«72  THE  TROPICAL  AGKICHL THKlST.  [June  r,  1897. 
NUWARA  ELIYA  TEA  ESTATES  COM- 
PANY, LIMITED. 
Report  of  the  directors  to  be  presented  to  the  lirst 
annual  general  mee.iiiig  of  shareholders  to  be  held 
on  Friday,  the  30th  April,  131)7,  at  the  offices  of  the 
Agents,  Messrs.  Frith,  Sands  & Go.,  Winchester 
House,  Old  Broad  Street,  London,  E.C.,  at  12  o'clock 
noon  precisely. 
The  director’s  beg  to  snbuiit  to  the  shareholders  the 
balance  sheet  and  prolit  and  loss  account  up  to 
31sl  December,  181)6. 
The  accounts  shew  a surplus  of  t'9,l)10  Os  lOd  from 
which  debenture  interest  ft, 590  is  deducted,  leaving 
a balance  of  £8, 320.0s  lOd.  Au  interim  dividend  of  4 
percent,  was  paid  in  September,  1896  which  absoibed 
£4,033  6s  8d.  The  Directors  now  propose  to  pay  a 
final  dividend,  making  6 per  cent,  for  the  year,  on 
the  four  issues  of  shares  from  the  respective  dates 
that  they  rank  for  dividend,  viz. 
£ s.d.  £ s.d. 
Shares  Nos.  1 — 3,300,  from 
1st  Jan.  to 
31st  Dec., 
181)6,at6p.r 
oentperann.  1,980  0 0 
Less  Intel  irn  Divi- 
dend paid. . l,3’20  0 0 
660  0 0 
3,301 — 11,500,  from 
1st  Feb.  to 
31st  Dee. 
1896. at  6 per 
centperann.  4,510  0 0 
Less  Interim  Divi- 
dend paid. . 2,733  6 8 
1,776  13  4 
11,501—13,700,  from 
1st  July  CO 
3lsi  Dec. 
1896, at  6 per 
centperann.  ..  660  0 0 
1.3,701—15,870,  from 
1st  Nov.  to 
31st  Dec. 
1896,at  6 per- 
cent per  ann.  ..  217  00 
This  will  absorb  . . • • . . £3,313  13  4 
Of  the  balance,  £953  Os  lOd,  it  is  proposed  to 
apply  ,£.300  to  a Sin'ung  Fund  against  the  pre- 
mium paid  for  leases,  and  £65.3  Os  lOd  towards  the 
liquidation  of  the  sum  of  £1,109  2s  Id,  the  amount 
of  the  formation  expenses  of  the  Company. 
The  crop  of  tea  from  the  Company’s  estates  amoun- 
ted to  565,692  lb.  of  which  535,675  lb.  rvas  manufac- 
tured at  the  various  factories  on  the  properties,  and 
green  leaf,  representing  31,860  lb.  Tea,  for  which 
accommodation  for  manufacture  was  not  available  at 
the  time,  was  sold  to  a neighbouring  estate  : 1.843  lb. 
Tea  was  also  made  from  purchased  leaf.  The  c st  of 
manufacture  and  placing  on  steamer  at  Colombo  w.as 
4-88d  per  lb.  The  average  exchange  for  the  year  wa.s 
Is  2Jd.,  and  the  average  gross  sale  price  of  the  tea 
10’30d.  In  addition  to  the  lea  crop,  about  221  bushels 
of  coffee,  and  76,340  lb.  of  Cinchona  bark  were 
gathered  and  sold  in  Colombo. 
The  Company  acquired  at  first  only  the  estates  of 
of  I’ark  and  Concordia  ; since  then  several  other 
properties  have  been  purchased  as  detail  in  the 
accompanying  statement  of  acreage.  As  shewn  in 
this  statement,  2,174  acres  are  now  under  tea  in 
various  stages,  and  the  estimate  for  1897  is  for  an 
outturn  of  about  480  lb.  per  acre  for  the  area  in  full 
bearing,  and  about  250  lb.  from  that  in  partial 
bearing. 
The  policy  of  the  directors,  which  has  been  ably 
carried  out  by  the  Manager  in  Ceylon  during  the 
past  year,  has  been  to  effect  such  alterations  and 
improvements  in  the  general  condition  of  the  estates 
and  factories  as  will  ensure  the  best  possible  results 
in  the  future. 
