520 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
go out an assistant to Mr. Rothe. The heavy out- 
door duties require all the Manager’s time and atten- 
tion, and very much interfere with the necessary work 
of accounts and stores, hitherto attended to By him 
personally. 
As an experienced, shrewd and thoroughly reliable 
coffee planter, the impressions and report of Mr. 
Macfarlane on the Costa Kiea estate will be looked 
for with much interest. The Directors aie doing 
wisely in devoting some attention to other products, 
especially to tobacco (for which their rich soil is 
suitable) and to rubber for which the demand 
steadily grows year by year. The Secretary 
this Company, Mr. A. G. Beeston, has an old 
connection with Ceylon, his father having been 
Secretary and Agent to the first Ceylon Rail- 
way Company and resident here in Sir Henry 
Ward’s time; while he himself is a nejihew of 
the late Mr. Geo. Steuart, founder of the well- 
known Colombo finrr. The Chairman, Mr. G. D. 
Jennings, is much esteemed as a man of high 
character and prolonged City experience. 
PRODUCE AND PLANTING. 
Planting in British Borneo.— On Tuesday night, 
at a meeting of the Royal Colonial Institute, Mr. E. 
P. Gueritz read a paper on “ British Borneo.” The 
reason given by Mr. Gueritz for the absence of 
popular knowledge of Sarawak among the commercial 
community of London, as compared with that of the 
native Stages of the Malay Peninsula, Labuan, and 
North Berneo, was her inability to compete in 
mineral wealth with the vast tin deposits of the 
Peninsula. Trade, which was generally carried on 
through Chinese merchants, included exports of sago 
—flour (of which 15,481 tons were exported in 1896), 
gutta, india-rubber, beeswax, birds’ nests, quick- 
silver, tobacco, rice, rattans, and coal. Attention 
was drawn to the teriitrryaa a field for the planter, 
and reference made to its success in regard to the 
production of tobacco, tbe area of which was being 
extended. Coffee and coconuts were receiving con- 
siderable attention, while manila, hemp and rhea 
had also been planted, and gambier to a small rx- 
lent. An experiment in tea-planting was also being 
made on a considerable scale. 
Coffee Mixtures. — Dr. Bostock Hill, who is the 
analyst to the Warwickshire county, in making his 
report to that body, recently referred to the sale of 
various kinds of mixtures, and said ‘‘ there can he 
no doubt that the sale of these coffee compounds, 
even when labelled, is a fraud, as the price charged 
for them is always higher than their commercial 
value, while the purchasers have no means of know- 
ing hi w infinitesimal is the quantity of coffee con- 
tained. . . In future legislation I am of opinion 
that it would be very desirable for all such mixtures 
to be labelled, and that the label should indicate the 
proportiens of the foreign ingredients.” Some cf 
Dr. Hill’s confreies made the same suggestion to the 
Select Committee on Adulteration, but their repoit 
states : “ After careful consideration of tbe matter, 
your committee have come to the conclusion that 
they cannot support the proposal that the b bels ( n 
mixtures should set forth the several components tf 
the mixture, as well as the fact of admixtute.” — E, 
and C. Mail, Dec. 17. 
THE CE\LON LAND AND PRODUCE 
COMPANY, LIMITED. 
r.KI’ORT OF DIRECTORS. 
Your directors have the pleasure to submit the 
annexed profit and loss account and balance sheet 
(for the crop year ending June 30th, 1897, duly 
Feb I, 1898 . 
audited, ihe amount at credit of piofit and loss 
f I" the sum of 
£r88 5s 9d brought forward from last year, leaves 
±11,144 13s 2d to be distributed. On July 22nd 
last an interm dividend of seven end half percent 
on the Oldinary shares and three per cent on the 
preference shares was paid, and your directors 
now propose to pay on December 31st, 1897 the 
balance of the fixed cumulative dividend on the pre- 
ference shares (three per cent), making six per 
cent for the year, and seven and half per cent on 
the ordinary shares, making fifteen per cent for 
the year, and, in addition a bonus of five per 
cent on the ordinary shares— all fiee of income-tax 
It IS also proposed to transfer ±3„500 from profit 
and loss account to reserve fund, increasing that 
nfLU balance 
of ±1,438 13s 2d, subject to the directors’ remuneration 
for tne year under review, to be fixed at the general 
meeting, and to the payment cf income-tax Ac 
In accorctance with a resolution of the board a call 
of 10s per share was made upon all members holding 
ordinary shares upon which only ±2 10s had been 
paid, and the same was payable on January 1 1897 
In pursuance of the terms of the notice, the dividend 
and bonus will be calculated as from tbe date of 
receipt of cash. It is a source of giatification to your 
directors that they are again able to lay before the 
shareholders evidence of the continued success of 
the company, notwithstanding the increased cost 
of production, mainly due to the rise in exchange 
The crop of tea greatly exceeded the estimates 
drawn up at the commencement of the financial year 
but the forecast of the cocoa crop was scarcelv 
realised, owing to a very he^vy rainfall in December 
last. The prices obtained for tea were lower than 
those recorded in the previous period, but it is 
pleasing to note that a substantial rise in the values 
of cocoa has been realised. 
• expansi n in the trade in Ceylon tea 
18 indicated by the increasing quantity offered at 
auction here during the eleven months from Jannarv I 
to November 30, which was 1,082,700 packages 
7|dper Ib, compared 
with 8|d per lb obiained fer 962,000 packages in the 
same period last year. It speaks well also for the 
popularity of the article that deliveries fully kent 
pace with the increased supply, so that the bonded 
stock in London was 1,000,0001b less on the 30th 
. i ’"i” Quality has varied 
y climatic influences. On 
if “hP description, 
thengh the fine flavour, which was at one time the 
feature in Ceylon tea, is not now so often noticeable 
asfoimerly. Common to medium grades ruled about 
steady thiough most part of the year, due largely 
to the growing demand tor “leafy kinds” for the 
Lontinent and other quarters outside the United 
Jviiigoom. 
generally met with good 
competition, but 1 rices showed some irregu- 
larity at times, being much influenced by the 
fluctuations in quality noticed above. Business from 
Lorn on to Russia, the Crntinent generally, as well 
as to Canada and America, continues to increase, and 
exports to these coumries bid fair to become a very 
impoit.ant feature. Total shipments for the first 
eleicn 'months of this and the two previous \ears to 
November 30 were, according to tbe Board Bf Trade 
6,SoOo'ib. ’ ’ 7,418,0001b.; 1895, 
*1® ®' ®»t‘sfaction to your directors to 
* ‘hat the sales of onr crops have been at 
t^o look back to 1894 for similar prices. By judlciona 
handling, yonr directors were enabled to finish the 
fl5s, which is the highest figure 
hontfn^ outlook for the article is 
hopeful, but a return to the high values existing 
previous to 1894 is improbable. existing 
**’® company’s es- 
tates have been disposed eff at the best possible prices, 
but the prognostications of your directors given jn 
