742 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[April i, 1892. 
isBUS of prefercnco stook, it40,000, had been pftioed 
at a premium of 16 per cent bo that they bad 
C,C00 to start with, and antioipated that thiE fund 
would supply all the oash required for their pur- 
pose. 
But the coffee wouldn't go down. Sir William 
Gregory opposed the Boheme, He said that the 
company professed to be a tea company of 
Ceylon, and ho flaw no more reason why they 
Bhould embark in this specuIatiTe concern in 
the Straits Settlement any mote than they should 
go in for a speculation in tobacco in Bumatsa. 
To go into a speculation of this kind was not 
keeping faith with the original Bubsoribets of the 
company, who entered it as a tea company. When 
the company was doing well, it was but common- 
senEO to let well alone. In oonolusion, he stated 
that it the directors wont into this speculation 
be should very ebortly dissociate himself from the 
company. Captain Anderson backed up Sir W. 
Gregory. He was of the opinion that the com- 
pany was going entirely beyond its ephere in 
entering the Straits Settlements to work. This 
rather staggered the diroctors ; and, after some 
further discussion, the Chairman said that the 
directors had decided not to go forward with the 
Bcheme. And so the Ceylon Plantation Company 
will stick to their tea, and wisely so too, we think. 
THE CEYLON PLANTATIONS TEA 
COMPANY. 
There was a dietinot Doric llavour about the 
meeting of the Ceylon Tea Plantations Company, 
bed on Wednesday at Winchester House. The 
directors are all Scotch, the ohaitmau is a Scotch- 
man, the secretary — a real live baronet, by the way— 
is a Scotchman, and the shareholders look Bootoh 
to a man. It is queer to And Scotchmen com- 
bining together to vaunt the virtues of tea, and 
in view of the insult which the fact offers 
to whisky, the only thing that can bo said 
to justify the action is the quantity of siller they 
get out of it. But, perhaps, Scotchmen do not 
think so much of whisky as they need to, and we 
may come to hear of a teetotal version of " Willie 
brewed a peck o' maut." It might be started 
something in this way ; 
"Oh, Willie brewed some Pekoe hot, 
And Bab and Allan cam to toa.” 
Whether this be so or not doesn't matter 
very much to the Ceylon Tea Plantations 
shareholders, so long as they get big dividends. So far 
as this is conoctned, the company scorns to be doing 
very well, although the dircotors were somewhat 
severely taken to task on account of the paueity 
of information furnished in the report, 
Scotchmen in their public oapaoity seem to be 
divided into two olasses— the cautions and almost 
dumb dog, and the verbose and audacious heckler. 
Both olasacB were represented at this oomfortable 
little meeting. The direotors were the dumb dogs, 
and one or two of the shareholders were the heoklers. 
But there was no harm meant, and the meeting 
broke up in a state of good humour with them- 
selves, with eaoh other, and with all the world. 
Whether they adjourned bodily to Spiers and 
Pond's Bestaurant, next door, and celebrated 
the occasion in draughts of their favourite beve- 
rage out of the tea-pot wo are unable to say, as 
we did not stay to Me,— Financial IVorld, May 2nd. 
MB. D AVID EKID, BIB W . J0 HS8T0ME, 
Fisu CuBiNo IN IHK Madiias Pbbbidemov, — The 
flsh cured experimentally by Departmental Agency 
of the Salt Department to intlaence ourera to 
follow the improved methods has, we are glad 
to learn, found ready purchasers and been 
mote appreciated by the public, although sold at 
a higher rate than the ordinary bazaar salt-flsb. 
Generally the well-to-do people porohase eagerly 
(fie dcpartmentally owed fish as it U flonsiBcrod 
and mb, bh an d bsjov i hei b tea ! 
very good, wffile tbs bulk of the poorer oonsumeta 
oaro more for ohoapness than for quality, and Ibe 
fishermen consequently resort to the ordinary and 
cheaper mode of curing. But as the experiments 
are slowly, though almost imperceptibly, leading 
the publie to appreciate the improved article, fisher- 
men will, in course of time, be forced to adopt 
the improved method o< outing,— A/adras Titnes, 
Fob. 6tb, 
