Sa 5 THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. []m i, 1898 
CEYLON TEA ENTERPRIZE AND LIPTON 
—Help for ceylon planters 
FROM MOTHER COUNTRY- 
COCONUTS, &c. 
(By ^^Cosmopolite”) 
LIPTON. 
Many yeavs ago, in fact as soon as ^ Lipton 
piii'chasod Downwal's estates, I began, in these 
notes, to warn planters against what he wonlJ 
likely cause the future to bring forth, but gra- 
dually he forged ahead with his schemes and 
overcame the scruples of the poor but honest 
planters, until, at last, they took him to their 
bosoms as the man who was to be the saviour 
of Ceylon and boomer of her teas. Now, in the 
Ovcvlo.nd Observe)’ of date 31st March, 1898, I read 
as follows “ A Ceylon man in London pys : 
‘ Thus the man who has done more, in my opinion, 
than any other agency to spoil the tea industry 
from the planters’ point of view, rules off with a 
huge fortune. In 1890 1 wrote to you that I 
thouo-ht it a bad day for Ceylon the day Lipton 
arrived there, and there are many thinking the 
same thing today.’ Now read what I said in the 
same paper several years ago “ In these ‘ Odds 
and Ends’ I have entre.ated my brother planters to 
keep the great pork, butter and tea vendor at a 
distance ; that their worst enemy was the man 
who decried their wares by selling at Is 7d a 
pound — and no higher puce.” Up to that time 
I had vainly striven to persuade my brother 
planters to ‘ ca canny,’ but, after that, 1 gave 
up in despair, and left them a prey to Lipton. 
[But how could the brother-planters help them- 
selves? And what about Lipton’s pushing of 
tea in America and Russia ? Let every man have 
his due !— Ed. T.A.I 
COCONUTS. 
In the Overland Observer of same date, I read 
that the impression is aradually gaining ground 
that the main stand-by of Ceylon in the future 
must be Coconuts,— for Tea at present prices is 
not encouraging, and one more twist of the screw 
of exchange and profits will become losses. I left 
Ceylon when Tea began to reign, and poor King 
Coffee was quickly sinking into his grave ; yet 
even when Tea WJis going ahead by leaps and 
bounds, I never fancied it, but always said that 
if I went back to Ceylon it would be .as a 
Coconut Planter. I am sure .if coconut estates 
had been as well attended to as 'coffee and tea 
est.ates have been, they would have paid as well, 
and been more lasting. 
HELP I'P.OM THE MOTHER COUNTRY. 
In your leaders you dc.rkly bint at a time, in 
the near future, wlien tb ■ planters of Ceylon may 
require help, as the planters of the West Indies 
have received. But does it not strike you as un- 
fair that the agriculturists of Britain should be 
taxed to provide these planters with the .aieans 
of tripping home, or up to the Nuwara Eliya 
(lymkhama, or to the festivities at Darrawella, 
Kandy, &c. &c. The f.armers at home, who have 
been called upon to pay towards the upkeep of 
the West Indian planters, are iirobably suffering 
more from deiiression than any other cla.ss of 
British subjects. They never are able to take 
sundry trips to London, or winter up the Nile, 
or have a six months’ voyage to the East. It 
takes them all their tune to make ends meet, 
and they have to stay at home to do that. But 
the pauper West Imlian plan ers, who are not 
ashained to take the money from those overtaxed 
farmers, are able to rmi borne every few years, live 
for some months like fighting cocks, and then go 
back to their estates to prepare for the next run 
home. I hope Ceylon planters won’t turn paupers 
also, the home folic have enough to do to keep the 
West Indian candidates for tire poor-house, with- 
out having a batch also in the East craving 
bucksheesh. 
[Our hint was for Mr. Chamber lain as to aid — not 
from the imperial exchequer — but through reduced 
local taxation ; reduced railway rat s or abolition 
of the unfair tax on imported rice. — E d. T.A.'\ 
THE GENIAL GEORGE. 
Poor George Maitland’s death appeared in last 
week’s paper, and how many of the old planters 
must have cast their thoughts back when they 
read the notice. I first met him, early in 
I860, in Kindy, and many a time did we mount 
to the top of Mutton-button together before bi'eak- 
fast, to get a puff of fresh air. When I was in- 
troduced to him and learned that he came also 
from the Silver City by the Sea,’ I paid him an 
unintJntional compliment, by supposing that he 
was a co-temporary of my own, but he laughingly 
undeceived me by telling me that he was 13 
years older than I. How young and fresh he 
looked, and, the last time I saw him, he was 
stepping along as jauntily as ever, ami looked 
good for another 20 years at any rate. Of course 
the obituary notice about him in the Aberdeen 
Free Press was all wrong, for, in it, he is gra- 
phically described as having been 40 years a tea- 
planter in Ceylon. The paper makes no mention 
of the 13 ye.ars he spent in the Ca]>e, in the Civil 
Service, nor the 20 years be labo-ed as coffee- 
planter and visiting-agent. The paltry six or seven 
years which be spent as tea-planter is all that the 
paper takes notice of, and that period is lengthened 
out to 40 years, just to save time and trouble, and 
altogether regardless of accuracy ! 
Aberdeenshire, 21st April, 1898. 
TEA AND TOBACCO. 
Here is a vital passage from Sir M. Hicks- 
Beacli’s Budget speech ; — 
The list of articles on our tariff is i;ow very small. 
I do not think it wise to reduce it, and therefore I do 
not think it wise to abolish any indirect taxation. 
(Hear, hear.) What are the four articles to which my 
proposition applies ? First, beer ; second, spirits ; 
third, tea; and fourth, tobacco. I have waited vainly 
for some indication from the Committee as to which 
of those articles they would prefer to see relieved. 
(Laughter) With a tea for the brewers, I must put 
aside beer. (Hear, hear,” and laughter.) I hope hon. 
members below the gangway opposite will pardon me 
if I also put aside spirits. (‘‘Hear, hear,” and laugh- 
ter.) The choice, today, I think is between tea and 
tobacco. (Cries of “ Tea” and counter-cries of 
“ Tobacco,” and general laughter.) Both are articles 
which are consumed by the people and especially by 
the poorer classes. (Hear, hear.) Both are very valu- 
able stimulants when taken in moderation (laughter), 
especially by those who are insufficiently fed. Both 
are injurious when consumed to excess as, I am afraid, 
they are by a great many people. I can conceive my- 
self listening to an alternate strain of poets, perhaps 
of different sexes — though I am not quite so sure of 
that et the present day — singing the respective merits 
of tea and tobacco. (Laughter.) There could be no 
more impartial umpire, for I am a total abstainer from 
both. (Loud laughter.) I claim th.at, like all total 
ab=tainors, as iny solitary virtue, but unlike some 
total abstainers, I am only anxious that the articles 
from which I abstain should he more and more con- 
sumed by everybody else. (Liugh'er.) On the whole, 
I give my vote in favour of tob.rcco. (Ministerial 
cheer.s and Opposition cries of “ Ob” and laughter.) 
I do so for these two great reasons. Tobacco is not 
only an article of large consumption, but, imported 
