July  i,  1896.J 
THE  TROPICAL 
agriculturist. 
43 
THE  HOME  DTTIES  ON  TEA. 
Eviileiitly  there  i.s  a strong  party  in  tlie  House 
of  Commons  that  miglit  he  ex|)ecteil  to  .support 
protectionist  measures.  The  i)ioposal,  tliat  wliile 
the  present  duty  on  tea  should  be  retained 
against  Ciiina  .and  other  foreign  growths  it  sliould 
be  .annulled  in  the  case  cf  all  Hritish  produc- 
tions, is  about  as  strong  an  instance  of  protec- 
tionist tendencies  as  could  well  be  imagined.  It 
can  create  no  surprise  that  tlie  Government  re- 
fused to  consider  this  propo.sition  ; but  so  long 
.as  it  i)ermits  the  present  anomalous  position  here 
in  Ceylon  with  regniril  to  tlie  inland  grain  ta.xa- 
tion  anti  the  import  duty  on  rice,  so  long  must 
we  regartl  it  as  content  to  strain  .at  the  gnat 
while  sw.allowing  the  camel-.  For  as  regards  the 
suggestion  as  to  tea,  its  -adoption  would  at  least 
liave  favoured  British  subjects  at  the  expense 
of  the  foreigner.  As  respects  our  rice  and  paddy 
t.a.xes  the  injustice  lli.at  exists  is  felt  only  by 
British  subjects.  But  general  opinion  will  be, 
we  think,  on  the  side  of  ministers  in  their  re- 
fus.al  to  consent  to  what  was  asked  in  the  c.ase 
of  our  staple.  The  planters  of  Ceylon  and  India 
are  i^uite  .able  to  hold  their  own  in  the  competi- 
tion to  which  they  are  now  e.xposed,  witliout 
seeking  for  adv.antages  which  would  be  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  principle  of  Free  Tr.ade.  As  matters 
.are  as  regards  the  import  duties  on  tea,  they 
have  not  only  held  tlieir  own,  but  have  fairly 
beaten  China  out  of  tlie  held.  Whether  the  day 
may  yet  come  tli.at  may,  in  the  interests  of 
British  jdanters,  deimand  a dilferential  treatment 
in  their  favour,  we  cannot  pretend  tofore.see.  But, 
until  it  should  arrive— if  it  ever  do  .so— we 
conceive  that  there  exists  no  desire  to  seek  tlie 
advantage  suggested.  It  is  very  certain,  that, 
were  once  the  door  opened  in  the  c^e  of  tea, 
there  would  be  claims  made  of  a similar  nature 
for  the  jiroteytion  of  almost  every  other  form 
of  British  production.  We  are  by  no  means 
obstinately  conservative  as  regards  the  principles 
of  Free  Tr.ade.  We  cannot  shut  our  eyes  to 
the  fact  that  Great  Britain  is  severely  handi- 
capped by  the  refusal  of  foreign  countries  to 
<n-ant  reciprocity,  and  it  is  further  open  to  .argu- 
ment at  le.ast  .as  to  whether  some  nie.asure  of 
protection  might  not  be  justiliably  accordetl  in 
the  interest  of  some  of  the  agricultural  in- 
dustries of  the  mother  country.  But  as  reg,ards 
tea  it  seems  to  us  that  we  c.an  afford  to  Jet 
welh  alone.  It  is  very  certain  that,  with 
present  an<l  prospective  dem.ands  upon  the  Im- 
perial revenue,  the  abolition  of  the  duties  upon 
British-^rown  tea  must  create  a position  of  the 
gravest  °diliicnlty.  And  we  agree  too  with  the 
rebutting  argument  employed  by  the  Minister 
who  spoke  .ag.ainst  the  propos.al.  The  i)Oorer  classes 
in  England  are  relieved  .altogether  from  any  pay- 
ment of  direct  taxation.  But  it  is  only  fair  th.at, 
iu  a degree  and  .according  to  their  cap;icity, 
these  should  contribute  towards  the  expenditure 
by  which-  they  secure  pe.ace  at  home  and  protec- 
tion .abroad.  It  is  only  by  taxation  of  some 
portion  of  the  necess.aries  of  life  consumed  by 
such  classes  that  this  contribution  can  be  ob- 
tained. The  duty  on  tea— in  itself  not  an  abso- 
liite  “ necessary”'  of  life— must  be  .as  little  felt 
as  any  import  upon  these  could  be.  If  it  were 
.abolislred  in  preference  to  the  taxation  upon 
other  articles  of  import,  it  would  probably  be 
compulsory  to  t.ax  some  other  article  which  would 
be  more  a “necessary”  th.an  tea  is.  We  do  not 
think  the  projiosition  m.ade  has  been  wisely 
considered.  And  wh.at  is  more,  we  doubt  if  it 
h.as  been  put  forward  chiefly  in  the  interest  of 
the  tea  grower.  There  are  numerous  intermedi- 
.aries  eng.aged  in  the  tea  tr.ade  who,  we  expecti 
would  be  the  chief  benelitters  had  sucli  a pro- 
[)osition  been  adopted. 
DRUG  IlEFORT. 
(From  the  Chemist  and  JtriKjcjist.) 
Lonhon,  May  14. 
