our  chief  industry— 
is  limited.  We  have  over  300,000  acres  planted 
now,  giving  employment  to  nearly  2,000  British 
managers  and  superintendents,  and  about  half  a 
million  British  subjects  from  India  and  Ceylon, 
and  the  probabilities  are,  that  this  acreage  will  not 
be  very  much  increased.  Of  course,  the  tendency 
of  things  in  Ceylon,  as  it  was  in  India,  has  been 
very  much  to  turn  estates  into  companies.  When 
coffee  cultivation  was  at  its  height  there  were  only 
two  or  three  Loudon  companies,  but  in  the  case 
of  tea  it  has  been  found  desirable  to  join  two  or 
three  estates  together  and  foim  them  into  public 
companies.”  . . , 
“ And  I see  by  an  article  in  the  Financial  Fews 
of  to-day,  quoted  from  the  Times  of  Ceijlon,  that  they 
are  all  doing  well,  and  that  the  price  of  the  shares 
has  risen  in  value  during  the  past  year  from  18 
per  cent,  up  to  86  per  cent.” 
“ Yes  they  are  all  doing  well,  as  you  say  ; in 
fact,  there  has  been  an  all-round  rise.  And  yet, 
when  we  started  to  grow  tea,  every  conceivable 
difficulty  was  raised.  “The  .soil  is  not  good  enough.’ 
‘ You  may  grow  tea,  but  you  will  never  make  it 
in  sufficient  quantity  to  make  it  pay.’  ‘You  m^ 
get  quantity  but  you  will  never  get  quality.’  ‘ It 
may  go  on  for  years,  but  it  won’t  last.’  Those 
were  but  a few  of  the  expressions  of  doubt  hurled 
freely  and  without  foundation  at  tea-jdanting  in 
Ceylon,  but  it  has  lived  them  down.  The  yie!d 
from  many  of  the  older  gardens  has  far  exceeded 
the  most  sanguine  expectations,  the  average  price 
obtained  has  exceeded  that  of  other  tea-producing 
countries ; the  older  tea  fields — and  it  must  be 
remembered  that  they  were  formed  on  land  not 
selected  for  its  suitability  for  lea  bui  for  its  un- 
suitability for  coffee,  some  of  which  are  now  thirty- 
years  old — are  giving  a steadily  increasing  yield, 
maintaining  quality  and  showing  no,  signs  of  ex- 
haustion. But  wait,  while  I just  copy  down  for 
you  a few  figm-es  showing  the 
TOTAL  EXPORTS  OF  CEYLON  TF.A 
during  the  past  twelve  years 
Year  ending  December,  ’85,  4,100,000  lb. 
„ „ ’86  , 8,100.000  „ 
„ „ ’87,  13,800,000  „ 
„ „ ’88,  24,300,000  „ 
Year  ending  December,  ’89,  34,000,000  ,, 
„ „ ’90,  46,900,000  „ 
„ „ ’91,  68,‘200,000  „ 
„ „ ’92,  71,100,000  „ 
„ „ ’93,  84,400,000  „ 
„ ,,  ’94,  84,500,000  „ 
„ „ ’95,  97,800,000  „ 
Estimate  ’96, 101,000,000  ,, 
“ Certainly  a most  remarkable  and  wonderful  pro- 
gress, Mr.  Shand  ? ” 
“ I think  so,  too.  In  a paper  I read  before  the 
Royal  Colonial  Institute  in  1888  I stated  that  the 
probable  export  of  tea  in  1890  would  be  40,000,000 
lb.  It  exceeded  that  by  over  6,000, 0(X)  lb.,  and  the 
late  Sir  John  Coode,  in  the  course  of  the  discussion 
that  followed,  ventured  to  predict  that  it  would 
reach  100,000,000  lb.  by  the  end  of  the  century. 
It  has  topped  that  already.” 
“And  as  regards  the  price  ?” 
“ Well,  here  is  a table  which  my  partner,  Mr. 
Haldane,  has  drawn  up,  showing  the  average  value 
of  Ceylon  tea  sold  in  London  from  1889  to  1895. 
In  the  first  place  there  has  been  a steady  increase 
in  the  quantity  sold  from  440,161  packages  in  1889 
to  970,269  lb.  last  year.  In  1889,  you  will  observe, 
the  average  price  per  lb.  was  lid  ; in  1890,  lO^d.; 
in  1891,  lOd.;  in  1892,  9Ad.;  in  1893,  ‘Jd.,  in  1894, 
8Ad.-  and  in  1895,  8fd.;  so  that  there  has  been  a 
steady  decline  until  last  yeai,  when  theie  was  a 
sli'dit  rise.  Hut  you  must  remember  that  whereas 
the  average  value  of  the  rupee  in  1889  was  Is. 
lid.;  last  year  it  was  only  Is.  l^d. ; so  that  the 
planters  are  quite  as  well  off  with  the  lower  price 
as  with  the  higher,  so  long  as  they  and  theirs  re- 
main in  the  land  of  rupees,  and  do  not  require  to 
convert  rupee  into  sovereigns. 
