The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-05-10
TEA AND RUBBER
TALK BY TOURIST

\ recent visitor to Honolulu. Mr.
knight. from CeyIon. talked intelIt-
gently while here on the subject of tea
cultivation on that island.
The output on the island he re-
marked was l7S.oooooo pounds last
year and I feel sure it viii reach a
larger figure during 1866. This product
goes all over the world. For years the
government has subsidized The growers
Of green tea TO the extent OF. three cents
a pound. This was done So as to
equalize the cultivation of the different
sorts and to encourage the growers to
meet the demand of the green variety
from the United States and Canada
where the tastes of the people seem to
run that way.
About seven months ago the govern
ment stopped paying the subsidy and
the amount of green tea grown in Cey-
lon has fallen off in consequence. for
it's the extra pounds. shiilings and
pence that the grower is after and
green tea brought them"
In aswer TO question as to the
difference in the teas. Mr.. Knight said
it was mainly in the treatment of the
leaf after it was picked.
THE leaves of the green go from the
estate to a steamer where they remain
a minute or two and then it is rolled.
From the rollers 1t is taken to be fired
and then it is packed for the market
and let me say that much of the good
of any kind of tea depends upon the
packing. With the leaves of the black
tea the treatment differs in some re-
spects
After they are picked they are
withered and then they pass through
a process of fermentation, something,
you will note. that is not done with the
green tea. After the fermentation the
tea is fired and then sifted into the
different grades. I want TO say a word
about packing teas. for. as / told you,
much depends upon it. If it is packed
in lead and shipped direct you may
depend upon its holding the true flavor
of the tea. and. still greater desidera-
tum. there will be an absence of adul-
iteration. Much of the tea consumed
throughout the world is not shipped
direct but is sent out in bulk and re-
packed before it is sold. L have heard
of firms who make a business of dupli-
eating the flavor of the Ceylon tea,
copying the label and putting it on the
market as the genuine article.
Nothing absorbs the odor and flavor
of foreign matter more than tea and
paper is one of the quickest articles to
-
and for that reason it is positive
sha me for dealers TO pack their teas
in paper instead of lead; tin foil an
swers on pinch but there is nothing
that will take the place of Lead
The visitor was attracted by the tales
of the rubber industry of this territory
but ventured no opinion as to the
of the tree to the soil here.
1T is a growing industry with US, is
he remarked, and is going
to grow into a larger one. There are
now about forty thousand acres of rub
Der trees growing in Ceylon and the
re ople are planting more of them all
Of the time. The last quotation / had
gave rubber at five and four pence the
pound or about a dollar thirty-thre in
your money. They have formed a lot
advanced in price so rapidly that the |
spectators have grown rich. l heard :
Of some shares trebling in price; no /
did not get in on them, / wish | had
There are a number of new companies
in the Malay peninsula and the trees +,
are growing well. I am told. The con-
iitions of soil and climate there are
about the same as in CeYlon and [
would imagine the industry would be
4 large one in time
Mr.. Knight had with him a number
IF biscuits showing the rubber as it
was taken from the pans. 1t appeared
70 have good stretching qualities and
faVorably with the samples
Of the Malay rubber on exhibition in
he window of Thielen and Williamson
on Fort street. Some of the biscuits
were slightly discolored but this. Mr.
knight said, could be cleared in the
factory. Some persons are now going
for the dark grades in preference to
h. lierI1f