Tuz Minutes of a meeting of the Gommittee appointed to enquire into the state of the tea trade in Canton have been published. Mr. E. Deacon, the Chairman, having invited the members of the Committee to give their views, a long discussion followed and eventually it was decided to put on record some of the points worthy of the consideration of the Chinese authorities, unless the tea trade at Canton is to be seriously crippled if not altogether anni-dilated by the yearly competition with India. The Committee say that Canton scented capers, of which the bulk of their export consists, competes more keenly with Indian kinds than any other class of China tea, being especially useful for mixing purposes. But the competition is now growing so severe, and home prices have reached so low a range, that unless some steps are soon taken to relieve the tea of the excessive burdens of lekin and export duty, a time must come when scented tea will cease to be an article of consumption altogether. These scented teas are produced in districts the most remote from Canton, and are therefore subject to high inland taxation, which leads the native merchants to mix with it inferior leaf grown in Canton, and suffering therefore lighter dues. Buyers also complain of the large proportion of dust found in the teas, and the committee say, "the dust should if possible not be sent to Canton from the districts at all, as the lekin dues have to be paid on it as well as on the whole leaf, and this of course increases the ultimate cost of the tea; this complaint is especially to be made about leaf arri from the Loting and Hoyune districts Canton scented orange pekoe has. both in the long and the short leaved descriptions—been already seriously beaten out of the field by their Indian competitors. This is amply proved by the figures, which disclose the significant fact that in the last ten years the exports from Canton have fallen from 3,870,000 pounds to 1,000,000 unrids, and the decrease continues year year, so that, as the committee say, it now seems impossible that this class of tea can regain the position it has lost on the London market. There is a steady market, as a rule, in London for the congous of which the best come from the Tayshan districts, and the only suggestion which the committee offer about them is that the growers should be con tented with fewer pickings in the year, experience having shown that the' teas plucked in August and September are deficient in every quality except make, Of cause, too, the picking of these teas in these months affects the supply of the autumn crop, which is the best pro duced from the distri' So much for the remarks which the Canton tea exporters make upon their trade, which are pretty much to the same effect as those offered by our own experts and by the Chamber of Commerce in Foo chow. The Canton Committee sum up their minute by concurring in the opinions of the Foochow and Shanghai Chambers of Commerce, and consider that "the only real remedy for prevent= ing total extinction of the trade is the abolition of all Zekin and export duties, so that the China article may be on the same footing as the Indian, Ceylon and Java, all of which are free from taxes." The Canton committee make no re" ference to the valuable suggestion offered by the gentlemen who were deputed to make the report for our Chamber of Commerce, that the Chinese Govern" ment, if it is really anxious to improve the production of tea, should throw the country open to foreigners, so that they may establish tea hongs with modern machinery. 'This may however be dealt with in the report which the Canton merchants will doubtless make, for as so much of their trade is, or rather should be, in scented' and fancy teas there would seem to be more necessity for reform in their production than in plain congous. But the following sentence from the minutes leads us to doubt whether the Canton merchants take the same view on this point as the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce: "The native
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.