“But  there  must  be  a price,  of  course,  at  which 
it  would  not  pay  t^  grow  tea  ?” 
“ Undoubtedly.  But  we  have  two  good  things  in 
our  favour,  g jod  labour  and  good  transport,  and 
most  of  the  Indian  tea-growing  districts  would  have 
to  give  way  first.  Our  labour  on  the  estates  is  al- 
most entirely  imported  from  Southern  India.  We 
give  them  a small  advance,  which  we  recover  from 
t^hem.” 
‘‘  Over  and  beyond  tea  there  are 
OTHER  PRODUCTS. 
■\Vhat  can  I say  about  these 
“ When  coffee  failed  us  we  ransacked  the  world 
of  tropical  agriculture  for  substitutes,  and  among 
other  things  w'e  grew  cinchona  so  successfully  as 
to  bring  the  price  of  quinine  down  to  about  a tenth 
of  what  it  had  been.  Ceylon  is  capable  of  produc- 
ing an  almost  unlimited  quantity  of  cinchona  bark, 
but  at  present  prices  it  connot  be  grown  profitably. 
All  the  same,  it  was  the  sheet  anchor  which  enabled 
us  to  ride  out  the  financial  storm,  and  to  regain 
prosperity.” 
“ And  what  about  coffee  ?” 
“ I think  we  may  see  a good  deal  of  Liberian 
coffee  coming  from  Ceylon  in  tbe  near  futur<-.  As 
you  know,  our  coffee  failed  through  a fungus. 
Then  we  introduced  Liberian  coffee,  and  culiivated 
it  on  a considerable  scale.  Since  those  days  ti  e 
trade  has  come  to  appreciate  this  Liberian  coffee, 
an  i if  we  had  known  as  iiv  ch  about  it  in  the  old 
days  as  we  know  now  we  should  have  seen  a much 
larger  area  under  cultivation.” 
And  as  to  cocoa  ?” 
“ We  have  been  exporting  a great  deal  of  cocoa, 
and  have  got  for  many  years  an  excellent  price 
for  it,  but  there  has  been  a heavy  fall  in  values 
during  the  past  two  years,  on  account  of  the  en- 
ormous supplies  coming  forward  from  South  America, 
and  as  the  area  of  cocoa  land  is  limited — it  re- 
quires a very  good  soil  and  exemption  from  wind, 
two  things  which  do  not  go  well  together  in  Ceylon 
— I do  not  expect  to  see  a very  great  increase 
in  the  production.” 
‘‘What  about  sugar?” 
“ Sugar  cultivation  was  tried  many  years  ago,  but 
our  rainfall  is  the  great  drawback  to  the  growth  of 
the  cane.  There  is  never  .a  certainty  of  dry  weather, 
and  as  sugar-growing  was  not  a success  when  it 
had  not  Continental  bounties  to  compete  against, 
it  is  not  likely  to  be  a success  now.” 
“ Then  there  are  your  coconuts  ?” 
“ Yes,  a very  large^  area  is  under  coconut  cultiva- 
tion. Hitherto  the  industry  has  been  almost  en- 
tirely in  the  hands  of  the  natives,  but  recently 
European  planters  have  taken  it  up’  Mew  markets 
are  opening  up  coustanily,  an  t the  demand  increases. 
In  addition  to  coconuts  we  have  spices  of  various 
kinds — cinnamon,  pepper,  cardamons,  and  such  like, 
but  they  are  all  minor  industries.” 
“ And  how  stands 
THE  FINANCIAL  POSITION  OF  THE  COI.OVY 
to-day  ?” 
“ The  financial  position  is  very  strong  indeed. 
The  only  debt  we  have  are  s.ims  that  have  been 
borrowed  for  public  works,  which  will  prove  remu- 
nerative, and  that  debt  is  very  s nail — only  2J  millions 
in  fact.  Our  revenue  is  bounding  up  tremendously. 
It  IS  now  about  20  million  rupees,  and  the  expen- 
diture, including  interest  on  debt  and  sinking  fund, 
IS  about  the  same.  The  Oovenuneut  is  pursuing 
a spirited  public  works  polic}’,  and  we  have  a net- 
work of  railways  all  over  t'lm  isbind.” 
CEYLON  AT  Tin;  I.MPEUIAL  lN;'ri’IUTE. 
“ By  tho  way,  Ceylon  has 
luhtnule,  has  it  not  T' 
a court  at  the  Imperial 
