19th June.
An agreement was come to foreign tea merchants and the Chine: men on the 12th; and, the docu having been signed by all the foreign firma, musters were sent in at the beginning of the week, We are now looking forward to the opening of the market in another ten days or 80. This final agreement is to the following effect:—Teas are to be paid for within a week after examination by the Custom House. Teas are to be weighed in fourteen days after the contract ybseuce of special arrau ments entered in the contract.
all cases to be made withi weeks from the date of the contract.
Aa to weights, fractions of $ " pound are to be in favour of the buyers; with the following allowances, viz Per chest of Congou 3 chest of Souchong half-chest 4, dibs. boxes of all descriptions dibs. half-chest of Oolongesee 1 Ib}, chest of Flowery Pekoe 13lbs, A packages are to be tared singly, te fractions of Ib. being in favour of the buyer.
All packages are to be weighed one ata time, Notice is to be given of the time of weighing and any complaint must be made thin three hours, otherwise the' tea can be shipped off.
The above terms, when compared with the rules originally put forward by the Tea Guild, show an extension in the time for payment from 4 weeks after contract te 7 weeks; the allowances granted are to be weighed singly. As compared with the ulmous resuiution passed by the Chai er of Commerce, the chief concessions to the teamen are no claim for discount, fractions of $b. instead of IIb. to be in favour of the buyer, and alight diminution in the allowance made, A fixed time for making complaint as to weight is laid down and the teaman is not required to be present at the weighing, Possibly the offer of the above terms made by the Guild w-8 acco discontent of the smaller Chi shown ina placard full of virus of the richest compradores, posted on the walls on Saturday.—hina Mail Cor.
The dispute between the teamen and foreign merchants has at last been factorily settled, and seemingly way fair to both par The origin of th dispute arose from a circular issued by the Tea Guild, in which they asked or insisted that business this season should be carried on on terms which were a little too much for the "haughty foreigner," 80 the reply was a counter demand very much against the " poor illused native trader."
Phe real cause of the whole thing was is, Several firms who annually purchase a roat quantity of tea lad taken advantage of the old style of doing business to weigh in a manner so as to give them a clear ain of 4, 5, and even 6 per cent. in weight, and at this the Chinese winked, as it kept up the nominal price of the article, For instance, a small buyer wishing to have a chop or two, just to look in, finds the price of Panyonga Tls. 14; and after bidding Tls. 13, Tle. 134, and Is. 13} sees them all slip pi price of Tls. 14, and so gives that price, thus paying unwittingly 4, 5, or 6 per cent more than his neighbour. At last this came out and everyone in his own defence merrily bumped the scale 20 as at last to claim the attention of honest John Chinaman.
The now system of weights is calculated to put all on the same footing and to save the loss in weight on shipments to London, calculated in the old tables at 3 por cent. and caused by the manner in which toxs are weighed by the Cuatoms in London and the allowance of 11b. draft per pack to the trade.
The present agreement has not been arrived at without considerable opposition from native (i.e. Fokien) teamen, and the walls of the Canton Joss House were for a day or two embellished with some of the choicest abuse the Chinese language allows theta being quite original and ous and well worthy of the attention riy of on sinologues. who may be compiling a Chinese slang dictionary, Our tea market was opened yesterday, and prices seem to suit the heathen, us they are pressing sales.—Daily Press Cor.
The controversy between the foreign and Chinese Tea merchants has been finally tied between themselves, and the revised cepted by the Foochow G of Commerce. The following a copy of the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.