THE recommendations in the Report of the Adulteration Committee referring to Tea, which were telegraphed by Reuter a few days ago, will have been received by those engaged in the trade out here with satisfaction—mingled, perhaps, with some disquiet, lest they should be made unnecessarily oppress sive in operation. No one could reprehend more than have the chaazees who buy for the home trade, the practices adopted by the Chinese in the case of green teas, to please the foreign eye, if not' the foreign palate, and which has risen from a slight sophistication to gross adulteration; and the new order of things established by the Adulteration Act should, if carried out in the spirit of the Commission's recommendations, which are not too sweeping, so far from being a hardship, prove a. protection. All teas found "seriously adulterated" are to be excluded from consumption; so that assuming the buyer out here to have paid.a good price for a genuine tea, greater certainty than hitherto will be afforded him that his chop will get into the consumer's hands without being elbowed by "lie" competitors for public favour, introduced by unscrupulous dealers. A warranty might accompany the chop to the wholesale dealer at home, who could extend that safeguard to the retailer. In this way hard cases like that of Mr. Roberts, of Liverpool, the decision of which on appeal we quote elsewhere, would be avoided, so Jong as there was no attempt to tamper with the article after it had passed the proposed Customs' examination on being landed. It is noticeable that the case in question arose from the sale of Pingsueys, the heavy adulteration of which we have frequently had to condemn. In the N.-C. Herald Retrospect of this trade for 1872, we remarked: "The liberal adulteration of these teas with so-called paint (a mixture of chalk and Prussian blue), has, we trast, this year reached its climax, and we cannot but be gratified with the expressions of disgust and surprise that we have noticed in the reports from home... We do not think the remedy will be reached until positive orders are sent out to avoid Pingsueys for a time altogether." In the review of last season, we had again to notice that the English trade were "entirely setting their face against these teas, there being a general complaint against colour." We are informed on the best authority that the ted for selling which the Birkenhead grocer suffered, was a crack and high. priced chop, and we may therefore expect to find, as the result of the appeal, that Pingsueys will be tabooed completely until the Chinese maker—we had almost written grower—brings his art to the low standard of colouring fixed by the Committee. In other respects the legitimate tea trade will probably, as we have pointed out, derive benefit from the restriction placed upon fancy teas and Maloo mixtures. Already, we believe, the working of the Act has made shippers of Canton prepared teas more cautious, and tended greatly also to check the shipment of very low tea, the class by which export can be increased, thus keeping supply down to a more healthy standard.
There is one point, however, in the recommendations of the Committee, to which we have heard exception taken, and that is, the proposal to have the teas inspected at the London Customs on landing. But it is clear that to carry out the purpose of the Act properly, and at the same time to throw the onus of introducing spurious or adulterated teas upon the right shoulders, the recommendation is very reasonable. Some disclosures made at a sitting of the Committee on 4th Tune, reported in the Times of the 5th, received by last mail, show that a vast amount of tea adulteration goes on at Home. A Mr. Jackson, of Spital-square, and also of Manchester, the author of a letter on this subject which we quoted from the Times the other day, and who had been fifteen years in the wholesale trade, said there were in England "persons who called themselves tea-improvers,' and their business was, by coloring or uncoloring tea, to give it a fictitious value, and to get a profit from the public which was not legitimate.". "Speaking of the quantity of adulterated teas, he said he thought that of the 167,000, 000 Ibs. consumed in this country, about 35,000,000 Ibs. were open to be suspected; and that the Chinese, to compete in price with the teas adult terated in England, practised adult teration." The semi-wholesale tea dealers he regarded as the authors of the mischief. It is important, therefore, that while a check is imposed by Customs inspection, which will induce caution on the part of exporters here, there should be a rigorous application of the provisions of the Act to protect the legitimate tea-trade at home. This can only be done by coming down on the retailer, who for his own safety will be compelled to deal with respectable houses, obtaining a genuine article under guarantee, which the "tea.improvers" cannot give. The chief objection to the Customs inspection, however, is said to be that it renders the tea liable to the risk of exposure to varying and perhaps unfavonrable atmospheric conditions, but a correspondent of nearly 20 years standing in the trade assures us that the opening of the packages should not affect importers, as every chest is opened for inspection by the brokers prior to dealers taking delivery. An important suggestion is made by the same correspondent, which we give in his own words:—"TIf the Customs {will only inspect the stocks at present in the London warehouses, and condemn all the rubbish, the accumulation of years, they will benefit importers greatly, as I am sure the quantity of teas included in stock, but quite unfit for use, is very large."
We have endeavoured to put forward a few of the considerations arising on the brief precis we have of the Report of the Hoase of Commons Commitiee, and the attention which this question of tea adulteration is attracting at Home, but there must be many more which will suggest themselves to practical men, and we cannot do better than conclude with a recommendation that the Chamber of Commerce should take up the subject at this stage, both in its bearing upon the trade in China and at Home.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.