780 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[May 2, 1898. 
further sum of £6,000, and be apportioned as follows : — 
Shares Nos. 1 — 15,870, from 1st Jan. to 
31st Dec. 1897, at G per cent 
per annum £9, .522 0 0 
Less In’m Div’d 4,761 0 0 
£4,761 0 0 
,, 15.871 — 20,000, from 1st July to 
31st December, 1897, at 6 percent per 
annum . . . . . . 1,239 0 0 
£6,000 0 0 
Of the balance £1,023 18s lOd, it i.s proposed to add 
£300 to the Sinking Fund against the premium of 
£2,162 15s 2d paid for Leases, bringing the total up 
to £6<^0 ; to write off £481 la 3d, the balance of the 
formation expenses of the Company, thus closing this 
account ; and to carry forward £242 17s 7d. 
The crop of Tea from the Company’s Estates 
amounted to 964,963 lbs. of which all but 23,254 lb. 
were made at the Company’s own factories. 
Of other products, 505 bushels of Coffee and 27,338 
lb. of Cinchona Bark, were gathered and sold in 
Colombo. 
The cost of production of the Tea crop and placing 
on Steamer at Colombo was 5’58d. per lb. 
The rate of Exchange for the year averaged 1/3 
15-32, and the nett price realized for the Tea crop was 
9'215d. as against 9’30d. in 1896, a decline which is 
almost nominal in face of the serious drop in the 
average price of Ceylon Teas during the year 
The following table shows the result of the year’s 
working of each Estate, excluding Hethersett and 
Denmark Hill, two gardens in the immediate neigh- 
bourhood of the other properties of the Company, and 
which were only acquired as from 1st July, 1897 : — 
Acreage in 
bearing in 1897. i o j .. 
E tate. 
c3 ® 
.5: T3 5 
O-.N o 
Ph 
Park 161 
Kenmare 113 
Portswood 260 
Nivseby 126 
Pedro 213 
Lovers’ Leap 132 
Concordia 80 
Hillside 137 
1,523 
(S 
- 
CD CD 
0 
cu 
lb. 
lb. 
d. 
£ 
s. 
d. 
7 
91,285 
543 
1006 
10 
10 
7 
7 
58,781 
490 
9-70 
8 
7 
0 

148,561 
571 
7-58 
4 
19 
0 
27 
86,544 
565 
9-95 
10 
1 
0 

131,809 
619 
8-89 
10 
18 
3 
44 
71,411 
406 
8-89 
5 
15 
5 
102 
83,000 
456 
10-06 
10 
4 
4 

