March  i,  1897.]  TtlK  TROPIC\L 
AGRICULTUPlSr. 
6r3 
assist  in  endeavouring  to  find  and  return  labourers 
who  had  broken  their  agreements  and  run  away 
before  the  completion  of  their  time.  These  regula- 
tions were  framed  quite  as  much  for  the  protection 
of  the  labourer  as  the  employer.  He  did  not  think 
they  had  much  to  complain  of  in  the  matter  of  the 
ijabour  Regulations,  which  were  working  well. 
Referring  to  Sir  H.  H.  -Johnston’s  last  official  re- 
port onR.  C.  A.,  Mr.  Sharpe  felt  sure  that  the  Com- 
missiouea-  had  no  intention  of  suggesting  (as  they 
seemed  to  consider,)  that  labourers  were  unfairly 
treated  by  employers  in  this  Protectorate,  but  that 
the  labour  regulations  were  so  framed  by  him  that 
[ofi  dealing  was  secured  for  both  employer  and 
'Bq'Burer. — British  Central  Africa  Ganette. 
PRODUCE  AND  PLAJSTING. 
The  Shakes  of  Ceylon  Tea  Companies. — As  a 
set-off  to  the  outcry  in  some  papers  against  tea 
shares  and  the  absurd  talk  about  “ booms”  and  in 
vestment  in  tea  companies  being  overdone,  the 
Echo,  in  its  money  article,  has  something  to  say 
in  favour  of  Ceylon  companies.  After  giving  the 
price  and  the  yield  per  cent  of  some  of  the  better 
known  companies,  similar  to  that  which  appears 
in  our  columns  week  by  week,  our  contemporary 
states  that  “ investors  who  have  hitherto  held  aloof 
from  these  shares  may  see  what  a far  better  hold- 
ing they  have  proved  to  be  than  gold  or  silver 
mines.  Yet  a company  like  the  Barnato  Bank  can 
obtain  its  millions  of  pounds  without  a prospectus 
in  a few  hours,  and  can  find  hundreds  of 
small  capitalists  readj'  to  sell  out  of  Consols  in  order 
to  pay  for  a £1  share,  while  it  has  taken  these 
same  people  six  or  seven  years  to  be  persuaded  into 
baying  Ceylon  tea  shares  which  were  at  one  time 
obtainable  at  par,  and  which  have  ever  since  their 
formation  as  limited  liability  companies  paid  hand- 
some and  steady  dividends.  The  rise  in  value  of  the 
Eastern  Produce  and  Estates  Company  is  remarka- 
ble,” says  tlie  writer  ol  the  article,  ‘‘  when  one  re- 
members that  this  Company  is  the  successor  to  the 
old  Ceylon  Company,  Limited,  which  was  brought 
down  during  the  years  1880  to  1881  by  the  utter 
failure  of  the  coffee  crops.  At  the  time  of  the 
first  suspension  of  the  Oriental  Bank  in  April, 
1881,  the  Ceylou  Company,  Limited,  owed  the  bank 
a sum  of  about  £.570,000.  ludead,  the  bank  and  the 
Company  were  so  mutually  involve  t in  each  other  that 
they  were  bound  to  fall  together.  With  the  rise  of  other 
tea  planting  the  Eastern  Produce  Comjiany  has 
risen  also.  Its  10,000  acres  under  cultivation  repre- 
sent some  of  the  finest  old  coffee  properties  in  the 
island,  as  well  us  some  of  the  largest  Rothschild 
Estate  in  Pussellawa  and  Meddecombra  Estate  in 
Dimbula  were  almost  the  best-known  coffee  planta- 
tions in  the  Central  Province,  the  former  having 
been  successfully  worked  for  nearly  forty  years 
before  giving  out.  This  company’s  debentures  must 
be  well  secured,  and  should  prove  a suitable  pur- 
chase for  anyone  desirous  of  holding  an  actual  mort- 
gage as  v\eil  as  a share  in  profits.” 
Indian  and  Ceylon  Tea  in  the  United  St.ates.— 
The  American  Grocer  bears  testimony  to  the  success 
which  is  attending  the  efforts  of  Messrs.  Blechyn- 
den  and  Mackenzie  towards  popularising  Indian 
and  Ceylou  teas  in  the  United  States.  The  pre- 
judice against  these  teas  is  giving  way,  and 
dealers  who  formerly  prognosticated  the  failure 
of  any  attempt  to  place  them  on  the  market 
o anything  like  a large  scale  now  admit  that  the 
growth  of  the  trade  is  marvellous',  and  will  continue 
to  grow. 
