THE PRICE OF TEA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14231, 30 November 1909, Page 3

THE PRICE OF TEA.

Mr. Horatio Nelson, of the well-known firm of Nelson, Moate,' and Company, returned recently to Wellington from a visit to Ceylon, and had some interesting remarks to make to a Dominion reporter on tea and tea prices.

.'• "The trade," said Mr. Nelson, "is in a very unsettled state, owing chiefly to a shortage of supplies in India and Ceylon, and a largely-increased consumption in England, America, and the Continent. ' Indian tea brings 25. per cent, more to-day than it did at this time last year, and it is higher in London than it has been for many years. Another thing affecting the position is that rubbergrowing is now extremely profitable, and many erstwhile large tea-growers are going in for rubber cultivation instead of tea. Growers can land rubber in London at about Is lOd per lb, and they actually receive between 8s 8d and 9s 3d per lb for it. So you cannot wonder at the change in their activities. The tea trade throughout the world, so'far as the growers , are concerned, was never more prosperous, but never more disastrous for importers and dealers. In England it is so serious that large firms are spending a great deal of money in trying to convert the people into buying higher-priced teas, and their shop windows are being filled with teas marked at between 3s and 3a 6d per lb. "In New Zealand," he continued, "the public have been getting a better article than anywhere else. If the market remains as it is the public will undoubtedly have to pay more for their teathat is, tea fit to drink. It is probable that prices will increase quite twopence per lb, unless a change takes place, and it only needs America and Germany to buy 20 per cent.' more tea for. prices here to go up by od or 8d per lb."