With  this  view  extensions  were  compdeted  during 
the  year  to  the  factories  at  Naseby  and  Parkestates, 
and  commenced  to  those  on  Pedro  and  Court  Lodge, 
while  entirely  new  factories,  on  Poctswood  and  Con- 
cordia, are  now  practically  finished.  Tne  want  of 
these  materially  affected  the  first  year’s  profits. 
The  General  Manager  rejiorts  that  all  the  estates 
are  now  in  thorough  order,  and  anticipates  much 
improved  results  in  the  current  year.  This  is  borne 
out  by  telegrams  giving  figures  of  yields  very  largely  in 
excess  of  those  to  same  date  last  year. 
STATEMENl'  OF  APIUIOXI.MAXE  ACliEAOKS  KEFEKRED 
TO  IN 
THE  REPORT. 
Estates. 
Tea  in  full 
bearing. 
Partial 
bearing. 
Not  in 
bearing 
0^ 
1 3.2 
o 
CC 
Fuel  Trees 
’a 
o 
H 
Park 
161 
7 
20 
— 
10 
3 
201 
Concoidia. . 
80 
102 
46 
2 
— 
6 
236 
Poitswood. . 
260 
— 
40 
43 
170 
— 
513 
Pedro 
213 
— 
116 
43 
2 
— 
374 
Ken  mare  . . 
113 
7 
38 
28 
46 
— 
232 
Hillside  . . 
137 
— 
99 
25 
4 
— 
265 
Court  Lodge 
Lovers’ 
302 
24 
42 
— 
10 
4 
382 
Leap 
Fairvland 
80 
44 

— 
• 
6 
130 
(Lease)  . . 
52 
— 
— 
— 
20 
— 
72 
Naseby 
Hazelwood 
87 
27 
39 
12 
6 
““ 
171 
(Lease)  . . 
38 
— 
— 
— 
— 
— 
38 
1,523 
211 
440 
153 
268 
19 
2,614 
VAllIUU.S  PLANTING  NOTES. 
CoFFKK  IN  Nkw  South  \Vales.— A Sydney 
merchant  writes  : — “ There  is  a little  boom  on 
about  trying  cuflee  on  some  of  our  Northern 
ri\  er.s’  lands — about  the  Uichmond  : on  the  flats 
they  grow  maize  and  .sugar,  but  they  have  hill 
lands,  too.” 
The  Mo.st  Exi’ENSIVE  Puoduct  in  thew'orldis 
said  to  he  the  charcoal  thread  which  is  employed 
for  incandescent  lamps.  It  is  cluelly  manufactured 
in  Paris.  It  is  sold  whole.sale  by  the  gramme 
(15^  grains).  In  reducing  its  price  to  the 
basis  of  pounds  weight,  it  is  found  that  the 
(ilamonts  for  lamps  of  twenty  candles  are  worth 
.£1,600  per  lb.,  and  that  for  lamps  of  thirty 
caudles  they  are  w'ortli  £2,400  per  lb.  The  former 
have  a diameter  of  twenty  thousandths  of  a milli- 
metre (millimetre=0’0394  in.),  and  the  latter 
four  and  a half  thousandths  of  a millimetre.  The 
filaments  for  lamps  of  three  candles  are  so  light 
that  it  would  require  nearly  1,500,<X)0  of  them  to 
weigh  1 11).  As  tlie  length  of  each  is  10  cm. 
(3’937  in.),  their  total  length  would  be  187  miles. 
— Egyptian  Gazette.,  April  9. 
China  and  Japan  Teas.— it  will  be  .seen 
from  the  following  return  that  6 million  lb.  less 
of  China  tea  have  gone  to  Great  Britain  in  the 
season  now  closing  than  in  1895-6.  To  Russia — 
that  is  Odessa — the  decrease  is  nearly  5^  million 
lb.  To  North  America  tiiere  is  a comparative 
falliiig-oir  of  nearly  5^  million  lb.  of  China  and 
5^  million  lb.  of  Japan  teas.  The  total  figures 
in  the  China  pa])crs  are  as  follows  : — 
1896-97 
lb. 
Export  from  China  to 
Great  Britain  . . 37,444,332 
Export  from  China  to 
Luited  Status  and  Canada  50,548,770 
Export  from  China  to  Odessa  22,9 19,123 
Export  from  Japan  to 
United  States  and  Canada  12,526,802 
1895-96 
lb. 
43,503,555 
55,959,010 
27,240,863 
48,2’23,441 
