Sept,  i,  1896.] 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
191 
Islington,  who  happens  to  be  chairman  of  the  Tower 
Tea  Company,  also  took  part  in  the  debate,  thoi^h 
on  which  side  is  not  clear  from  his  remarks.  We 
have  been  at  some  pains  this  week  to  collect  the 
views  of  the  leading  British  and  foreign  cocoa  ma- 
nufacturers on  the  matter,  and  find,  as  we  expected 
that  the  first-named  w’ith  the  single  exception  of 
Messrs.  Fry,  are  strongly  in  favour  of  the  duty. 
Not  all  of  our  informants  care  for  the  publication 
of  their  names  in  connection  with  the  expression  of 
their  opinion,  but  their  arguments  for  and  against  the 
duty  may  be  summed  up  as  follows : — 
The  two  principal  cocoa-manufacturing  countries 
are  England  and  Holland.  Germany,  in  spite  of  the 
bounty-allowance  to  which  we  have  referred,  takes 
quite  a back  seat.  Now  there  are,  both  in  England 
and  in  Holland,  manufacturers  whose  output  of  cocoa- 
butter as  a by-product  in  the  manufacture  of  “pure 
cocoa’’  is  larger  than  their  requirements  of  cocoa- 
butter as  an  ingredient  in  confectionary  (which  is 
the  purpose  to  which  the  article  is  mainly  put,  the 
pharmaceutical  use  suppositories  and  the  like  being 
comparatively  small),  and  who  are  therefore  com- 
pelled to  throw  their  excess  on  the  market.  This  is 
mainly  done  by  public  auctions,  held  once  a month 
in  London  and  Amsterdam.  About  400  tons  of  Cad- 
bury’s cocoa-butter  alone  are  disposed  of  in  this 
way  in  London  every  year,  and  a rather  larger 
quantity  of  Van  Houten’s  cocoa  butter  is  similarly 
■old  at  Amsterdam.  The  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer 
gave  certain  figures  showing  the  percentage  propor- 
tion of  cocoa-powder,  cocoa  butter,  and  manufacturing 
waste  yielded  by  the  roasted  beans.  His  figures  are 
considerably  at  variance  with  those  supplied  us  by 
Messrs.  C.  Barry  & Co.  of  Finsbury,  and  by  Messrs. 
C.  J.  van  Houten  & Zoon,  the  leading  Dutch  cocoa 
manufacturers,  and  we  hope,  for  the  sake  of  the 
British  cocoa  makers,  that  the  Chancellor  was  mis- 
informed, and  that  more  cocoa-powder  can  be  made 
out  of  a given  quantity  of  beans  than  he  seems  to 
think.  Here  are  the  figures : — 
Cocoa- 
Cocoa- 
powder 
butter 
Waste 
Beans 
Per  cent. 
Per  cent. 
Per  cent. 
Sir  M.  Hicks-Beach  44 '5 
32'5 
23  = 
100 
Messrs,  van  Houten  55 
23 
22  = 
100 
,,  C.  Barry  & Co.  34 
50 
16 
100 
Now,  raw  cocoa-beans  are  admitteed  into  Holland 
duty  free,  while  the  British  manufacturer  has  to  pay 
a duty  of  Id  per  lb.,  or  say,  about  18  per  cent,  ad 
valorem  on  the  raw  beans,  which  is  equal  to  a duty 
of  IJd  per  lb.  on  the  roasted  article.  To  that  ex- 
tent, therefore,  the  Britisher  is  already  initially 
handicapped  in  competing  with  the  Hollander  in 
neutral  markets,  and  it  therefore,  speaks  volumes 
for  the  excellence  of  Messrs.  Cadbury’s  manufactur- 
ing arrangements  that  they  should  still  be  able 
largely  to  increase  their  export  trade  year  by  year, 
as  they  assure  us  they  do.  In  addition  to  this  initial 
vantage  ground,  the  Hollander  has  hitherto  been 
able  to  send  his  cocoa-butter  into  the  British  market 
duty  free,  while  the  British  maker  (who  is  allowed 
no  drawback  or  bounty)  really  pays  from  one-third 
to  one-fourth  of  the  whole  duty  on  that  percentage 
of  cocoa-butter  contained  in  the  bean.  In  other  words 
if,  say  Messrs.  Cadbury  Brothers  were  to  establish 
a branch  of  their  cocoa  works  in  Holland,  they  would, 
under  the  old  arrangement,  have  been  able  to  import 
that  portion  of  their  cocoa  butter  made  across  the 
Channel  into  Britain  duty  free,  while  on  that  made 
in  Birmingham  they  would  have  paid  an  equivalent  of 
about  lid  per  lb.  in  duty. 
