We find a number of notes on ten and its oaltivation in the Indian Tea Gazetle of a recent date, which will be interest ing to our readers, During the Inst few years strenuous efforts have been made by the Indian Tea Association to introduce their produce on the American and Australian markets, These entorprizes have scarcely been success. ful us regards America; and it appears that in the statistics of tea Intely pub. lished no mention is made of the Indian growth, This the Tea Gazette attributes to the efforts hitherto made having been insufficient, and culls on the Indian interest not to be dishenrtened, but to put forth greater endenvours to secure a share in the American market, In connection with tea in the United States, the figures given by the New York Bureau of Statistics show that the import Inst year was over 81 millions of pounds, being 3 millions more than in the monson ending in 1884, The imports for the lust five years exhibit an annual increase, with the exception of 1882. The consumption for the same time has been rather ivregalar, having been Per Capita 6 Ibs. this was Indian ten, and snys that if "we could only persuade the Americans to taste our tea, they will surely of Chinns and There is nothing like having good conceit of ourselves; and apparently the Indinn ten interest as represented by our contemporary hus no occasion to offer up petitions that such may be given to them. But the opinion of the superlative excellence of Indian teas which readers might be led to form from the above quotation is rather weakened by a paragraph in another part of the same paper. We are there told on the excellent authority of the Produce Market Review that before a better demand for Indian teas cun be expected in England, n distinctly better class of (eas must be forthcoming, as both China bluck leaf and Ceylon tens jast now offer much better value than Indian growths, And a firm of brokera in London write that the Calcutta people seem to taken a curious view of quality this season, and many a poor medium tea has been shipped under the name nud cost of five ten. This is quite as severe us anything ever enid about ten buying in China, Yet, notwithstanding its having adultted these criticisms on Indian ten, the Gazelle stands up manfully for it when a London paper says that parcels of it have recently brought higher prices than their intrinsic values, It not see how this can be, and con. siders that the exceptional prices puld were indicative of exceptional good qualities, It is hardly fare, it continues, for the home paper to assume other. wise, and thas burt the feelings of the Indian tea trade, It is evident that some of the sensitiveness of youth still clings to the Indian growers, merchants and brokers. There isn fairly good trade carried on between the North-west and Cabul, and it is supposed of to be capable extension, A note in the Gazette, in founded on a letter in the Grocers'
Chronicle, snys that pawnbrokers in 1 certain neighbourhood—in London, we presume—are in the habit of making the poor people who deal with them take tou asa part of the money on ench pledge, at the rate of one ounce to the shilling. Whew an advance of four #hil. lings is made, only three are received in money, and the balance is given in four ounces of tea at three pence an ounce, whioh is a very good price, considering that interest is paid while the pledge is unredeemed. This method of doing business would seem to have been borrowed from the customs of the money lenders of fashionable life, but the terms are ensior than those given to the spendthrifts of fiction, who were frequently obliged, we are told, to tuke sherry, old masters, and cigars for the balance of th notes, after fifty to eighty per cent, discount had been deducted.
Ten cultivation has been fairly successful on the Hill Tracts in Arakan, Various gardens' have been brought into cultivation; at one place, 12,000 trees and young plants, of four different kinds, In California efforts are b made to introduce the cultivation of ten, and " few plants are said to be thriving there. We wish the enterprising Culiforniaus more success in tea growing than attended the experiments in the same direction in other parte of the States, and in their own attempts ab silk culture, The Ceylon Government have voted half a luc of rupees for the purpose of properly representing the industries of the Colony at the Coloninl Indian Exhibition in London next year, and itis expected that the Tea Planters of the Island will contribute the sum of Rs, 5,000, which the Government has been asked to aet apart entirely for tea exhibits, The Indian Ten Syndicate is (nking steps to have Indian teas well represented at the Exhibition, The Gazette states (hat " large native Hong in Shanghai has had w ten-mnee shipped to it from Culombo, and Indian ten growers it says may expect that there will be an improvement in the make of Chine ten, which will increase the dificulty of competition, as more machines are expected to be sout to this, Japan ten boxes are on sale in Colombo, and Indian planters are strongly veoommended to muke a trial of them, IE this means the boxes, chests and half chests in which tens are exported, we should suppose that the Chinese would be able to compete in them with the Japanese in Ceylon and Tue din, The London dealer is not a man whose losses and disappointments onll for much sympathy from those eus gaged in (he Chinn ten trade, Ho is generally looked on us getting whi ever of good there muy be going, and there are doabiless people hero who will Gud some sutisfuction in the following story of one of them, of which the Gazette anyo that "risking for compensa. tion for orders that wight never have Leon obtuiued, is surely stretching the bounds of reason a little too far." But aco London tea deulers ever reason able 2—A London tea dealer Intely brought a suit for compensation against the L. and NW, Railway Ao. for Joos of Lime nnd business " onused by the nou-arrival, in time, of some same ples of ten, nnd for damage to the articles when received. The Company paid two guineas into Court, which Ue Tudges held to be ample, much to the Jisappointmeut of the plaintiff, who had assesseed his damages at a high figure, A LOCAL DUELLING case, Tue conse of Essex v. De Malherbe is one vf those childish and discredit. able incidents of which the less that is said the better, We, at any rate, have neither the desire uor the intention to review the decision of the Court or try the matter over again in our culamua, Such a tack would be interminable, It is sufficient to draw brief attention to one puint—in ne opinion the only
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.