#Angust 81, 1908]
only of the strong position acquired by the Indian and Ceylon teas in the market, Mr. -FELL reminded him that Natal was now developing at tea trade with the Motherland and that it is proposed to cultivate tea in Uganda. These countries, therefore would benefit by the discrimination, and Mr. FELL urged that it was the Government's duty to secure to the tea growers in the great Dependency of India and the Colonies, that the great market of England should be assured to them in the future. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, however, refused to assent to the proposal for reasons which he was careful to say bore no relation at all to his views regarding Colonial preference. The financial reasons against it, he said, were ample so far as he was concerned. He went on to say that, look. ing at the importation of China tea, as compared with the consumption of Indian and Ceylon tea, he did not think preference would make any very great difference, but in any case, if he felt inclined at all to levy a special tax as against the foreigner, he did not think he should begin with China," for China in trade treated us very fairly.' Mr. FELL only secured 34 supporters for his amendment while 251 voted against it.
are
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CHENA OYERLAND TRADE: RIPORT.
147
in India, large plantations of a thousand where a correspondent anggests that its use be aeres or more, are under one management: dropped, and the name of the town or city in China all is done by hard, and no change substituted. : It seems to me that the praatios can be made in individual cultivator has only a small patch particularly on letters deliveredyby messenger is more Amerimn than English or Eustern in a country where the
origin, and that “olo custom” sanotions its use, of a very few acres, ten acres being a large and not through, the Post Office, Agrima plantation." Moreover, Mr. MORSE men-might also ask questions, shout; the shit,book tions that in twenty years of a declining system which does not obtain anywhere else but market the tea shrubs have been left un- in the Orient. · I.have not studied the matéer pruned and uncultivated and it is doubtful but it appeared to me such, an obviens measure if they can ever recover their old-time to check antrustworthy messengers ɑtant" I condition. And finally the author draws of my readers have different ideas; on ithe never inquired into its origin. › Perhaps mamS attention to the fact that while in India there is no tax on the production or export
subjec'. of tea, the Chinese fiscal system is "to tax everything in sight." There is not only an export duty which for forty-five remained at rs. 2.50 a piqul (reduced since 1903 to Tls. 1.25), but on the way from the producing district to the shipping port there is levied a series of taxes, amounting on the average to more than Tls. 2.50 a picul for official tax, with something to be adde i for irregular levy and delay and loss of interest. "No industry thus burdened | could compote with a rival fres of all burden," adds Mr. MORSE. Now that the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce have the tea industry under their consideration it is to be hoped that these handicaps to the trade will not be overlooked.
RANDOM REFLECTIONS.
years
What's this I hear? That proposals are being made to give members of the sanitary staff free passages when going home on holiday. I thought the Government had soted very fairly towards them in listening to their ory of woe sad giving them greater fixity of salary, and added to that they have taken over the greater benefits. Now, it is sought to bestow Widows' and Orphans' Fand and guaranteed additional favours on them and their passages home on holiday. It looks as if it is impossible to satisfy some of our civil servants, whose wants increase the more they are met. I fancy there is little prospect of this arrange. ment being carried through for some little local Chancellor of the Exchequer are already The financial problems of the
saddled with another little item of expense. too numerous to warrant the Colony being
time to come.
pay
Mr. Hooper, I am surprised! You were the last man I would have expected to see before the Magistrate under the New Buildings Ordia B000. And you are the very first! I daresay explanations will follow in due course, but at present it looks as if the Building Authority is not without a sense of humbar. But that is a risk which jokers take. You can never tell bea your little effort will return like a boomerang.
This little incident gives rise to some ́interesting reflections. Down to fifty years ago China supplied practically all the tea infused in the United Kingdom. India then was only just beginning to take lessons in tea-growing, and she was getting instruction from China. The first shipment of Ladian tea to England, a parcel of 500 lbs., was made in 1888, and it took India over twenty years to bring her shipments up to a million pounds. Since then the industry in India has progressed by leaps and bounds, and to-day the tea sent to England by China represents but one-fortieth of the total quantity imported. The recent efforts of the Chin Tea Association in London to arrest this decline have evidently met with some measure of success, but it is extremely doubtful whether for many years to come China tea will regain its lost supremacy in the British market. It is not a question of public taste alone that decides this ques- tion. The statistics of the past few years show that the English taste has not been so thoroughly perverted as to make the pro- spects entirely hopeless for China tea. Sweet and substantial the uses of advertisement. At no time since the com. petition became so keen has China tea been so well advertised as during the past few It has been recommended on mei- years. cal grounds as well as on account of the delicacy and cleanness of its flavour; and the growth in the consumption has demon- .strated the value of the advertisement. Mr.