The  chief  argument  of  those  who  oppose  the 
duty  is  that  cocoa-butter  is  employed  in  very  large 
quantities  in  the  prep  (ration  of  confectionery,  and 
that  it  is  therefore  to  the  interest  of  that  industry 
to  obtain  it  as  cheaply  as  possible.  The  first  effect 
of  the  new  duty  will  be  to  diminish,  if  not  to  stop, 
the  importation  of  foreign  cocoa-butter  in  this  country; 
the  next,  to  increase  the  price  of  the  English  product 
■old  by  such  firms  as  Cadbury  Brothers,  Epps  A 
Co.,  Taylor  Brothers,  and  other.s.  The  total  quantity 
of  cocoa-butter  now  produced  in  England  is  believed 
to  be  barely  sufficient  to  meet  the  requirements ; 
but  the  output  is  probably  increased  somewhat  faster 
than  the  demand.  The  new  duty  will,  it  is  argued, 
come  out  of  the  pockets  of  the  British  users  of 
cocoa-butter,  who  will  thus  be  handicapped  in  their 
competition  with  those  British  confectionery  manu- 
facturers who  themselves  produce  cocoa  butter.  It 
is  further  argued  that  foreign  “ pure  cocoa  ’’  or 
“ cocoa-powder  ’’  already  pays  2d  per  lb.  duty,  against 
Id  per  lb.  paid  by  the  British  cocoa  maker  for 
his  beans,  and  that  this  difference  more  than 
countei'vails  any  advantage  the  foreigner  may  have 
reaped  from  the  free  importation  of  cocoa  butter, 
inasmuch  as  the  English  maker  only  pays  9s  4d 
duty  per  cwt  of  beans,  while  the  foreigner,  at  the 
rate  of  lb.  of  cocoa  powder  yielded  by  1 cwt.  of 
beans,  pays  lOs  3d  per  cwt.  and'that  therefore,  so  long 
as  the  foreign  manufacturer  does  not  send  more 
than  23  lb.  of  cocoa  butter  to  every  45  lb.  of  cocoa 
powder,  the  Britisher  has  nothing  to  complain  of. 
But  the  advocates  of  the  duty  contend  that  only 
about  20  per  cent  of  the  cocoa  powder  made  in 
Holland  is  imported  into  England,  while  the  pro- 
portion of  Dutch  cocoa-butter  which  has  been  sent 
hither  is  much  greater.  This  the  foreign  makers 
deny.  They  say  that  the  proportion  of  foreign  cocoa 
butter  to  cocoa  powder  imported  into  England  is 
much  less  than  45 : 100,  and  they  maintain  that 
while  benefiting  only  at  most  half-a-dozen  British 
cocoa  manufacturers,  the  new  duty  will  not  interfere 
with  their  trade  to  any  large  extent. — Chemist  and 
Druggist,  July  11. 
^ 
COFFEE  IN  BRITISH  CENTRAL  AFRICA. 
“It  never  rains  but  it  pours”  may  be  the 
thought  of  our  readers  when,  after  hearing  of  a 
great  coffee  planting  undertaking  proposed  for 
Costa  Rica,  they  are  asked  to  consider  what  is 
being  done  in  British  Central  Africa.  But  in 
reality,  the  Nyassaland  State— under  the  wise, 
energetic  administration  of  Sir  Herbert  Johnston— 
has  a nearer  and  dearer  interest  for  Ceylon  plan- 
ters and  merchants.  First  of  all,  it  is  British 
territory  under  a permanently  peaceful  and  stable 
as  well  as  liberal  Government ; and  seeing  how 
lamentably  “coffee”  growing  has  decayed  within 
the  British  Empire — as  we  made  plain  in  our 
recent  letter  to  the  London  Times,  which  has 
attracted  much  attention  in  “the  City”  and 
indeed  all  over  the  planting  world — it  is  of  pecu- 
liar interest  to  find  one  new  Dependency  with 
a fair  prospect  of  redeeming  the  balance.  For, 
if  only  the  transport  question  be  solved,  by  a 
railway  being  made  from  tlie  coast  to  near  the 
coffee  region  within  a reasonable  time  as  Sir  Herbert 
Johnston  remarked,  we  can  see  no  reason  why  the 
historv  of  Nyassaland,  or  the  Shire  Highlands, 
should  not  in  the  next  twenty  to  thirty  years, 
parallel  that  of  the  Kandyan  country  of  Ceylon  in 
the  “forties,”  “fifties”  and  “sixties”  of  this  century. 
Already  a fair  beginning  has  been  made  : there 
are  several  scores  of  European  coflee  planters 
(some  of  them  ex-Ceylon  men)  at  work ; the 
area  planted  must  equal  2, 000  acres  chiefly  young, 
and  the  year’s  export  of  the  fragrant  bean  is 
already  over  6,000  cwt.  There  is  a vast  extent 
of  suitable  forest-land  untouched,  purcha,seable  at 
public  auction  at  from  2s  6d  to  os  upset  price.  Of 
the  labour  supply  being  sullieient  and  at  wonder- 
hilly  cheap  rates,  Sir  Herbert  Johnston  has  no 
fear,  and  the  climate— though  there  is  always  a 
certain  amount  of  risk  in  pioneering— is  really 
no  such  bugbear  as  many  parts  of  the  Ceylon 
hill-country  were  fifty  and  forty  years  ago  when 
fever  and  dysentery  so  often  laid  low  Dumbara 
and  Matale  and  Yakdes.sa  planters.  Here  there 
is  a field  for  “ me  younger  son”  tiained  in  a 
good  school  as  a hard-working,  self-reliant  planter 
with  the  proper  amount  of  patience  and  tact  to 
work  native  labour,  kindly  and  considerately 
but  firmly;  and  with  the  requisite  amount  of 
backing  in  “ capital”— say  from  £1,000,  or  better 
