The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-05-21 00:00:00

UNION-HALL.-TUESDAY.

IMPORTANT TO TEA-DRINKERS.—In the course of the ex-
amination of two boys, who were brought up from Camberwell,
before Mr. Chambers, for gambling on Sunday, some disclo-
sures of importance relating to the extent to which the suspected
adulteration of tea is carried on in this metropolis were made.
In the possession of one of the juvenile defendants a police-
man found two shillings upon taking. him into custody, and
when the boy was asked by the magistrate where he got that
money, he iminediately replied, " Not by gambling, your wor-
ship, but for picking tea leaves."
Mr. CHAMBERS, smiling.—The tea plant does not happen to
grow in this country, my lad, therefore you are adding a false-
hood to the offence for which you were brought here, and that
offence is sure to lead to crimes of more magnitude.
The defendant still persisted in the truth of his assertion rela-
tive to the picking of the tea leaves, and when asked to explain
the manner in which he did it, he replied, " Why, your worship,
I am employed by a cow-keeper, at Camberwelf, who sends me
into the fields to gather sloe leaves and black and white thorn
leaves, and he pays me so much a pound for all I picks. I
works hard" auded the boy, " and sometimes earns a good bit
of money at the job."
Mr. CHAMBERS inquired what the cowkeeper wanted with
sloe and black and white thorn leaves—it could not be for the
use of his cows.

Inspector Waiters, of the P Division, stated that he should
be enabled to throw some light upon the subject of what the
boy termed " picking tea-leaves." The inspector then said
for the last month a number of poor persons, of both sexes,
were observed in the fields adjacent to Camberwell, picking
leaves out of the hedges. To such an extent, in fact, had this
picking system lately been carried on in and about that neigh-
bourhood, that many of the hedge-rows were completely di-
vested of their foliage. He had questioned some of the people
as to the purpose for which the leaves were intended, and he
had the same reply from all—namely, that they were employed
by a cowkeeper, who gave them a penny a pound for- black
thorn leaves, and half the sum for white thorn leaves. One
man told him that he picked between fifty and sixty pounds of
the leaves in a day, and always had a sure market for selling
'them to the cowkeeper. On a recent occasion, a gentleman,
resident in Camberwell, complained that the hedge surround-
ing one of his fields had been entirely stripped of the leaves,
but he objected to give any person into custody for the damage
committed on his property, but warned them not to be seen
there again. The inspector added that the circumstance had
created some surprise in Camberwell, and he had instituted an
inquiry into the matter, in the course of which he ascertained
that the statement made to him by the persons found picking
the leaves was perfectly correct as to the party whom they, sup-
plied. The next step was 'to discover how the cowkeeper dis-
posed of the leaves, and this was accomplished by placing
persons.to watch his premises, when it was found that they nit-
derwent no process while in his possession, but were gent in
bags to au extensive tea-dealer's in the city, to whose ware-
house they were traced from the cowkeeper's yard at Camber-
well.

Mr. Chambers inquired 'what steps had been taken after tra-
cing leaves of such a description to the house of a tea-dealer.
It looked certainly very suspicious, for he had heard reports of
tea being adulterated with sloe-leaves.
The inspector said that information of the fact was given to
the Excise, and he had uo doubt but they intended to act forth-
with upon it.
Mr. Chambers remarked that the inspector had acted very
properly in making the matter known at the proper quarter,