1888. 1889. 1890.

6,697,000 lbs. 508,000 lbs. 452,000 lbs. a truly fearful falling off. English people got tired of the flavourless stuff sent from China, and India and Ceylon having perfected the manufacture (which at first start of the industry of tea growing in those parts was not good), send us delicious tea, of a much higher market value than that of China. Ceylon tea, especially, has enormously won the favour of the English tea-drinking community in a very few years, as the following short statistics, taken from a Tea Circular,[123] will show,— The total value of all the Ceylon tea in bond in 1880 was £5,024. Ditto ditto ditto 1888 ” £1,555,095. ---------- The duty on above, at 6_d._ per lb., was respectively £2,871. £464,664. ---------- showing that not only had the quantity imported enormously increased, but so had the quality, as shown by the enhanced market value. One instance, although an exceptional one, will show what Ceylon can produce in the way of tea. On 13th January, 1890, was sold at the London Commercial Tea Sale Rooms, a consignment of tea from the Gallebodde Estate, Ceylon, which experts described as the finest tea ever grown. This unique tea was of the brightest gold colour, resembling grains of gold. Its sale excited the keenest competition, and it was eventually knocked down for £4 7_s._ per lb., but it was resold a few days afterwards to a wholesale firm at the enormous price of £5 10_s._ per lb. “Much excitement prevailed yesterday in the London Commercial Tea Sale Rooms, Mincing Lane, on the offering of a small lot of Ceylon tea, from the Gartmore Estate. This tea is composed almost entirely of small ‘golden tips,’ which are the extreme ends of the small succulent shoots of the plant. Competition was of a very keen description, the tea being ultimately knocked down to the Mazawattee Ceylon Tea Company at the unprecedented price of £10 2_s._ 6_d._ per pound.”—_Standard_, March 11th, 1891.[124] Another circular of the same firm of tea brokers gives a list of 132 tea gardens in Ceylon. Indian tea is fast helping to supersede China tea, and another Tea Circular[125] points out that, “Towards the 190 million lbs. probably required for home use during the coming year, India and Ceylon together will contribute fully 150 millions.” It also gives the following:— “LONDON STATISTICS FOR YEAR ENDING 31ST MAY.”