Seeds  (Variol'.S).- Of  33  pack.ages  Annatto-seeil,  none 
sold.  ■ For  good  l)right  Madras  5d  per  lb.  would  be  ac. 
cepted  ; West  Indian  was  boughl  in  at  5d  per  lb. 
Various  Drlios.— Coca-leaves : No  fine  qualities  were 
offered,  although  CO  b.ales  were  sliown  today.  Brown 
Huanoco  were  bought  in  at  Is  6d,  and  1 bale  of  ordi. 
nary  dull  greyi.sh  le.aves  sold  at  Is  per  lb.  Twenty-one 
e ses  very  d.ark  bioken  Fast  Indian  ciittlefl.sh-bone 
sold  cheaply  at  :]d  to  Ijd  per  lb.  Twenty-eialit  bags 
dark  Cubebs,  without  stalk,  were  bought  in  at  35s 
per  cwt. 
OiES  (Ksse.ntiae). — Citronella  oil  is  still  declining  ; sales 
of  tins  near  at  hand  are  sai<l  to  h.ave  taken  place  at 
Is  -2d  per  lb.,  c.  i.  f.  terms,  wliile  about  eight  tons  jn 
drums  sold  at  the  end  of  last  week  at  Is  3d  per  lb., 
C.  i.  f.  Londo  1 shipment,  till  end  of  September.  Twelve 
drums  Citronella  oil  (Scliimmel's  test)  were  bought’ in  at 
Is  4i|  per  lb,,  while  for  2 cases  of  WinteFs  brand  3i( 
(ler  OP.,  is  a.sked 
— ^ 
THE  PASSING  OF  CINCHONIDIA. 
The  sudden  demand  during  the  past  two  weeks, 
which  called  for  many  thousand  ounces  of  cinclio* 
nidia,  revealed  the  fact,  which  was,  without  doubt, 
patent  to  close  observers,  that  there  was  practically 
no  stock  on  hand,  and  the  question  naturally  arises, 
what  is  to  be  the  outcome  of  the  situation  which  has 
somewhat  suddenly  become  manifest.  There  appears 
to  bo  but  one  answer,  and  that  is,  the  end  of  cincho- 
nidia  is  at  hand.  It  has  seen  its  best  days,  and  will 
soon  be  classed  with  the  “has  beens.”  The  salt 
cannot  be  said  to  have  lost  caste  with  the  profession 
and  the  trade,  but,  on  the  contrary,  it  has  doubtless 
steadily  grown  in  favor  ever  since  its  usefulness  was 
discovered,  and  so  long  as  a supply  was  obtainable  its 
cheapness,  as  compared  with  quinine,  made  a steady, 
although  not  very  extensive  demand  for  cinchonidia. 
The  Peruvian  and  Ceylon  barks  contained  it  in 
sufficient  quantities  to  make  it  worth  the  while  of 
manufacturers  to  market  it,  but  since  the  quinine 
makers  became  obliged  to  confine  themselves  to 
the  use  of  the  Java  barks,  the  days  of  cinchonidia 
have  been  numbered.  In  the  selection  of  varie- 
ties of  barks  for  cultivation  in  .lava,  particular 
attention  was  paid  to  those  which  yielded  the 
greatest  proportion  of  quinine,  owing  to  the  natural 
preference  and  ready  sale  for  it  in  quantities  greatly 
in  excess  of  any  of  the  other  alkaloids  found  in  the 
cinchona  barks  of  commerce.  This  preference  for 
quinine  was  doubtless  in  great  measure  traceable  to 
the  fact  that  it  was  the  first  of  the  alkaloids  dis- 
covered, hence  appealed  more  strongly  to  the  manu- 
facturing chemist  as  a means  of  profit,  providing  it 
proved  to  be  of  therapeutic  value.  Its  value  having 
many  years  ago  been  satisfactorily  proven,  little  at- 
tention was  paid  to  its  associate  alkaloids  until  about 
the  year  1874,  when  Howard  & Son  of  London  be- 
came convinced,  from  a series  of  experiments  made 
by  the  English  Government  in  India,  that  it  pos- 
sessed properties  which  made  it  almost  as  valuable 
as  quinine,  if  not  equal  to  it  in  some  respects.  They 
also  learned  that  the  first  in  value,  of  the  cinchona 
alkaloids,  was  quinidia  : then  came  quinine,  cincho- 
nidia and  ciuchonia,  in  this  order.  As  the  first-named 
was  obtained  in  such  small  quantities,  little  attention 
was  paid  to  it,  but  cinchonidia  promised  a profitable 
return  on  the  slight  expense  attendant  on  the  methods 
employed  for  isolating  it  and  prepai’ing  it  for  the 
market.  Within  a very  short  time  after  the  announce- 
ment of  its  therapeutic  value.  Powers  & Weightman 
determined  to  begin  a campaign  of  education  with 
a view  to  making  an  outlet  for  their  accumulation 
of  stock,  which  had  been  going  on  for  years.  Like 
every  other  judicious  manufacturing  chemist,  they 
had  saved  everything  in  their  manufacturing  pro- 
cesses. that  might  some  day  prove  of  value,  with  the 
result  in  this  case  that  they  had  a stock  of  many 
