May 2 , 189 S.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 765 
OUR TEA INDUS aiY: CURRENCY AND 
EXCHANGE : 
THE CHAMBER’S MEMORIAL. 
The following notes which reached ns from 
a responsible “ City ” man interested in Ceylon 
will, we have no doubt, receive careful consider- 
ation at this time : — 
“ Talking yesterday witli one of the best informed 
and most largely interested men in the Ceylon tea 
industry he informed me that comparing 1897 with 
the year 1894 he calculated that the adverse in- 
fluences at w'ork last year meant altogether a 
loss of £1,300,000 as compared with 1894, made 
up thus : — 
( 1 ) Difference in exchange 2d per rupee £250,000 
(2) Extra cost of rice 600,000 
(3) Reduced market price of tea 450,000 
£1,300,000 
That is for Ceylon only and if these figures are 
anything like correct tlie matter is serious indeed. 
The tea industry could no doubt successfully 
combat and overcome the difficulties caused by 
items ( 1 ) and ( 2 ); but the most serious matter 
is item (3), because it is likely to be more per- 
manent and to get worse rather than better. 
“ Surely it would be better for the Government 
to push on the inexpensive line to Awissawella 
and so assist the tea industry there ratlier than 
give precedence to the expensive line to the North 
with its very uncertain prospects? I am not a 
pessimist, but I cannot help thinking that the time 
has come for very carefully disbursing, or per- 
haps even husbanding the revenue of the Colony." 
It may be questioned whether it would not be 
advisable to include some such comparison as 
the above, or as lately made between 1896 and 
1897, in the Planters’ Memorial to Mr. Cliamber- 
lain. It would be out of place in that adopted 
by the Chamber of Commerce, because the latter 
has to serve for the producing or at any rate, 
the exporting interests of the Colony as a wdiole. 
The Chamber’s Memorial will be found below. It 
is, in our opinion, an honest straightforward docu- 
ment wliich he who runs may read, and w'e are 
especially glad to note that the non-consideration 
by the Indian Government of the interests of 
Indian producers — the silent but suffering mil- 
lions— is brought out. Mr. Chamberlain cannot 
fail to see at a glance how the shoe pinches in 
the case of Ceylon and he ought to be all the 
more ready to make hi.s- influence felt on our 
behalf from the fact chat no special remedy is 
suggested ; but that the memorialists on this 
occasion place themselves unreservedly in his 
hands. 
Revetting once again to tlie “tea industry’’ 
we must guard against the prevalence of an 
opinion that those of the planters who feel 
the pinch now, have the remedy in their 
own hands, — in other words that the 
advice ‘to pluck finer and make better teas’ 
applies to all who are sulfering from the bad 
times, and are unable to make both ends meet. 
Such is not the case. There is a considerable extent 
of the tea districts where the planters have never 
gone in for “quantity” — simply because their 
soil ivas not equal to yielding returns over 350 lb. per 
acre, — and who have always done tlieir best by 
the leaf they gathered. And yet, many of these are 
now realizing that tea production will not pay, do 
what they can, unless prices improve or exchange 
falls. For such, the visible means of economiz- 
ing or improving are exceedingly limited if at all 
existent. There are others who steering a 
medium course as regards plucking, complain of 
the cost of their transport, and say the r-dlway 
could and should help them in this time of 
need. Of course, none of the lowcountry dis- 
tricts with their abundant crops of leaf are in- 
cluded in this category. To planters in the latter, as 
well as on plantations with virgin soil in higher 
districts, the counsel to pluck fine and improve 
the make and quality of their teas as a means 
of meeting the present hard times, may be very 
suitable. But, let Mr. Chamberlain and His Ex- 
cellency the Governor understand that there is 
no inconsiderable acreage under tea in Ceylon 
whose owners may, before the year is out, re- 
quire and deserve official aid quite as much as the 
West Indian sugar planters — if indeed their 
“case for relief” should not piove even stronger 
seeing that the direct occasion of their suffering 
is found in the action of the Indian Govern- 
ment in tampering with the Currency and forc- 
ing on the public an artificial, inflated and dis- 
honest rupee. 
THE EXCHANGE QUESTION. 
THE MEMORIAL TO MR. CHAMBERLAIN. 
The Right Hon’ble Joseph Chamberlain, M.P. j 
Her Majesty’s Secretary of State for the Colonies. 
The memorial of the undersigned inhabitants of 
Ceylon. 
Respectfully Sheweth, 
That they represent the General Community of the 
Island, embracing all classes, and that they humbly 
beg to set forth the disadvantages under which they 
are at present suffering, and the deplorable condition 
to which the producing and exporting interests of 
the Colony is being reduced, owing to the policy 
of the Indian Government in regard to the Currency 
and the resultant artificial rate of exchange and 
dearness of money. 
2. — That this Colony is dependent on India in a very 
large measure for its labour, and for its food supplies, 
these having to be paid for in rupees. The currency 
of Ceylon is identical with that of India, and cannot 
now apparently be dissociated from it. 
3. — That with interest and discount ruling as they are 
now, at about 15 per cent, approved security, in 
Colombo, and even higher in outlying districts, the 
severe strain is exercising such a very adverse influence, 
that no industry can for any lengthened period stand 
it, and that business of all kinds is restricted and is 
being gradually strangled. 
4. — That the staple export products of this Colony 
are not grains or cereals which are cultivated annually, 
and which if found to be uuprofltable from any cause 
one year, need not be cultivated the next, but consist 
of articles, the cultivation of which requires a large 
capital outlay, and which have taken years to bring 
into production, If, therefore, the cultivation of these 
products be rendered unprofitable — and over a large 
proportion of the cultivated area of the Colony this 
point is dangerously near — the land will have to be 
abandoned and the result would be the loss of capi- 
tal that has been invested and of all the time and 
energy that have been spent. In a word, it would 
mean ruin to many of those engaged in these industries, 
and prove a serious loss to the Government and Colony 
generally. There might then be a recurrence of the 
calamities which afflicted the Colony after the failure 
of coffee. 
5. — That from its dependent condition, and merely 
by its adoption of the Indian currency, the Colony 
is obliged to be a party to the arrangements which were 
proposed and carried out for the supposed benefit of 
India, and is without any apparent means of extricat- 
ing itself from its present difficulties. 
6. — That as the efforts to establish the Rupee at 
1/4 uudei’ the present policy depends upon the success 