MORSE, in his recent book on the trade of China, expresses the opinion that the market can never be recovered even by reduced price. That statement, if based alone on the question of taste, might well be ques- tioned in view of what has been accomp. lished during the last two years. But the China tea trade is handicapped by several
brilliant thought entered the magisterial oranium. other factors, and the Chinese Government,
"Will the prisoder return the ost to it may be hoped, recognise this.
the owner if he is discharged," asked his Wor About a month ago instructions were
ship, and the prisoner, too plessed to show his sent from amazement, declared that he would, notwith- Peking to the Viceroys and Governors standing that he would thereby lose, on his of provinces which produce tea, urging the own statement, the six cents which he had paid necessity of steps being taken to improve for the cat. The decision may have been a the manufacture of the tea by the wise one, I cannot dispute it, but it looks as adoption of modern methods, and recom. if Mr. Wood was more inclined to show a mending the formation of an Association little misplaced sympathy with the prisoner
than to remember the claims of the prosecutor. for the encouragement of the tea industry. But can "modern methods " be adoptel flas it ever occurred to you to inquire into in China? Mr. MORSE makes the following the significance of the word "present" which reference to this question: "Indian tea is
we see so frequently employed in addressing prepared and fired by mechanical appliances, business communications la the East. The sub the use of which is possible only where, as ject has attracted some attention in Shanghai,
The days when Solomonid wisdom is dispensed from the bench are not over. This work the
public most have been delighted to antion that the gentleman who presides over the Second Court at the Magistracy was confronted with a problem which culled for no little thought. Should the prisoner accused of stealing a oat be convicted or discharged? It did not seem to matter whether he was guilty or not. Thea
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It is a tribe observation thatɑone -mustɛgo abroad to hear news of Home, but an another illustration of: the fact I may, quote aśJapan paper which chronicles the arrival dmshat country of a Mr. Goodwin, “who alsims to as harmless and certain care of the opium given lectures to several thousand, Chinese, at habit." This Mr. Goodwin is reparted to have Hongkong, and to, have encoomfully treated a number of natives. It in stager.that the Hongkong newspapers have been absolutely silent about Mr., Goodwin. : I... should «mot imagine from the notices in the Japanese Papers that Mr. Goodwin is one of those stealth. If he is, he must be blushing to And it philanthropic beings, who love to do-good by fame. Personally I have never heard anything about Mr. Goodwin's leotares or anrestin Hongkong. Has anybody else ?
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The boycott of Japanese gɔoda montiausa‹in anabated force in Hongkong apparently, fon in Chinatown he who is able to read itàn. Chinese ideographs may soo-in-many of the shops notices to the effoot that Japanese goods, arenaot resdy, or that they are "out of stɔok. Bat in Japan there appear to be indications that the boycott is gradually subsiding, for business inquiries, it is stated, have recently been coming forward from Soach Chian, especially in the marine producs market.
A correspondent who wishes me to soonra an improvement in the sanitary nerangements.on board the Macao steamers evidently, believes in the power of the Press. I am not aware of the o nditions which he depiots, but I am sure the Hongkong, Canton, and Macao: Steamboat Company will do their best towards xymoving saxious to popularise the steamers on the Maoso the subj-at of the complaint as they are naturally
Captain Clarke will doubtless take the matter in hand.
ruo.
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Following upon the publication of last week's notes which included
a. paragraph having reference to-I may say the unintentional— discourtesy - shown to His Excellency · the Governor, the Peak Tramway Company very promptly notified that they were twing-steps to prevent a repetition of the occurence. no ice is now posted in the cars to the off-ot that the two front senta - arə reserved for His: Excellency the Gorgor when travelling. As I have said, the discour tess was doubtless unintentional, and, now that the particular seats which are reserved for the Governor's ase when travelling are specified there can be no exeuse- for, a-espetition of the
ocourenos.
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RODERICK Random.
A antive newspaper published in 'Hankow. has besa suspended by order of the Hukuang Vice- roy, for having reproduced certain setiɑlos writ- ten b Kang Yu-wei and Liang Chi-ch'so.
The wives of ten ofloers of the · American battleship fiset, including the Captains of the New Jersey, Georgia and Nebraska, together with two daughters of Captain Butherisad of the New Jersey, arrived at Yokobema on August 9 to await the arrival of their husbande · From Yokohams they will proceed to Manila by the P. M. 8. Kores, which is due to sail ou October 24, the date of the departure from "Yokohama the Finet,
The party, is known & na: “The Married Club," and it is the club's-intenton to visit the various ports at- which: the ugleet touchen.
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