April i, 1892.I 
THE TROPICAL AGrtW50LT0m8T. 
7S9 
of the old days. They bad a spring cart which could 
take the family to church or produce to market but 
uow the manaioD, the carriage, the piano, and— an 
empty purae ! No financial crises, or etnployers’ whims, 
can rob you of your laud and its fruit. Iloneat sweat 
in a good clira.ate and plenty of market— surely this 
is teinpliur. Then Boon there will b.n the comely, if 
not beautiful partner of one's joys and sorrows, the 
ruddy children, (schools are all Iraa here)— who are 
indeed a blessing in a country like this. 'J'ho cosy home 
and epientiful food. The Eailway snd Tram, taking 
you to town to pleasure, business, society, or church,” 
Mr. Thoruten prooieds “Hc(the small proprietor) 
need not carefully calculate whether an outlay will be 
fully repaid to him within a certain number of years; he 
has only to consider whether the addition of the annual 
value of bis land will be equal to the interest of 
the sum which the improvemeut.s will coet. He does 
not eoneidec it essential that the principal should 
ever be retnrned. He is satisfied to sink it for ever 
in bis own land, provided that, in that safest of all 
investments, it yields a perpetual annuity equal to 
what would be its annual increase in anullier employ- 
ment.” This •' unearned iiiorcment is ju»t what 
Europeans in Ceylon and India oau never benefit 
from. Arthur Young, in “ Traveling in France,” says : 
“The magic of property turns sand to gold.” Thus 
in my former paper we saw first in California and 
Australia real gold dug out ; then rivers of water 
turning barren wastes to gold : and now the “ magic 
of property” — as a tremendous stimulant to energy 
and enterprise bringing profit out of small holdings. 
“ 'W'hen the hired labourer has earned his daily wages 
and gives himself up to rest or amusement the small 
free-bolder is content to recreate himself hy turning 
to some lighter work. For him it is sutficient diversion 
to weed and water bis cabbages, or train his fruit trees.” 
Now comes what has be''n in Ceylon a curse, and 
may prove a curse in Mildnra. It was a curse in the 
Scottish Hebrides. I roier to excessive population and 
the necessary subdivision of land when bequeathed to 
tliB numerous heit.s. The 5-125tb part of a coconut tree 
has oansHd aniiisement to outsiders in Ceylon, bitter 
feuds^ and murders among members of Siuha'eie 
families, and fearful work in the judicial courts of 
the island. Mr. McCulloch in “ Wealth of Nations,” 
says : ^ The children of small land-owners will chooso 
to reside in the little propertioi they have obtained 
from their^ ancestors, and the process of division 
and snb'divisiuD will coutinue until the whole 
land has been paioslled out into patches and filled 
*** agrionltural population equally elestilute 
njoans and the desire of rising in the world.” 
This has been one canso of France being much 
onpplod, wealthy country as she is. Now this is 
a very serious drawback with respect to Mildura. 
We have rosd how in the Scottish Hebrides the 
people increased by each farmer having a very 
large family, by each member of the family speedily 
marrying and havieg a very largo family, and all 
attempts to occupy the same area as the first 
original couple occupied : then came the “ Crofters’ 
snd emigration was the only mosns of re- 
lief to buxom women snd muscular men who were 
simply cambering ground which was unable to 
support them. 
How are Ohaffey Brothers tc provide for what is 
“ . oertain oontingoncy moro or less remote, but 
still certain f Will there bo a law against sub- 
mviaion of the blocks? How do they i, repose to 
provide for it '? I might suggest that all bona-fide 
a natira natives, born in the colony, will receive 
i *^?“t of land from tho Company to start them 
Th;.”®’ attaining the age of 18 years, 
ora.. Oompsny «s it would rapidly in- 
terriKi *****•, number of colonists and remove tho 
Drnn. f over-population and subdivision of 
Auehdonensis. 
TUE TeX~UUTY. 
Wt. (From the Speaker, Jan. 30tli.) 
1800 •? reduced by twopence in 
ih prophesied by the pessimists of the tea 
that the redaotioo would not beuefit the public. 
