Feb.  I,  1897. J 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST, 
551 
“Have  YOU  ordered  any  niacUinery  from 
Ceylon?” 
“At  present  there  is  no  Ceylon  madunery  on 
the  estate.  Tlie  machinery  is  by  Ledgerwood,  a 
Glasgow  linn,  wliich  competes  with  Messrs.  Walker. 
Now  that  we  are  going  to  adopt  Cej  Ion  methods, 
we  shall  certainly  use  Walker’s  peelers  and 
pulpers. 
“What  about  power?” 
“Steam  is  used,  but  at  two  or  three  points  on 
the  estate  water  power  is  available.” 
“ Have  you  any  black  labour  ?” 
“ Not  much.  There  are  a few  negroes  about. 
A most  e.vlraordinary  tiling  about  that  part  of 
Brazil  is  that  the  slaves  who  were  only  emanci- 
pated some  eight  years  ago  are  hardly  to  be  seen 
anywhere.  Wliere  they  have  gone  to  I don’t 
know.  Most  of  them  I fancy  have  drifted  into 
the  large  towns  and  others  have  squatted  on 
waste  land.” 
“What  about  the  future  of  the  Company?” 
“I  am  very  hopeful  of  the  future  of  the  Com- 
pany and  tlie  best  test  of  its  continued  pros- 
[lerity  is  found  in  tlie  fact  that  in  the  London 
market  tlie  shares  are  readily  .saleable.” 
“Does  not  the  jirosperity  of  the  Company  depend 
on  the  stability  of  the  Government  ? What  are  your 
views  on  this  subject  ? 
“I  do  not  think  the  present  llepublic  is  a very 
stable  Government ; as  a matter  of  fact,  they 
were  talking  about  a revolution  when  1 was 
there.  But  a revolution  in  Brazil  makes  very 
little  difference  to  property,  especially  if  it  is 
landed  property,  though  it  might  be  somewhat 
serious  if  the  currency  was  disturbed.  I con- 
sulted a man  of  some  position — the  manager  of  a 
large  English  Bank—  on  the  subject  telling  him 
that  one  of  the  things  urged  against  subscribing  to 
the  Company  was  the  unsettled  state  of  the 
country,  and  he  said — ‘ Nonsense,  landed  property, 
house  property,  real  property  is  perfectly  sound 
and  one  need  not  fear  anything.’  I also  asked  a 
leading  lawyer— a man  < f standing  in  his  pro- 
fession— and  he  said  since  the  Brazilians  had 
to  pay  the  large  indemnities  to  Italians  they  had 
been  very  careful  to  guard  the  rights  of  foreigners. 
Persiujally  the  Brazilians,  are  a pleasant  people 
to  have  dealings  with.” 
Mr.  T.  L.  Villiers  of  Yoxford,  Dimbula,  will 
take  charge  of  the  estates  and  he  sails  for 
England  in  the  “Malta”  on  11th  Feb..  No  doubt 
Ceylon  methods  under  his  direction  will  liave 
beneficial  results.  Mr.  Villiers  is  to  be  congratu- 
lated on  this  important  appointment. 
PRODUCE  AND  PLANTING. 
(From  the  JI.  & C.  Mail,  Jan.  1.) 
Te.\  Shares  and  Their  Vaeue. — A study  of  the 
review  of  the  tea  share  market  for  the  past  year, 
which  appears  in  another  column,  will  afford  grati- 
fying proof  that  the  interest  taken  in  tea  shares  by 
the  investing  publichas  not  been  in  vain.  Rise  upon 
rise  is  to  be  noted  in  the  price  of  the  shares  in  the 
leading  companies,  while  the  debenture  stock  rivals 
the  position  held  by  gilt-edged  securities  of  the  first 
class.  This  is  an  enviable  position  financially,  and 
it  is  due  alike  to  the  confidence  shown  in  the  manage- 
ment at  home  and  on  the  spot,  and  to  the  belief 
that  tea  planting  is  a sound  and  well  conducted  in- 
dustry, subject  to  fewer  fluctuations  than  some  forms 
of  enterprise  about  which  there  is  more  flourish  and 
less  performance.  Thanks  to  the  efforts  of  Mr.  Geo. 
