February i, 1892.] 
THE TROPICAL AQRIOULTURI8T 
59 S 
duty will Himply enrich the importer and the grocer, 
who will thus be able to increase their ah eady large 
profits while the Guvornuieut are usii g the fact as an 
excuse for pu'ting heavy duiits upon evivy other 
article he conAumes. 
But there is another and most serious view that 
has to be taken of the results that are likely to 
he brought about if this propocod remission of 
duty is carried into tfTect. and one that will 
make even the Government pause and consider before 
they finally adopt Ibis policy. It is a wflll-known fact, 
&ud one that has been repeatedly brought before the 
community in the public press, that tea is luo^t liable 
to adulteratioo, and that the Chinaman loses no op* 
portuuity of foisting an inferior and adulterated article 
open auy one that will allow him. To such an extent 
this been done in the past that in England, where 
^ special law has been passtd authorising coutiscittion, 
whcltj oargoea have ofleu been destroyed to preveut 
them going into cmisurupUon. lu Victoria and 
QueeiialauJ, where specially qualified ofiloers have been 
appointed to prevent the inlroduct on of inferior 
tiuality and auUerated tea, shipments are often cm- 
demued and prevented from entering the p'rts. But 
Bore in New South Wales no such prera.t ons have 
^son taken. The only protection that exists is the fact 
that teas imported arc under Customs House super- 
vision, and are sampled and weighed by the Custom 
nuthoriiios. Take away this Bolitur> though a ight 
Kua aateo by exempting lea from the payment of liuues 
and Custorr to control, fn 1 we give a premium to the 
Chinaman to ra ike this colony ft receptacle, lor all the 
tilth and rubbish they can produce, the only act that 
©xists against a Uilteration being abt-olutc'y inoperative, 
•S its wording precludes the poss bility of inJerferiug 
With anything that does not act us lly endanger human life. 
ouch being the actual position in which tho Govern- 
ment proposal places the general public, it remains for 
the Bo-cai ed puor working man” and lire conaumer 
generally to judge the amount of kudos they are entitled 
to for proposing to remit the t.um of £110,000 duty 
npon tea and place an extra duty of £S3fi,000 upon all 
the ordinary requiremuuta of everyday, life.-Sydney 
CEYLON TEA AVERAGES IN LONDON 
FOR 1891. 
As the Ust public sale of Ceylon to» for 1891 has 
been UiM in Lonilon, wo Kive below in tabular form 
'“snits of Reutor's and Meters. Wilson, Smithett 
“ Lo s telegrams reoeived by us weekly during the 
vin months, with similar figures for tiro pro. 
lift y*'n'’iIor tho eake of effoctivo comparison- There 
» not been very much fluctuation iu Ilia figuris fur 
e weekly average ; and the monthly figures shew 
™n less movement. Tho latter were as follows; — 
monthly AVKRtOKS 
1890. 
Jannary 
February 
March 
April 
May 
Junu 
1891 
s. <l 
0 9 
0 9 
0 9J 
0 10 
0 94 
0 10 
Dl'IflXU 1800 4ND 1891. 
1891 1890. 
». d. s, d, s. d, 
0 111 0 111 July ... 0 101 
0 lOi 1(10 Anenst ... 0 104 
0 lOi 0 101 Bept. ...0 111 
0 lOl 0 101 Oor. ... 0 111 
0 10 0 ill Nov. ... 0 111 
0 103 0 9i Deo. ... 0 11 
early part of this year Wi ro higher, 
rTi" lower, tlian was Ihe case last year, 
ratft. * ® from the local " 'I imaa ” under- 
1890 aubmit, the fall in prioea in 1891. In 
of ini I never went below a monthly average 
mnniT ' 1891. tho prices for the first tour 
ODino at Ilf 1, once reaching Is. Then 
fiuiire 1° below 104 for 5 months, tho 
Bhnwft.i August being only 94. 0 Aobor 
lOd in 9.i<l, with a recovery to 
tho rooord of 1891 is that of 
redeen^nn over roalizsl (or Coylon lea, tho 
whioh we being the ultimate good effects, 
Quan it^n^^y I*® of the 
Huantity consumed.— Ed. T. A.] 
large 
THE ORIGIN OP “PADDY,” 
In reply to the first question put by our oorrea- 
pondent “ 0. S. V.” elsewhere, we would quote the 
following from Yule's " Hobson- Jobaon"; — 
Paddy, a. Rice in the hnak ; but the word is 
also, at least in compoaition, applied to growing 
rice. The word appears to have, in some measure, 
a double origin. There is a word baliu used by 
some writers on the west coast of India, whien 
has probably helped to pr^agate onr uses of paddy. 