Packet  Tea.  —The  growth  of  the  tea  planting  indus- 
try fias  been  accompanied  by  a similar  development 
of  enterprise  in  regard  to  the  packet  tea  trade.  Those 
concerns  whose  proprietors  have  had  faith  in  the 
value  of  advertisements  and  also  the  necessary  capital 
to  spend  on  this  all-important  department  have  found 
the  paeket  tea  trade  pay,  and  the  extent  of  the 
business  is  considerable.  In  their  report,  recently 
issued,  the  directors  of  the  Mazawattee  Tea  Company, 
Limited,  statethat  they  have  thought  it  wise  in  this 
year’s  accounts  to  provide  for  the  whole  of  the 
exceptional  expenses  in  connection  with  the 
opening  up  of  new  business  in  fresh  centres, 
including  development  outlay  in  Ireland,  so 
that  they  have  been  entirely  written  off  this 
year’s  profits.  The  net  profit,  after  providiig 
for  these  payments,  is  the  sum  of  £54,270  2s  5d; 
and  after  payment,  of  the  managing  director’s  re- 
muneration, directors’  fees,  preliminary  and  office 
expenses  and  other  charges  and  interest,  making  the 
necessary  reserve  for  discounts,  and  for  depreciation 
of  leases  and  plant,  there  remains  a balance  avail- 
able of  £31,613  6s  5d.  Prom  this  is  to  be  paid  the 
dividend  due  upon  the  preference  shares  at  the  rate 
£5  per  cent,  per  annum,  which  will  absorb  £4,476 
15s  ; and  the  diiectors  recommend  a dividend  upon 
the  ordinary  shares  at  the  rate  of  £8  per  cent,  per 
annum  for  the  half-year  ending  December  21  last, 
which  will  amount  to  £13,533  6s  8d.  They  propose  to 
set  aside  out  of  the  profits  of  the  current  year  the 
sum  of  £12,000  as  a reserve , and,  after  making  thie 
provision  the  amount  of  £1,604  4s  9d  will,  subject  to 
such  sum  as  may  be  voted  for  the  commission  of 
the  directors,  form  (he  balance  to  be  carried  forward 
to  the  next  account. 
In  Puaise  of  Tea. — In  an  article  on  tea  drinking, 
which  appears  in  the  Globe,  the  writer  says  : — “ 'Wa 
can  scarcely  in  the  present  day  conjure  up  the  vision 
of  a tealess  world.  Yet  our  stalwart  ancestors  drank 
ale  to  their  breakfast  ; and  even  when  their  overnight 
potations  had  been  deep  were  constrained  to  call  for 
‘small  beer.’  Modern  civilisation  has  provided 
substitutes  for  these  refreshments  and  our  less  robust 
age  revolts  at  the  idea  of  them.  But  modern  civili- 
sation has  done  more  than  give  us  substitutes  ; it  has 
supplied  us  in  the  tea-table  with  an  institution  where- 
of no  prototype  exists.  The  glories  of  the  punch- 
bowl have  departed  ; the  guiuea-decorated  ladle  is 
profaned  to  the  service  of  various  degenerate  and 
soulless  compounds  known  as  ‘cups’ — it  is  enough  to 
make  our  convivial  great-grandfathers  turn  in  thpir 
graves.  The  hospitable  mahogany  has  its  cheerful 
surface  veiled  with  a cloth,  and  might  as  will  bo 
simple  deal;  but  we  miintain  in  its  perfection  the 
rite  of  tea-drinkining.  It  is  not  a rite  of  such  dig- 
nity as  those  practised  by  our  forefathers  ; the  tea- 
pot soothes  rather  than  elevates ; it  is  domestic 
rather  than  convivial  ; its  function  is  not  so  much 
to  create  a bond  of  unity  between  an  assembly  ai 
to  supply  a solace  to  the  individual.  But  such  ai 
it  is  unequalled.  Moreover,  tea  is  a link  between 
all  classes  of  society  ; for  it  no  longer  coats,  as  in 
the  times  when  fashionable  society  rhymed  it  to 
‘ obey,’  twenty  shillings  in  the  pound.  It  sheds 
its  grateful  influence  upon  palace  and  cottage  alike; 
it  is  no  longer  merely  an  ‘ elegant  regale';  it  has  become 
popular,  and  that  without  losing  its  charm.” 

THE  TEA  INDUSTRY. 
INDIAN  AND  CEYLON  IMPORTS. 
Y'^ear  by  year  the  growing  importance  of  British- 
grown  tea  is  showing  itself  in  statistics  and  Board 
of  Trade  returns.  If  the  official  Britons  take  money 
out  of  India  and  live  at  home  in  something  re- 
sembling ease,  it  can  at  least  be  urged  that  the 
commercial  Briton  takes  his  capital  out  to  the  East, 
where  he  often  lives  in  considerable  discomfort,  work- 
ing hard  himself,  and  employing  native  labour  by  the 
hundred  thousand  at  a time. 
The  official  prays  for  a rise  in  exchange,  and 
considers  that  he  is  being  robbed  with  every  frac- 
tion that  it  declines.  The  planter,  or  capitalist, 
employed  in  the  tea  enterprise  would  be  glad  enough 
to  see  the  Rupee  down  to  a shilling,  as  any  gold 
ho  sends  out  to  India  to  pay  for  the  opening  up  of 
more  jungle  land  becomes  nearly  doubled  en  route, 
while  the  product  grown  on  the  estates  is  shipped  t<J 
London  and  sold  for  gold. 
