336 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[November 2, 1891. 
result ; — 
Tea (ChiBo, almost entirely) 5 to 8 guMen (8a Id 
to lOa 8d per lb.) 
CoEFEK (Co}]on I'lO gulden la. lOd) I to 1'20 gulden 
(la 8d to 23 per lb.) 
OocoA (prepared in Vienna) '80 to 1 gulden (la 4d 
to la 8d pet lb.) 
Cocoa (Van Houten’a impoitid) 2 00 gulden (df 2d 
per lb.) 
I have further learned that the Ilotele and Cafia even 
when laying a oomparalively large stook of tea, 
pay not leea than 5 to 6 guldens or 8a to 10a 
per lb. — the duty being but lOd. Now let the 
obargea for “ handling” at Trieste bo what they 
may— the railway freight we know is very moderate 
and great facilities exist in Austria for sending 
even largo packets or parcels by post — 
it is impossible that Cojb n tea retailed at half 
ihe current rates would not show a large profit, 
nd can it be any wonder that the people never use 
jO? Again and again, our answer « hen pressing the 
rtuea of tea, has been " Who can alTord an artio e 
lot household use at 6 florins (lOc) the lb? 
While doing the cure or out on holiday at 
Karlsbad, wo enjoy our little pot of lea (oostiog 
6d to (id for less than two cups of lea) , but no house- 
keeper could go on at that rate.” Again, one 
Dalmatian lady friend has said : — ” I am very fond 
of tea ; but a kilo is about all I use in a year,” 
against I suppose some cwt. of coffee ; for her 
husband holds a high official position in Sppolat. 
Again, a poor fruit-seller’s view of the matter is 
worth giving: — "For 3 kreulzets (little more than 
Jd) even, I can buy an appreciable number of 
beans of coffee j but to get an equal proportion of 
lea, I should want 10 kreulzersl” Of the poor 
agrioultural ptpulalion, of course " drinking cofl'eo ” 
really means the slightest flavour from a very few 
beans to the sugar and a large quantity of milk, iiut if 
onoe they got to know poodef/enp Ceylon tea tbesarao 
thing — and even greater economy — would hold good. 
I have done; Lut before closing 1 should like to 
make one or two suggeetiona more to the Ceylon 
Tea Fund Committee. I think the publication, and 
wide though judicious dissmiination of a pamphlet 
in German giving an account of Ceylon Tea, its 
growth, preparation, analysis, different kinds and 
corresponding qualities, together with information 
respecting tea generally, in a popular form, could 
not fail to do much good, more particularly 
throughout Austria — in Vienna and Karlsbad 
espfoially— but also throughout Germany and all 
the German-speaking parts of Northern Europe. 
If illustrated, the pamphlet would be all the more 
UEhfnl in aiding the sale and ueo of Ceylon teas. 
Again, before the opening of the next Karlsbad 
seaeon, or early in 1802, I think the Committee 
should arrBW to send free packets (ca samples) 
of Ceylon Tea to every Medical Doctor, Hotel, 
Cafe or Bestaurant in Karlsbad, with their com- 
pliments and perhaps one of the "Tea Circulars” 
prepared in the Oiscn'cr cffioc, wrapped round caoli. 
THK INDUSTRIAL FUTURK t»F AUSTRALIA. 
At a time when political changes are going on 
in our Australian colonies — when in a sense they 
arc approaching political manhood — “ An Austra- 
lian ” lakes cooBtion to survey their condition 
and oast their hotosoepe. We need to bo re- 
minded of the things described in the articles 
entitled “ Tho Commonwealth of Aualralin,” the 
second of which we publish to-day. They make 
us understand tho pardonable imp-alience of colonists 
at the ignorance of EogliBhmen as to the great 
Island Continent, peopled by their own kin, and 
they give the impressions ol an Australian, who, 
visiting England and soting its industrial achieve- 
ments, is not the less plearel with them, beoauso 
he knows that in his own land the same race is 
repeating the triumphs which made England what 
it is. Uur oontributor takes slock of tlio re- 
sources of bis country, at a time when its political 
future may be uneertniu, but when its industrial 
future is assured. In days wlnn Australia was 
very little known, it was supposed, for slender and 
fantastic reasons, to bo doomed for the most part 
to sterility. Its fauna and flora seemed to be 
imperfect monstrosities. The gum-tree and the 
kangaroo were produets ol Nature bungling or at 
bet worst, and geographers wrote batuedly about 
tho inviuoible barrenness and inhejeut poverty 
of the land. Even alter the gold discoveries 
had given an impulse to Austialia, it was taken 
for granted that it could have no feature corn, 
parable to that of the United States. But all 
mch predictions have turned out erroneous; a 
vigorous race, full of resources, has set llicm at 
nought. The whole of Australasia is more thau 
2() times as large as the United Kingdom, more 
ihan 16 times os largo as France, and almost 
equal to the Oonlinont of Europe or the United 
Slates. (Such are the figures, as given by Mr. 
Ocghlan, the Onvernment staiistician ol New South 
Wales — whoso investigations respecting the amount 
of crime in the dift'erint oolonics have made him 
known here, and our contributor shows tlia', far 
from being stricken with hartenueas, very much 
ol that Iraot may be ntiliz d by Euglishmen. The 
whole of New South Wales, South Australia proper, 
half of (^ueersland, more than half of Western 
Australis, all Viotorio, Tasmama and Now Zealand 
— that is, about 1 1)85, .'iOO square niilea— lie in the 
temperate zone. About two-tbirils ns much is 
wi;hin the tropics; but no small part has proved 
to bo lit tor Knglishuien to live and labour in. 
“ A tropical temperature,” our contributor observes, 
“ has never yet deterred gold-miners from working 
on a payable tMd. Tho quality of tho wash-dirt 
or quartz, not the story told by the thermometer, 
decides their movements.” And so he writes with 
conlidenoe of the case with which difficulties of 
climate can be overcome ; and undoubtedly there 
are scarcely limits to the capacity in this respect 
ol on industrious race. Tho Lotnbaid peasant 
works longer, harder, and to more purpose, under 
a li.-rce sun, than tho Irish peasant fetrmer. The 
industry of the fellah or the ryot is aearcoly 
Burpassid by that miracle of pertinacious thrift, 
a French peasant proprietor. Moral causes have 
as much to do wiih tho matter as physical; lire 
‘‘white trash" n South Carolina and Georgia, 
who did not work because — as was said in slavery 
days — of the climate, now begin to do so, when 
slavery, is gone and ihe opprobrium connected with 
work has passed away. We should give no heed 
lo the pcEsiuiist views about tho capacity of 
Australia, and indee.l all parts of .Australasia, to 
be the homes of a vast pooplo, if iropioal heat 
wore the only obstacle. But tho tabular sluleniont 
of lUo rainfall of Australasia reveals a more 
serious difficulty. ” More than one-third of Austra- 
lasia has to get along ns best it can with an 
average annual raiiilall of less than 10 inches. 
More than a tounli can only boast of between 
10 ii’. and 20 in. And throughout all this dry 
country the rainfall is irregular as well as scanly.” 
Even within the tO in. lino irrigation can do, and 
has, in fact, done, much ; sheep are i eared, and 
the tinest wool is grown, wheio oiico was only a 
desert, varied by sparse, stuiiled vegetation. Tanks 
and wells are being dug ; in New South Wales 
alone a sum of four millions sterling has been 
expended upon the construotion of tanks. The 