This seems to be the Canarose Imlla or bhatta, 
‘rico in the husk,' which is also fonnd in Mahratti 
as bhaX with tho same sense, a word again which 
in Hind, is applied to ‘ cooked rico.' Tho last 
meaning is that of Sansk. bhakla, which is perhaps 
the original of all these forma. But in Malay i^Ji, 
Javan, pari, is ‘ rice iu the straw.’ And the curect 
parentage of the word in India is thus apparently 
clue to the Archipelago ; arising probably out of tho 
old importance of tlie export trade of rice from 
Java (see Itafiea'« Java, i. 239-210, and Crairfwd’n 
Hirt., ill. 315, and DtAcript, Diet. 3GS). Crarwfurd 
Uouni. lad. Arch., iv. 187) sooma to think that tho 
Malayo-Javanose word may have come from India 
with the Portnmiose. But this is improbable, for 
as he himaolf has shown (Dene. Did., n. s.), the 
word jiari, more or less modified, exists in all the 
chief tongues of tho Archipelago, and even in Mada- 
gascar, tho connexion of which last with tho Malay 
regions certainly was long prior to the arrival of 
the Portuguese. 
It will be seen from the above that the origin 
of the word "paddy” is somewhat uncertain. With 
regard to the second question (or rather questions): 
(a) The word "paddy " is used generally throughout 
the east by English-speskiog persons, (b) This is 
a more difficult question to answer. There is no 
doubt that the word was introduced into Ceylon 
by the English. The Dutch invariably used the 
Tamil word neli tor rioe in the husk, following 
the example of the Portuguese in this. Vieyra'a 
Portugucae-English Diotionary baa "iieUe, rioe that 
haa not been peeled.” The word ia still current 
in tho Ceylon Portngaese. Enox does not mention 
the word “ paddy" at all ; and the first writer 
on Oeylon that we know of who uses the word 
is Pybua, who in the account of bis miaeion 
to the King of Kandy in 1702 speaks of " paddy 
plantations.'' Hugh Boyd in the journal of bis 
embassy to Kandy twenty years later also mentions 
“ paddy.” Peroival writing at the beginning of this 
oentury says : ” What is commonly called paddy 
is a very inferior grain.” Oordiner writes 
" paddee." From the first of the , following 
quotations given by Yule, it will be seen that 
the word was first brought to England from Java 
in tho ICth oentury -. — 
1580. “ Cortaine Wordes of tho natui-all language 
of Jana . . . Darec, ryce in tho hnsko.” — A'tV /■’. 
Drake'n Vouaye, in ilakl., iv. 2-1(1. 
1598. '■ Thoro aro also divers other kinds of 
Rico, of a loHse price, and slighter than the other 
Hyce, and is called Halle . . J.innrholeii, 70. 
1000. ” In the fields ia such a quantity of rico, 
which they call bate, that it gives its name to the 
kingdom of Calou, which ia called on that account 
Halecalm," — Lne.eiia, t'ida do I'adre k', .Kaeiee, 121. 
1015. “ . . . oryzae quoque agri foracos qnam 
Hatum incolao diount,”— Jai-/-*t-, Theeaurm, i. 401. 
1073. '* Tlio Ground between this and tho great 
Breach ia well ploughed, and bears good Bally," 
— Fn/er, 07, see also 125. But in tho ludox he hag 
Paddy. 
1798. “ The paddee which ia tho name given to 
the rice, whilst in tho husk, does not grow . . , 
in compact ears, but like oata, in loose spikes. 
Slarorium, tr. i. 231. 
Wiloooke, the translator of Stavornius, adds the 
following note to the passage quoted above (the 
author is speaking of Java) 
