Out of a total of 116 companies forty-six only gave any dividend on the crop of 1882, and of these forty-six only twenty paid over five per cent. Of the seventy which gave no dividend not a few have paid nothing for several years, and many are struggling on under the incubus of borrowed capital, with the hope of improvement in the markets, the cause of this depression being directly traceable to the heavy fall in prices during the last few years. The opinion was expressed that if the trade could be relieved of the present heavy tax of from 50 to 100 per cent. on the value, it might be fairly assumed that a reduction of, say, 4_d._ per lb. to the consumer would lead to a large increase in the consumption, and leave a return of the remaining 2_d._ per lb. more to the producer, which would in many cases prove a working profit to gardens now being carried on at a loss. Reference was also made to the argument, of which doubtless the Chancellor of the Exchequer is aware, that inasmuch as the average value of Indian teas is higher than that of China teas, the present duty weighs more heavily on the latter, and consequently that its abolition would deprive the Indian importer of a certain amount of protection; but at the same time the opinion was expressed that a general reduction of prices to the consumer all round would induce on the part of the public a more general preference for the superior quality of the Indian produce, and that the increased demand for it thereby engendered would more than counterbalance any loss of protection which might be sustained. As will be seen from the following table of the duties, the consumers of tea contribute very largely to the revenue of the country:-- £. 1874 3,248,446 1875 3,568,634 1876 3,706,831 1877 3,723,147 1878 4,002,211 1879 4,162,221 1880 3,698,338 1881 3,865,720 1882 3,974,481 1883 4,230,341 ---------- 38,180,376 The annual expenditure on tea amounts to about 11,000,000_l._ Large as this amount appears, it sinks into insignificance when compared with the expenditure upon intoxicating drinks. During the last year it amounted to no less than 125,477,275_l._ There are few who would regret to see this formidable amount reduced to a fourth of its present dimensions; and no one surely will deny that if everybody drank tea, instead of alcoholic drinks, a great reform in the habits of the people would take place. Drunkenness, and its attendant evil, pauperism, would cease; plenty would take the place of poverty, joy for sadness, health for sickness; and happiness would reign throughout the land.