THE RISE IN TEA,

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1181, 17 July 1911, Page 6

THE RISE IN TEA,

(By Telciraph-SDccial Correspondent.)

m, , . Auckland, July ic. llie pneo of tea has this year been raised ono penuy per pound wholesale 1 his _ increase, it is stated, is liketv to remain permanently, and, if anything prices' are likely to be higher. Apart from the fact that rubber-growing has displaced, to a slight degree, the teagrowing areas in Ceylon, a number of other causes havo contributed to the higher values prevailing. A well-known tea merchant informed a i reporter that British-grown teas from Ceylon were becoming increasingly popular in Russia, wlLcre China tea was formerly mostly used. In America, with its SO odd millions of population, tea drinking was also becoming more popular The British-grown teas were far superior to any other owing to the fact that better methods of cultivation and treatment were adopted than in other countries. This accounted for the increasing demand. The fact however remained that the area under cultivation in Ceylon had reached practically its maximum, and, in India,, there, was not much prospect of many more areas of great size being placed under cultivation. It is estimated that the supply of British-grown tea is now scarcely equal to the demand.