While they admitted that an inoreased consumption 
of ten would follow tho reduction, they oontonded 
that quality would be lowered in a larger proportion 
than price. Consistently with their belief, they pro- 
phesied that cheap China tear, with all their draw- 
backs, wonld once again become popular, to tho 
comparative exclusion and at tho expense of Indian 
and Ceylon teas. 
We can now look hack on twenty months of le- 
suit". During Ihe greater part of the time we have 
bat to face a great financial crisis, followed by 
heavy business dopresHion and by a consequent les- 
seiiiiig of employment, which has materially dimi- 
mshed the purchasing power of the working classes. 
For several months wa were in the grip of a winter 
of exceptional severity — to tho cost, again, of the 
working man’s pocket. Farther, during a large slice 
of 18t)l we Buffered from a positive dearth of 
Indian teas of the common kind. Hcaroity drove 
them up to famine prices from February to June 
and lower grade Ceylons followed their lead. Cir- 
oumstsnees, indeed, seemed in a oonspiraoy to mini- 
mise the increase in the consumption of tea, and at 
tho same time to encourage thense of cheap Chinas 
preferably to their “British-grown” oompetilors. 
Even during the worst of tho “ famine” the refusal 
of the public to take to China teas again was very 
marked. The price of these was driven up by the 
gamblers of the Clearing Honae, but only momen. 
tarily. It rose like the rocket and fell like the stick. 
Whatever the height of Indians and Ceylons, dealers 
Aod to take them, grocers had to buy them— at the 
extra rates — and to retail them at a reduction of 2d 
per lb. on the former retail prices. Their low-prieed 
Chinas were saleable only on condition of being 
concealed in blends. The explanation is that com- 
petition in the trade was too keen to permit of the 
consnmer being douo out of the benefit of the duty 
reduction. In all probability he lost no part of it 
eveu than. And be it romembered that the great 
rise in market valnes during this period was entirely 
confined to the lower-grade teas. At one time there 
was but little ditferenoe between tho values of Broken 
Pekoes, Pekoes, and Pekoe Souehongs. 
For the twenty months the total inorease of 
“^Homo Consnmption ” bai been, in round numbers, 
17,000,000 lb. Tho remission of 2d in the dnty was 
only in operation during the last eight months of 
1890,^ 80 that the more oonvenient method of testing 
the increase in consumption is to compare the com- 
pleted year 1891 with 1889. 
The “ Home Comsumption ” in 1889 was (in round 
numbers) 186,600.000 lb. 
The “ Home Censamplioii '' in 1891 was (in round 
numbers) 202,000,000 lb. 
An advantage to 1891 of 17,000,000 lb. 
The “ poundage ” gain is far lees on paper than 
in reality. The increase was exolusively in Indian 
and Ceylon teas, and was accompanied by an enormons 
decrease in the consumption of China teas. It has been 
estimated that Indiana and Ceylons show, on an average, 
50 per cent greater strength thsn China teas ; that is to 
say, they are capable of mure eoonomioal use. Con- 
sequently, we may claim that, had China tea 
been our only staple last year, the inorease for 
1891 over 1889, in consequence of the reduction 
of dnty would have been much moro than 
17,000,000 lb. Even without oouuting the increase, 
the mere displ ioementof China toss by British grown 
teas would still have argned a far larger number of 
oups of tea drunk in 1891 than in 1889. 
The assertion that the increase is dne not to the 
reduotiou of duty, but to greater liking for the new 
than for the old teas, may be safely rejected. Proba- 
bly tho “ greater liking" bod a little to do with the 
increase. Bat it was itself the pruduct of the effect 
of the reduotiou of dnty in lessening the price of the 
new teas. If, fur argument's sake, we assume that the 
“ greater liking,” and not the reduotion of duty, wss 
rospousihle for the bulk of the increase, we are bound 
to the oouclnaiou that, when the duty was reduced 
the public got hotter value for their moneT The 
cheapened belter tew drove out the cheapened iforifi 