Seton,  of  the  Indian  Tea  Share  Exchange,  and 
Messrs.  Gow,  Wilson,  and  Stanton,  the  well-Jvnowu 
tea  brokers,  and  others,  whose  efforts  to  popularise 
the  shares  of  Indian  and  Ceylon  leas  have  been  per- 
Bisteut)  the  public  no  longer  regard  these  shares  as 
something  in  the  nature  of  a “ dark  horse.”  They 
can  procure  all  the  information  they  need,  and  when 
they  have  purchased  shares  they  have  been  gratified 
in  nearly  every  case,  with  the  receipt  of  divi- 
dends and  the  prospects  of  others  to  come.  The  tea 
industry  is  in  a healthy  state,  and  although  it  will 
probably  have  to  face  increasing  competition  there 
is  no  reason  why  it  should  not  show  further  and 
gratifying  developments.  We  need  not  say  that  in 
eulogising  the  tea  industry  as  a whole  we  are  not 
necessarily  endorsing  the  statemeucs  and  prospectus 
of  every  venture  launched  as  a tea  company.  The 
public  must  protect  themselves,  and  thanks  to  the 
publicity  given  to  the  reports  of  the  various  com- 
panies and  the  information  procurable  from  the 
broker.s  we  have  named,  there  is  no  difficulty  in  the 
way  of  information.  As  a whole,  we  repeat,  the 
tea  industry  is  on  a sound  footing.  Investors  who 
own  well-selected  tea  shares  are  to  be  congratulated 
on  their  choice  of  investments,  which  certainly  pro- 
mise well,  and  are,  so  far  as  ordinary  insight  can 
judge,  likely  to  give  far  less  cause  for  anxiety  than 
many  other  shares  of  the  industrial  order. 
The  Tax  on  Chinese  Tea. — In  the  able  letter  ap- 
pearing in  the  Timex  on  Chinese  affairs  from  its 
correspondent  at  Shanghai  reference  is  made  to  the 
ta.xation  of  tea  and  its  effect  on  the  tea  trade  of 
China.  The  Times  correspondent  says: — “ The  export 
duty  on  tea,  fixed  under  the  Tient-sin  Treaty  at 
2A  taels  per  picul,  represented  no  doubt  in 
1858  an  ad  valorem  rate  of  5 per  cent.,  but  at 
the  prices  which  obtain  to-day  it  represents  much 
more  nearly  10  per  cent.  ; and,  as  if  that  were  not 
a sufficiently  crushing  burden  to  place  upon  Chinese 
tea,  the  exactions  levied  upon  it  in  the  shape  of 
likin  amount  to  another  20  per  cent.  In  many  cases, 
indeed,  the  total  taxation  on  tea  before  it  leaves 
the  Chinese  port  of  export  is  estimated  at  no  less 
than  80  per  cent,  ad  valorem.  Can  anyone  seriously 
contend  that  such  extravagant  taxation  has  had 
nothing  to  do  with  the  disastrous  condition  into 
which  the  Chinese  tea  trade  has  fallen,  and  has  not 
materially  assisted  the  competition  of  Indian  and 
Ceylon  teas  on  the  British  market,  or  is  not  mate- 
rially assisting  that  of  .lapanese  green  teas  on  the 
American  market  ? Against  1(59  million  pounds  of 
tea  exported  to  Great  Bi itain  in  1880-81,  China  ex- 
ported only  37^  million  pounds  during  the  last  tea 
season.  With  the  change  that  has  gradually  come  over 
the  taste  of  tea-drinking  public  at  home,  it  may  be 
too  late  to  recover  all  the  ground  already  lost  on 
the  British  market,  but  something  may  be  done  to 
save  at  any  rate  what  is  left  of  it  and  to  avert  the 
threatened  loss  of  such  other  markets  as  China  has 
still  retained.” 
Japan  and  its  Tea  Trade. — According  to  advices 
from  Yokohama  the  Japanese  are  striving  to  develop 
their  tea  trade  in  every  possible  direction.  A com- 
mittee of  Japanese  tea  merchants  has  applied  to  the 
Government  for  a subsidy  of  1,750,000  yen  to  pro- 
mote the  tea  trade.  It  is  proposed  to  spread  the  ex- 
penditure of  this  sum  over  ten  j'ears  in  maintaining 
two  representatives  both  in  India  and  in  China  to 
study  the  processes  there  adopted  in  growing  and 
preparing  tea  and  in  advertising  Japan  teas  in  the 
United  States  and  elsewhere.  According  to  another 
account,  it  is  proposed  that  the  expenditure  of  the 
total  sum  shall  be  spread  over  five  years  only.  It 
is  very  flattering  to  Indian  and  Ceylon  growers  that 
the  Chinese  and  Japanese  should  wish  to  imitate 
their  methods,  but  it  is  not  at  all  desirable  that 
Indian  and  Ceylon  planters  should  teach  the  Chinese 
how  to  compete  with  them. 
Humour  in  Tea.— In  a chatty  article  about  tea 
a writer  in  the  January  number  of  the  Cornhill 
Jlai/azuw,  E.  V.  Lucas,  takes  note  of  the  paradox 
that  a man  who  sells  tea  and  nothing  else  occupies  a 
rung  in  the  Grundyau  ladder  far  above  him  who 
sells  tea  and  also  sugar.  Tea,  in  fact,  confers  a 
social  rank  of  its  own.  “ Mincing  Lane  and  Park 
Lane,”  ho  continues,  “ are  often  on  visiting  terms, 
