THE TEA WE BRINK. ARE WE PAYING TOO MUCH?

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 9, 11 January 1912, Page 8

THE TEA WE BRINK. ARE WE PAYING TOO MUCH?

EFFECT OF PREFERENTIAL DUTIES. New Zealanders are the greatest teadrinkers in the world, and the price of tea has gone up. We consume 731b. f0r each inhabitant. Australia is a poor second with 6.831b, nearly a pound per head less. Australia used to hold the record with B£lb per head of population ; she now takes second place. The Commonwealth, consumes thirty-one million, pounds of tea a year ; the Dominion over seven and a half million. And tea has gone up in the chief producing countries — India, Ceylon, China, and Jaya — as much as l^d a lb, especially in the cheaper grades. The increase has not yet been handed on through the blender and middleman to the consumer, but it will be, either in enhancement of price or deterioration of quality. What can we do? We have a free "breakfast table and 'tea. is on the free list. Is it? Not all tea. Only that tea grown in the British Dominions. There is a preferential duty on other teas in bulk of 2d a pound. This must inevitably raise the price of the prefer-entially-protected article, and so it does, and the consumer has to pay/ Needlessly so, thinks Mr. W. L. Bosschart, Con-sul-GeneTal of the Netherlands for the Commonwealth of Australia and the Dominion of New Zealand, and president of the Netherlands Chamber of Commerce for Australasia, who arrived in Wellington, on his first visit to New Zealand, yesterday. As consul for the Netherlands and as president oi the Netherlands Chamber •of Commerce, Mx, Bosschart. has endeavoured during llis residence in Australia to facilitate in every possible way trade and intercourse between the Commonwealth and itfs nearest neighbours, the Dutch East Indies. He has succeeded well and it is due to his efforts largely that Java and the East Indies are becoming a favourite resort for the Australian tourist and that fine steamer communication has been opened up between the countries. The Netherland Chamber of Commerce, now in * the eighth year of its existence, was founded by him with headquarters in' Mel- | bourne. It has done much to stimulate ! trade with the Dutch East Itidies. Australia has found quite a good and profitable market in the flourishing colonies of Holland, only a few hundred miles from the northern ooaste of the island contina ent. ' She sends to these beautiful tropical islands — Java, with its dense population of over thirty million, Sumatra, Borneo, and the smaller islands — large quantities of butter, apples, cattle, cheep, and frozen meat, horses, and many other typical Australasian products and takes in return the tropical' produce of the East Indies— notably tea, affording sufficient tra^e to employ many British, German, and/Dutch steamers. "Notably tea" — this brings us back to our subject. Mr. Bosschart pointed out to a Post representative that in' Australia, where all ,tea, no matter where it came from, came in free, over three million pounds of Java tea were consumed, while in New Zealand, where a duty oi 2d a lb was imposed on Java tea, there were only a few hundred pounds consumed annually. Personally, he could not 6eo the force of <the duty. Tho total value of the teas subject to preferential duty imported into New Zealand was only £1712 a year, which showed that the duty was practically prohibitive. Again, the tea grown in Java was largely grown on plantations financied by British capital; it was a specially fine variety of tea m\ich used in blending, yet for the few hundred pounds of revenue the New ¦ Zealand consumers we're depriving themselves of a better article and helping to keep up prices against themselves by creating a monopoly outside them. For whose benefit was the preferential duty ? Simply for the benefit of the Calcutto and Colombo tea merchants. All tea was grown by dark labour, so there could be no argument on those lines. He could see nothing in favour of such a preferential duty.* "Take our own colonies and Holland -herself," said Mr. Bosschart, "we impose no preferential duties against British produce. We are only too anxious to trade -with Great Britain and the British Empire generally. We have many interests in common and we claim a certain relationship by blood. We are near neighbours- at home as well as out here. The effect of this preferential duty against us on. tea has been to discourage any commerce with the Dutch East Indies. Australia, which gives us a free market in tea, gets our business. But we would like to do business with you. We admire New Zealand immensely with its progressive humane legislation and we believe, if there is any truth in the danger of attack from the populous nations of Asia, that all' the, white people in the Pacific should band tof ether and work together with as much riendly intercourse and trade as poseibie. But we do stick at that 2d alb on our tea. In return for our tea — if you would only give us an equal footing with other teas^ — we could take your frozen mutton, your butter, your flax, and many other New Zealand products. Steamers might call here trading with Java, but we must have teade ; we must sell you something and buy something back from you. lam sure the people of New Zealand will see .the force of these arguments." Mr. Bosschart paid a visit this morning to the Town Hall, and interviewed the Acting-Mayor. He expressed his admiration of the building and its equipment. He interviewed Sir Joseph Ward this afternoon, and during his stay in Wellington is anxious to meet as many business people as possible, with a view of opening up trade and commerce with Java and the other Dutch colonies of the Far East.