CEYLON TEA INDUSTRY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22240, 15 October 1935, Page 12

CEYLON TEA INDUSTRY

CULTIVATION DESCRIBED ADDRESS TO ROTARY CLUB An interesting outline of the tea industry in. Ceylon was given by Professor Arnold Wall, formerly professor of English at Canterbury College, in an address at a luncheon hold by the Auckland Rotary Club in Milne and Choyce's Reception Hall yesterday. Mr. D. Henry, vice-president, presided, and the visitors included Messrs. Bryan Todd and C. Clobburn (Wellington), H. Trescder (Oaraaru), and J. H. Skow (Whangarei). " The tea industry in Ceylon is a comparatively new one, as it is only 50 years since an insidious leaf disease ruined the coffee plantations there and compelled the planters to turn theiir attention to tea,*' the speaker said. V The tea plant is a camellia with a yellow flower, as pretty as any we grow in our gardens." The combination of exceptional rainfall and tropical heat was necessary for tea plantations to flourish. In parts of Ceylon the rainfall was as mucji as 200 inches in a year. About £OO tea plants were planted to the acre and were regularly pruned to about three _feet in height to permit of easy plucking. The work of cultivation was carried out, not by Singalese, but by Tamils from the South of India. Although they received only about an average of 8d a day and worked 10 hours a day seven days a week, they were per/ectl.v contented The majority of the plantations were now owned by large companies and some indication of the wealth of the industry could'be gained from the fact that in 1928 a plantation of 700 acres produced 500.0001b. of tea and made a clear profit of £25,000. " Although I have seen tea plants growing in Auckland and further north, there is not much likelihood of teagrowing being a commercial success in New Zealand, as the necessary cheap labour would not be available here," added the professor.