38 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 
[July i, 1891. 
had refused to recognise the (sot. But he seeme 
to have inada out a very good case for teveral of 
the other proposals which were embodied in hie 
letter above referred to, and his request that he 
should be given by the London Aesuoiation u sort 
of ol'Ueial loeui staiuli appears to have met with 
eoDsiderable approval. 
Mr. May urged that were that standing secured 
to him — in some way or other, were the oumpany 
ho represents in Ameroa able to point to recogni- 
tion by your representative bodies in London and 
Ooylon, his hands would be very greatly strengthened. 
He did not ask lor monetary support, only the 
adoption of such resolutions by the AsMoiation 
as by their quotation would induce telianco by 
the American publio upon the good laith of his pro- 
testation that his Company would sell none but 
pure Ceylon tea, and that it was in a full posi- 
tion to obtain it. The general sense of the meet- 
ing was that this demand might justifiably be 
met, and that rnsolutions which should assure to 
Mr. May the recognition he asks for might well 
be passed. Several such resolutions dratted by Mr. 
May were submitted by him, but tbo time at the 
disposal of tho moetiug did not admit of these 
being fully diseussed, and a second meeting is to be 
oalled in order that they may have due consider- 
ation. As regards the principle of affording the 
amount of support asked lor there does not seem 
to have been any diasentionoe, it being the gener- 
ally adopted opinion that something should bo 
done to back up the enterprise in America, and 
that the adoption of Mr. May's present proposals, 
involving, as they do, no expenditure, might well 
be that something. 
Mr. Bmherford has suggested a more c-xtonded 
support being given to Mr. May. He proposes 
that the Company of which that gentleman 
is tlie President should be constituted the 
rooogniaod agency for tho due representation of 
Ceylon tea at tho lortheoming \Y end’s Fait at 
Chicago. With this interest Mr. Butherford has 
suggested that the Ocylon Tea Fund should devote 
the whole of one year’s income — estimated, we 
hear, at somewhere about 60,0ij0 rupees— to the 
support of such representation, on the condition 
that each subsciibor to tho Fund of .50 rupees 
should become entitled to a fully paid up 2 dollar 
•share in the American Tea Company now established. 
Mr. May, wo uuderstand, would have no objection 
to subscribe to such u condition, whioh would, 
however, neoosearily have to be ratitied by those 
Bssooiated with him in the Company, This sugges- 
tion by Mr. Xtulherford will receive consideration 
when the Committee meets to deal with tho re- 
solutions propcsed by Mr. May (or adoption, and 
it will then have to bo decided whether the 
Association shall recommend the management of 
your Tea Fond to agree to the arrangement suggostod. 
The two announcements giv.en below appeared in 
the Timeii of Tuesday last. I have given them to you 
as they wore printed in that paper, because it struck 
me that their following tho one upon the other, must 
certainly direct public attention to the great eon- 
trast betweonjtho results achieved by Tea Companies 
working in Ceylon and that whioh has its 
enterprise in India. You recently wrote as to 
the relative dividends declared by the Indian 
tea companies and those of Ceylon, and we 
think you will acknowledge that few stronger 
oases of contrast could be adduced than those two 
announoemonts afford. You will receive a copy 
of the report of the Hoottish Ceylon Tea Company 
of which the following is a brief abstract, and 
will be ready, wo know, to congratulate the 
directors and shareholders upon the highly sati-s. 
factory results to the year's working that it 
discloses, 
The report of the directors of the Bcoitish Ceyion 
Tea Company (Liniiled) for year eniliog December 31st 
181)0, shows a profit of £7,808, making, with the 
baianoe of £169 from 1889, a total of £7,537 available 
for distiibntiou. Oat of this sum a dividend nt the 
rate of 4 pec cent, (free of income-tax) has already 
been paid and the nireotors now propose a further 
dividend cf 11 pur cent (free of incume-tax), making 
13 pet cout in all fur the year. Of the bulaece it 
is piopusud to pUco £1,000 to a reserve lund, carry- 
ing forward £387 to next account. 
The report of the directors of the Darjeeling Com- 
pany (Limited) made up to December 31st, 1880, 
shows that tho quantity of tea manufactured in tho 
season of 1890 amounted to 606,960 lb., being a eon- 
sidurablo inortase of 67,172 ib. over the crop of 1889, 
but the tea brokers have informed the directora that 
the usual high standard of quality was uot maintained, 
and, consequently, the average price realized for the 
crop is only Is 0 66d per lb., against la 2'lOd per lb. 
for the crop of 1889, showing a decrease of l-44d 
per lb., which, on the whole quantity disposed of, 
reprosonta a dtfloienoy of £3,573. The proportion of 
teas cf fine quality was unasnally small onring the 
past season, and high prices were realized fur them, 
(Jilt of the profit on the season’s operations tho follow- 
ing olsims have to be provided for : — To commissions 
to atatf, £8't3; to income-tax, £222; leaving a net 
pruUs of £6, '266, which is equivalent to £4 128 6d 
por cent on the paid-up capiial at the company ; and 
it ia therefore proposed to transfer from the un- 
divided profits the sum of £1,859 in order lo provide 
a sufficient amouut to enable tbo members to declare 
a dividend at the rate of 6 per cent for the past year. 
So fat the prospeois for the season 1891 show an 
improvement over last up to the middle of April, 
but the quantity of lea mnnufaoliired up to that early 
period 01 the season has always fiuntuatod considirubly. 
We suppose the telegraph will have informed you 
of tho fact that the record has again have beatoa, 
and in a most crushing degree, as regards tbo 
sale of the Ceylon gold tip teas. When Qartmore 
astonished the world there were few who thought 
tho price its production obtained could be beaten, 
but wheu writing you relative to that sale my 
opinion was expressed that as the higher the price 
paid the greater tho auvertisement, there would 
probably be a great increase in the amounts obtained 
lor these artificial teas until some ridioulously high 
limit was attained. Therefore it is that although 
a parcel of t’oylon ton from the Oriental Bank 
Kstates Company’s Havilland Kstato sold on 
'I'uesday last at the uuotion in Minoing Lane for 
£17 per lb or over one guinea an ounce, I feel 
no Euiprise, and shall go on quietly awaiting tho 
time where some other and less costly form of 
adverfising occupies tho minds of epeouiativo 
traders in the tea business. Tho Qlohe thinks that 
the ten men must have delirium teamena 1 
Sir Waller Sondall look a prominent part in the 
discussion upon Mr. Morris’s paper on the subject 
of the Leeward Islands at the Colonial 
Institute tho other night. He declared that 
Mr. Morris’s recommendations while in (hose 
islands as to tho utilization of fibre plants bad an 
immediate effaci, and caused orders lor machinery 
to be at onco sent home. This may have been 
BO ; but it ia within my own knowlege that some 
time prior to Mr. Morris’s visiting the Leeward 
Islands, an article in the Engineer on the subjoet 
ptodnoed immediate inquiries by tho authorities of 
one of the islands included in that group. Capital 
is what is wanted to stimulate these new enter- 
prises, and it is certain a great number of sug- 
gestions whioh promise (airly fall through (or want 
of such Eupport. 
Some remarks have been made above with 
reference to Ceylon tea having been eold during 
the preecnt week at £17 the pound, and they 
included a cobjeoture that wo had not even as yet 
