March I, 1898.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 
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Tea in it, and the Broken Tea has Orange Pekoe 
in it, and so on, but (as stated before) this Orange 
Pekoe does not improve the Broken Tea, and the 
Brok n Tea spoils the Orange Pekoe. Then, is it 
worth the troirble, or the expense ? That is the 
question to be worked out by each Manager. Look- 
ing at the matter broadly, there is about 40 per 
cent of Pekoe Souchong and Broken Tea. Of 200 
million pounds of our British tea this 40 per cent 
represents 8 million pounds. Of this 8 million 3 
per cent is good Orange Pekoe=240,000 lb. and 5 
per cent is good Pekoe=400,000 lb. and if this amount 
of Orange Pekoe and Pekoe could be placed on the 
market in excess of our present offerings, it would 
have a marked effect on the reputation of our tea, 
and this could be done by more careful sorting with- 
out lowering the prices of the Pekoe Souchong and 
Broken Teas . — Indian Planters’ Gazette, Feb. 5. 
PLANTERS AND THE EXCHANGE 
QUESTION. 
The United Planters’ Association of Southern In- 
dia has through its Chairman, Mr. George Romiliy) 
sent the following letter to the Government of India, 
Financial Department : — 
As we observe that the Madras Chamber of Com- 
merce has recently laid its views on the currency 
problem before the Government of India, and as we 
note with alarm that it advocates the adoption of 
what is known as the Lindsay Scheme for establish- 
ing a gold standard and thereby fixing the rupee at 
about Is. 4d., I now have the honour to submit for 
the consideration of Government the views of this 
Association on the subject, representing as I believe 
they do, not only the interests of the educated 
Native and European planters whom I have the 
honour to represent, but also the interests of the 
voiceless millions of native cultivators who are as yet 
unaware of the heavy burden under which they are laid. 
2. We agree with the Chamber of Commerce that 
“ if India is to be saved from ruin, if she is to prosper, 
cheap capital is absolutely necessary to develop her 
great resources ” ; but we go further than this, and 
maintain that not only cheap capital is necessary, but 
also a rupee at its natural value in order that the 
export trade, which is the backbone of the prosperity 
of India, may not be handicapped. 
3. Our two chief industries are the growing of 
tea and coffee. Our teas have to compete with 
.I ipan and China. Japan has recently adopted a 
u lid currency, but has fixed her exchange (doubt- 
less having this and other competitions in view) at 
the present low rate ruling in silver standard coun- 
tries and is for all practical purposes one of them. 
China has a silver standard, and a practical illus- 
tration of her favoured competition with India was 
recently afforded by the starting of the Foochow 
Tea Improvement Co. which in its prospectus lays 
stress on “ the advantage China now has over 
India and Ceylon in cheap silver the exchange 
value of the rupee exceeding that of silver by fully 
25 per cent.’’ But taking the present intrinsic 
value of the rupee at between 9d and lOd and tbe ex- 
change value at Is 4d the actual advantage in 
favour of China amounts to 60 pet cent. In like 
manner our coffees have to compete with those of 
Brazil and Central American States. Brazil has 
nominally a gold standard, but owing to bad financing 
the Milreis, its standard coin, has fallen in value 
during the past ten years from 27cf. to between 
8i. and 9cf., so that for all practical purposes 
Brazil is a country with a currency on a level with 
that of all silver standard countries. Costa Rica 
and the other coffee exporting countries of Central 
America have a silver standard, and consequently, 
with Brazil, enjoy the same advantages in their 
competition with Indian coffee as China and Japan 
have in the tea trade. 
4. The Madras Chamber of Commerce admits 
that ‘‘Indian producers will be heavily handicapped 
in competing with silver using countries by a fixed 
1», 4d. rupee ; but to attempt to fix a lower standard 
does not seem to be within the limits of practical 
politics.” It is this prejudication which we would 
oppose. In our opinion the true solution of the 
present difficulty lies in the reopening of the Mints. 
We believe that if this were done a great stimulus 
would be given to the export trade of the country 
and capital would be again attracted. The only 
obstacle, which unfortunately has been allowed to 
overshadow the whole question, is the loss that 
would be entailed on the Government of India by 
its Home Charges, This, we believe, would be 
largely compensated by the increased trade and 
prosperity of the country, but if fresh taxation 
became necessary to meet the requirements of 
Government we as producers would prefer to submit 
to a small dii-ect export tax on our producers than 
to have to struggle against the present crushing 
handicap in favour of produce from silver using 
countries. — ill. Mail, Feb. 15. 
A NEW IRON TEA FACTORY. 
The old factory at Dnnedin, Yatiyantota, which 
was totally burnt down some months ago, has 
been rebuilt and tea is made there now. The 
new factory is a neat and handsome building, 
designed and erected by Messrs. Walker, Sons & 
Co. ,of Colombo. It is li2ft. 6in. long by 35ft. Oin. 
wide, with engine and boiler house at one end, 
and a spacious firing room at the other. The 
office and sifting room are finely situated and 
fitted with large glass windows. The main stair- 
case, which is 8ft. llin. wide, a ))art for ascent and 
part for descent, gives a fine appearance to 
the factory. The woodwork is all of well-sea- 
soned teak, and all the materials are of the 
best workmanship. Tlie factory was built in 2^ 
months’ time, and it reflects great credit on this 
enterprising firm in being able to get work done so 
rapidly and so well. The executive engineer was 
Mr E.B. Rose, assisted by Mr. Peter C. Dias. — Cor. 
THE PROPOSED LABOUR FEDERATION. 
{From the Proceedings of the Ceylon Planters' Asso- 
ciation, held 17th February, 1895.) 
The Secretary took up the Rules for the 
proposed liubour F'ederation saying that they had 
been publLshed in minutes of the proceedings 
of the Committee. 
The proposed rules were taken as read. 
THE PLANTING MEMBER. 
The Hon. Mr. Campbell said it was Ms 
duty to bring before the meeting the pro- 
posed - Rules for the Labour Federation of 
Ceylon. They did not pretend these rules were 
in any way faultless. They knew it was a 
difficult task to make rules which would satisfy 
every one in a matter of Ur's .sort. He would 
call their special attention to rule No. 3. That 
rule was framed with the object of stopping 
roving gangs of coolies. They all knew how 
difficult it was to keep these gangs of the coolies 
on their estates and the object of this Federation 
was to endeavour to get the coolies to stop on the 
estates on which they were. If once they would 
get their coolies to stay with them for long- 
periods a great many of their dfficulties would 
vanish ; they would turn out the work much 
better and would be more content , would earn 
better wages and would be in a better situa- 
tion. If they agreed among themselves to get 
every planter to put his name down, and agreed 
that in no case would they give more advances 
than the amount put in the tundu tliey would 
go very far towards settling the labour difficulty. 
