We do not think it necessary to make any apology to our readers for directing their attention to the letter which appears on another page under the signature of "Chan Szee." Most of the residents here have such a direct interest in the matter he treats on that we think it well to-make a few remarks on what appears to us a very important subject Our correspondent states, and appar rently it would be difficult to deny it, that shippers of tea are paying li Hankow from 6d. to. 7d. per pound over rates current recently in London. The question then to be solved is,—ure there atid reasons sufficiently good to warrant such an advance Que answer to this would bo—and there is probably some reason in it—that the sale he refers to was not a fair indication of the value of the tea; that the tea was, in fact, sacrificed. We have taken some little trouble to find out whether such might not have been the case, and the conclusion we have arrived. ut is that the tea in question would probably have fetched from 1s. 3d. to 1s. 4d. instead of 1a. Id. had it been more carefully handled on arrival in London. This than will apparently do away at once with half the discrepancy which he asserts to exist, but it must not be forgotten that this is a risk which a large proportion of shipments must always ron. It also appears that his sale is a fairly recent one, for he states that he purchased the tea in December it could not, therefore, be on the London market before the latter end of February, when we are informed that teas of good quality were scarce and wanted, a state of things which will not exist when present purchases arrive, It is, therefore, a fair argament that the value of such tea will be less when the deficiency ceases. For the sake of argument, however, we will assume that the present value of such tea in London is 1s. 3d, .per Ib, Is there any just reason why 1s, 8d. should be paid for similar, or, according to our correspondent, for inferior quality? Lo our minds one fact only would justify such an advance, and that is the certainty of a marked deficiency in supplies. Reports from Hankow refer to a deficiency in the first crop of from 10 to 15 por. cent. Without going so far us to deny that this may' be possible, we-must confess to being somewhat sceptical on this point, nor do we think that a short first crop necessarily means a short total export. 'I'he season 1878 and 1879 is, we doubt not, still within the recollection of many of our readers, and if we are not mistaken there was a, very large actual decrease in the first crop. Still the total supply of the season was ample, or, judging from the disastrous results, more than ample, that season being acknowledged as one of the worst the trade ever experienced. We are therefore unable to seo that problematical deficiency is a sufficiently good reason for paying in China 5d. per Ib. more than teas are worth in London.
But are buyers in London, at the time present shipments arrive, likely to act upon the supposition that there is a short supply, or will they treat the statement as nothing more than a report? The cry of "Wolf" has been so often raised and so often proved to be devoid of truth that we have no hesitation in stating that not the slightest heed will be paid to this report until an actual deficiency will be appa Judging from the fact that they will carry over from last season a large surplus stock; that the supply from the south of China promises to he large; that, as our correspondent observes, there is the certainty of a large increase from India, we oan see no chance of any deficiency being. felt la Londow forimany mouths to come. Granted that the whole Chinese crop is inferior in quality, we should—it may be in our ignorance—bave supposed that this. was s strong reason for paying less than usual, whereas that the contrary is the case seems a tolerably well authenticated fact. That there will most certainly be a dearth of fine teas of China growth seems inevitable, and those shippers who, taking this into consideration, have only paid enhanced prices for fine teas may probably find that they were justified in doing 60, but because the whole crop proves to be inferior appears to us to be ry poor reason for raising the price all round, or at least for qualities such as our correspondent mentions. Taking a calm unbiassed view ofthe whole matter, we can form no other conclusion than that shippers are running enormous riske, which circumstances, at any rate at present, do not justify. As soon as the inferiority of the China crop will be known in London, the inevitable result, to our mind, will be to considerably enhance the value of Indian teas.|and to the same extent depreciate the value of China teas. The publicat Home is by this time so accustomed to obtain tea of really good quality for 1s. per Ib. that they will not be ensi snlisfied with anything inferior. This toa is made up of a judicious mixture of Indian and China, and to make up for the deficiencies of the latter more Indian will be used and less money paid for the China.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.