[CHAPTER XXXVII.]
WEIGHING AND BULKING OF INDIAN TEAS AT CUSTOM HOUSE.
One misapprehension with some exists on this head. The weighing is done by the Customs to ascertain the amount for duty. The bulking is done at the request of the vendor, the broker who is to sell it, or the purchaser, and it has to be paid for.
Two distinct injuries are inflicted on the producer by the present Custom House system—
- 1. The Tea is much damaged by exposure.
- 2. The quantity found is always less than the actual.
Now as to No. 1. When we consider how damp the London atmosphere is at the best, how in foggy days it teems with moisture, is it not very certain that Teas exposed to it, often for days, deteriorate? What care we take in India heating before packing—carefully with lead and solder, excluding all air—and then the Teas on arrival here are treated as above! It is simply monstrous.
The following extract from a letter to Home and Colonial Mail sets out the case forcibly:—
The blame ought not entirely to be laid upon the planter, however, for certain facts have come to our knowledge during the present week as regards the manner in which Indian Teas are bulked at some of the London warehouses, which somewhat explains how depreciation in quality comes about. We bought several breaks of Tea in the sales this week, which were stated to be bulked and ready for sampling six days before the sale; and yet we know for a fact that some of those very Teas were not put back into the chest till the day after the sale, if even then. More or less moisture is always to be found in the London atmosphere, particularly in rainy weather, and there can be no question that incalculable injury would be done to a fine Tea by seven days’ exposure on the floor of a warehouse. The damage and loss falls entirely on the buyer. The effects of it are not seen at once, but there can be little doubt that a gradual depreciation sets in, consequent on the absorption of moisture. No redrying process follows; the Tea is simply filled back into the chests when seven days of neglect have done what mischief is possible. Is it to be wondered at that samples drawn from such a break of Tea a few months after it has been bulked in London will have lost all their freshness and malty smell?
J. C. Taylor and Colman.
I have no reason to think the delay above is very unusual, and I must add to the above, that when the chests are closed no attempt is made even to cover the top with lead, much less to resolder it. Some paper on top is all attempted. I need say no more to prove that the quality of Indian Teas is most seriously damaged at the Custom House.