That the foregoing statistics significantly demonstrate the importance of the Indian Tea industry to both England and India, and constitute a claim to the favourable consideration of both Governments, especially that of India, on the ground of the benefit accruing to the districts in which it is conducted, and the increment of State revenue to which it has directly and indirectly conduced. That having regard to the existing close and hardening competition with China, Japan, and other Tea producing countries, your Petitioners naturally feel aggrieved that the important industry they represent should be hampered in the contest by the restrictive and superfluous impediment forming the subject of their petition. That your Petitioners have unsuccessfully urged on the Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Customs the adoption of this change of system, and therefore venture to address your Lordship. That your Petitioners beg to refer to the accompanying copies of correspondence between the Association and the Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Customs annexed to this Petition. That the accompanying Memorial signed by the leading mercantile firms and others in Calcutta, interested in the growth and export of Indian Tea, is an illustration of the feeling in India on the subject of this Petition. Your Petitioners therefore pray-- That your Lordship will kindly take such steps as may be necessary to secure for your Petitioners the relief sought for. And your Petitioners will ever pray, &c. T. D. FORSYTH, Chairman of the Association. ERNEST TYE, Secretary. The following reply was received:-- INDIA OFFICE, S.W., 28th February, 1883. SIR,--I am directed by the Secretary of State for India in Council to acknowledge the receipt of the Memorial addressed to the EARL OF KIMBERLEY by the Indian Tea Districts Association, respecting the method of weighing Indian Tea at the Custom House. In reply, I am to inform you that the Memorial has been forwarded to the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Treasury, with the expression of LORD KIMBERLEY’S hope that whatever is practicable may be done to remedy the grievance complained of by the memorialists in the interests of the Indian Tea trade. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, (Signed) J. K. CROSS. The Secretary, Indian Tea Districts Association. It is possible, therefore, that some improvement will now be accomplished.[107] But at the CRUTCHED FRIARS Warehouse (belonging to the East and West India Docks) a great advance has already been made. The Tea there is now bulked, and re-packed by machinery. The Directors most kindly invited me to come and witness the process. I went, and was more than pleased with what I saw. The machinery, and all connected with the process, is so well described in an article in the _Home and Colonial Mail_, I cannot do better than give it here:--