944 
THt TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[June i, i Sga. 
absolDtely destroyed in consequence of the method 
employed in extracting them from the sheli. This 
method consists in placing the oyster in the fire. 
A syndicate is being formed in Lisbon at the pre- 
sent time for the development of these fisheries. 
In the month of Angost of this year the first fully 
granted Mining concession for mining of any descrip- 
tion in this district was given to a Portngneso syndi- 
cate for the development of disnuond mines sitnated 
about 37 miles from this city, near the railroad. 
Other mining concessions for the development of coal, 
old and precious stones have been applied for, bnt 
ave not yet been granted. 
Valnable coal deposits |are said to exist in this 
district in large quantities. As, however, according 
to law a mining shaft cannot be sunk more than 6 
feet before a concession is fully granted to work the 
mine, the samples of coal produced have been taken 
from tho surface, and the real quality of the coal in 
the mines themselves has not yet been ascertained. 
The same public works which were in hand last 
year are in nand this year. Those that were in 
contemplation have not yet boon begun. All public 
works came to a standstill over six months ago, 
when each funds as were available were used for 
expeditionary purposes. 
The Netherlands Hallway Company, which is con- 
necting this port with the trade centres of the 
Transvaal, is completing its line to within a few 
miles of Barberton. 
A survey is being made with the idea of construct- 
ing a railway from Komati Poort, at the frontier of 
this district, to tho Salati River goldfields, and thence 
to Mashonaland. The proposed route would be 
three times the distance to Mashonaland that the 
proposed Beira route would be, but it is held 
that the advantages obtained in opening up the 
Salati goldfields on the way would more than 
equal the disadvantages of the more lengthened 
route. A large tract of valuable farming 
and grazing country would also be reached by a 
Salati River railway and homes could be estab- 
lished for thousands in a country practically, healthly 
and capable of producing payable crops of all South 
African produce. The proposed route, however, also runs 
through a country full of rivers, and is so hilly in 
places as to bo almost impassable. The cost of build- 
ing a railway in such a country lends one to imagine 
that it will not be attempted. 
A company is about to be formed in this city for run- 
ning tramcars for passengers and freight from the 
principal thoroughfares in town to the residential quar- 
ters on the hills surrounding the hay. Tho tramcars 
are to be propelled by steam. The company is to have 
the monwolyof all public delivering, and the financial 
snccesB of tho enterprise is in this way partly secured. 
During this year a chamber of commerce has been 
formed by the merchants, with the idea of obtaining 
certain privileges in trade which do not at present 
exist. The chamber, however, seems to bo a political 
as well as a commercial association, and it is a ques- 
tion whether any material advantages will bo obtained 
by the department. 
It has been decided by the Portuguese Governmen t to 
open up the country south of the Zambesi River by 
means of chartered companies. One of these com- 
panies, the Portugnuse East Africa Company, has a 
block of territory bounded on tho north by the river. 
On the south tho influence will extend to the Limpopo 
River, and on the east to the ocean, the islands near 
the shore coming within its jurisdiction. The 
company is compelled to construct a railway, 
connecting either the Transvaal Railway or 
the Matabele country with the Limpopo River at 
the point whore it ceases to be navigable (a distance 
of about 70 miles from its moutb) ; or with the port 
of Inhambane t or with any railway syptem north of 
the Sabi River, according to a future agreement to 
be made between tho Government and the company. 
It is also authorised to grant sub-concessions, with 
the approval of the Government, for pearl, coral, and 
amber fishing. 
Other companies are to be formed for the develop- 
ment of the remaining territory south of tho Zambesi, 
and it is hoped in this way to open up the country 
both rapidly and thoroughly by introducing industries 
which, without doubt, could be followed to advantage 
in most of the luxuriant valleys that extend along the 
coast a few miles inland. 
CEVnON TEA IN AMEBICA, 
Further information respecting Mr. Elwood Mat’s 
mission to England on (he present occasion does 
not prove very encouraging in respect of the 
prospects of the Ceylon-imeriean Tea Company. 
No one esn say in view of all that Mr. Msy has 
done in sronring sttention to Ceylon teas on tho 
park of public men and the pross^snd specially 
by large udveitising contracts — that ho has not 
worked well, and entirely without fee or reword, 
for Ceylon tea. He has done so, ss he says, be- 
CBUse be has believed sod still believes in the 
product as a thoroughly good article which bis 
countrymen do well to conenme in place of the 
inferior, and in many eases sdulterated, trashy 
China and Japan leas. Bat to obange the taste 
of a people like the Ameriosns so completely won 
over for many years to a liking for the green 
“ faced ” less is not an easy matter, as Mr. May 
has found to his cost ; and yet he is qnito certain 
that the lines on which he has preoeeded are the 
right ones — that he has been laying a good founda- 
tion on which to build; end that if the process 
esn only be persevered in, the building slowly, 
bnt surely proceeded with,— snocess is certain in 
the end. But meantime, as I have already slated, 
the “ sinews of war " seem wellnigh exhausted. 
The trade of the Company so fur has not been 
self-supporting — far from it. Messrs. Watson & 
Farr — to wbcm the greatest credit is due and the 
special thanks of every Ceylon tea piantirs — are out 
rf pooket, if report speak true, to the tune of 
jE 3,000 to £4,0fl0 sterling, and naturally, they do 
not care ss men of business, rather than of 
specnlatioD, to advance further unless simoltaneous 
ppport can be got from those more immediately 
interested. So with Mr. May himself, any further 
effort beyond tho Atlantic for ibis Company depends 
on CO operation in England or Ceylon or both. 
Already the trincur is that tho store of the 
Company ip New York which Mr. Pinto 
managed, and lor which a heavy rent was paid, 
may have to be, or has al.esdy been, closed ; and 
Mr. Msy mrkea no b - cret that unless his mission is 
crowned with some degree of success he will ss 
an honourable man have to throw up the advertising 
contrsols end gent rally to suspend operations— in 
other words Ihe Ccmiary must collapse. This 
would be an especially unfotlunale circumstance 
on the eve of the Chicago Exposition ; and no one 
seems to rtoognize that fact more clearly than the 
Commissioner, Mr. Grinlinton. He haa also 
personally not Ihe least pecuniary intercat in Ihe 
Company, of tho Ceylon ebarebolders. Onequeation 
may be whether the Company ihould not be in 
Borne way identified with the Cejion Tea Court in 
the Exhibitiou. Probably as regards this point, as 
well as in reapeot of the financial riquircments, 
tbe couusel of Sir Arthur Birch may be sought ; 
and no one has manifested a greater interest in 
the future expansion of the consumption of Ceylon 
tea in America, than our (oimer Lunt.-Governor 
and Cclonial Secretsry. 
Mr. Gbinunton. who coutinuea very busy, is likely 
to -ako Ids passage by t' e S. 8, "City of New 
York," tho last boat in which he returned from 
Amcrioa in 1890. Leaving Liverpoil by it on 4ih 
May be sbeuid be at Cbioego by the 17tb — in good 
time for tbe puipoee in view. Bo has been seeing 
the American Minister, and leading American 
citizens in London and getting introductions to 
leaders in tho tea import trade in New York, iko, 
