Roughly, the cost of using these tin boxes would be, all told, from 1½d. to 1¾d. per lb., and with our lead-lined boxes it averages perhaps per penny. The difference of a halfpenny, or even three farthings, one pound would not be much for the advantages detailed.
One point I have forgotten. If 500 boxes are ordered, the plantation mark is put on the ends of the boxes gratis. If less than 500 are ordered, the additional cost for this would be about £5.
I hope the Syndicate in Calcutta will try these boxes. I shall certainly do so.
I enclose the directions for making up the tins, and hope you will insert them at the foot of this letter.
Reading over the above, there is one point I find not observed on as regards the loss of Tea at the Custom House. By the mode of weighing, as explained, the producer often loses 2 or 3 per cent., but still, strange to say, in practice, this loss is sometimes more than counterbalanced by the increased weight of the Tea due to the moisture imbibed while exposed (if boxes are broken in the transit) anyhow at the Custom House. But I need not point out that this gain is dearly bought by the deterioration of the Tea. The Custom House procedure is bad in every way. More on this subject later.
Edward Money.
The following is also from the Tea Gazette, and is much in favour of the boxes:—
Packing of Tea in Tin Boxes.
In our issue of November 7th, 1881, we inserted a short editorial note questioning, on the authority of certain correspondents, the advisability of using tin Tea boxes for the packing of Tea, at the same time asking our readers to favour us with their opinions on the subject, in case we were misinformed. Our invitation has met with a response from several quarters, and the correspondence we have received leads us to alter the opinion we formerly held on the subject. A gentleman largely interested in Tea, but in no way connected with the manufacturers of the patent tin boxes, writes to us from England:—