The Habit of Tea Drinking

MR. Harodl W. Newhy made an interesting speech at the half-yearly meeting of the Indian Tea Cess Committee on the 31st January, 1916, when he gave certain important facts relating to the spread of tea drinking habit among Indians. He calculated that the lowest estimate of last year's consumption of tea in India alone was 30 to 40 million pounds and India was the third largest country in the world to patronise tea-growers, the first two being the United Kingdom and Russia. He said that in future India would prove the largest consumer and the Tea Cess Committee would endeavour to introduce tea drinking into their modest corner of his country for which a sum of £15,000 was sanctioned for the current year. He justified this work not only on health grounds, by pointing out that the tea industries would benefit a large number of Indian employees besides improving public health.