79,762 
582 
9-90 
11 
15 
7 
24 
148,070 
454 
9-25 
7 
8 
7 
211 
899,223 
518 
9 28 
8 
10 
11 
Ihe Oirecrors are vnu.,, u.iv/o.. 
this year have not given a due proportion of profit 
per acre will in the future shew better r-esults. 
^ The weather during the season was exceptionally 
favourable for growth of leaf, and the tea crop 
considerably exceeded the estimate. 
On the other hand the rate of Exchange continued 
adverse throughout the season, to' the extent of 
about jd per lb. of tea as compared with the 
average of 1896, while the loss on rice owing to 
the famine in India, amounted to a further |d 
per lb. of tea. These causes have materially affected 
the result of the season’s working. It is not, how- 
ever, expected that this year there will be any 
deficit in the rice account. 
A new issue of shares, amounting to £41,300, was 
made as from 1st July last, £17,300 of which was 
subscribed for at £2 per share premium, the balance 
being issued the vendor in payment of the purchase 
price of Hethersett estate. 
^ The present acreage of the Company’s estates is 
constituted as follows : 
Acres 
Tea in full bearing ... . . 1,819 
p)o do leased lands . . 
Tea, in partial bearing 
Tea, not yet in bearing 
Total land under cultivation with Tea 
Jungle, Patna and Scrub, and Fuel 
Trees, &c. 
Total acreage .. 
90 
393 
330 
415 
3,047 
Acres 
2,632 
During the year Mr. Alexander Thomson accepted 
a seat on the Board as an additional Director, and 
Mr. Wharram Megginson has also been elected in 
place of Mr. C. B. Robson, who resigned his seat 
in September last. 
The Directors retiring are Mr. C. A. W. Cameron and 
Mr. H. St. J. Oscar Thompson, who being eligible 
offer themselves for re-election. 
London, 31at March, 1898. 
THE STANDARD TEA COMPANY OF 
CEYLON LIMITED. 
Directors : — Alex. Brooke, 25, Fenchurch Street, 
London (Chairman); Robt. Kay-Shnttleworth, Slough 
Place, Cuckfield, Sussex; Norman W. Grieve, Harburyq 
Forest Row, Sussex ; William Rollo, 5, Stanley Gardens, 
Kensington Park, W. 
Secretary: — A. Trafford Brooke. 
Agents in Ceylon George Steiiart & Co., Colombo. 
Offices : — 25, Fenchurch Street, London, E C. 
Seventh Report of the Dibectohs to the Share- 
holders. 
To be submitted at the general meeting, to be held 
on Thursday, 21st April, 1898, at noon, at the offices 
of the Company. 
The Directors submit Statement of Accounts to 31st 
December, 1897. 
The Profit and Lo s Account shows a profit on the 
working of the Estates in Ceylon of £12,.332 18s Od., 
which with amount brought forward from last year, 
less interest and home charges, shows a sum of 
£11,720 12s 3d available for division. 
In Julj’, 1897, the Directors, under the porvers 
entrusted to them, distributed an interim Dividend for 
the six mouths ending 30th June, 1897, of five per 
cent, (10 per cent, per annum), absorbing £2,975. 
They now recommend a Dividend at the rate of ten 
per cent, (making fifteen pet cent for the year) absorb- 
ing £5.950; the placing £1,000 against depreciation ; 
£1,000 to reserve ; and the carrying forward to the 
next year £795 ]2s33. 
Coffee has contributed to the results to tlie extent 
of about 440 owt. of £1,900, less expenses of cultiva- 
tion and marketing. 
The average Exchange for the Company as drawers 
in Colombo was 1/3 L'i-32 against 1/2 19-32 in 1896, 
and 1/14 in 1895. The difference in 1897 compared 
with 1896, unfavourably affected the accounts to the 
extent of about £1,200. The Loss on Rice, that is 
the difference between the price at which it is sup- 
plied to the Estate Coolies and the price paid for 
it, is equivalent to something not far off 1 cent per 
lb. on the season’s output of Tea. The Tea from 
the Company's Uda Pussellawa properties sold during 
1897 in Mincing Lane averaged a higher price than 
any Ceylon Estate or group of Estates producing 
above 100,000 lb. Still, Tea prices have been lower 
this last season than previously, those for the Uda 
Pussellawa Estates Ijd per lb. nett lower, and for 
the Maskeliya |d per lb. lower, and it is only the 
young land coming into bearing that gives oppor- 
tunity to the Company to keep up the dividend. 
Ooneygar, the purchase of which was announced 
in the last report, is receiving careful attention, and 
the Directors are satisfied that this will eventually 
prove a good investment. 
The Company’s Properties at the close of 1897, 
were 3,465 acres, with 1,680 acres of Tea considered 
in full bearing, viz. : — 
in Uda-Pussellawa — 
Con^ygar*^^^ } a'C’-'es- 399 acres tea bearing 
Liddesdale 814 do 140 do 
Eskdale 240 do 208 do 
Gordon 386 do 154 do 
Tulloes 419 do 165 do 
in Up. Maskeliya — 
Gouravilla and I , 
Up.Cruden 
There are also 507 acres tea in partial bearing, and 
some 295 acres in addition planted with tea. On St. 
Leonards, Liddesdale and Gordon Estates there is 
