Page 279 - The_story_of_the_C._W._S._The_jubilee_history_of_the_cooperative_wholesale_society,_limited._1863-1913_(IA_storyofcwsjubill00redf) (1)_Neat

Tea Growing in Ceylon.
and Weliganga tea estates, about 17 miles from Kandy in Ceylon.
The area of the two was 364 acres, freehold, and the price, including
the buildings and the shrubs, was £9,820. The purchase was
made jointly with the Scottish Society under the new partnership.
A further purchase of 321 acres, with a factory and machinery, was
made in 1907 ; but this has been eclipsed by the big developments
of 1913. The latter has resulted in the possession of the Denmark
and Westhall group of estates by the two Societies, a purchase of
over 2,000 acres, bringing the area of land held in Ceylon to a total
of 2,899 acres. The different estates now form two groups, with
one factory for the whole, under the management of Mr. Benzie.
At Colombo the C.W.S. representative is JMr. G. Price, a good
co-operator who has recently been appointed to the position,
previously having had charge of the co-operative stores in York.
Materially aided by the possession of these tea plantations, the
joint tea department in London, which began, after the cessation
of the agreement with Mr. Woodin, with four men and six boys on
November 1st, 1882, reached at the end of 1912 the position of
supplying to English and Scottish co-operators 25,000,0001b. of tea.
For several years the London head has been Mr. W. B. Price, who,
simply by a coincidence, shares one name with the agent at
Colombo. The chief tea taster and buyer is Mr. LawTence.

While the business of the Society expanded so greatly from 1895
to 1900, it still was doing no more than keep pace with the extension
of retail co-operation. Upon the figures of total returns it was,
indeed, falling a little behind. Deductions, however, would have to be
made from the retail total to represent differences in prices, local
productive effort, and other important details. Still, the space
between was sufficient ; moreover, the co-operative market was being
more heavily assailed. Manufacturers and merchants had learned its
value. It meant large, relatively simple, and steady orders, with
prompt payments and no bad debts. If they could command this
market the extra benefit of its special organisation would be their
unearned increment. And to help them they had the new ideas of
advertising coming into the country from America. The hoardings,
the new cheap periodicals, and the thousand devices of the agencies
already were theirs for attracting the co-operator from outside when
they were allowed the further advantage of appeal from within.
Not only were private showcards exhibited in co-operative stores,
but educational committees themselves admitted private traders'
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