RUBBER.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1975, 4 February 1914, Page 4

RUBBER.

AN EXPERT ON PRODUCT AND PRICES. NO MORE 325 PER CENT. DIVIDENDS. "Tho rubber industry is now on a firm basis. The days of 325 per cent, divi* dends have gone." ■ This was said recently : by Mr. W. H. Jefferson, formerly of Sydney, who has had several years' experience in rnbherrpknting. He is associated with the Port JJison-tflkut Rubber Estate, in the Federated Aiala.y States. Tho holding 1 comprises 4:000 afircs, 3000 of which are cultivated with the Amazon species <i.f Para rubber, known as Hcvcn-llrasi't-liensis, which hns proved in Malnyu to bo the heaviest yielder and the firpst ' suitable for Ha climate and soil. "The company," said Mr. Jefferson, ; "was originally floated in 1306 as tho. i Straits Settlement Co,, 'which bought up a few nativo holdings, in. I'Jl'Q they increased their area te about 600 acres, fluid in May pf the following year tlie-; ■company was fioa-ted in Ijondon, when another 2000 acres of jungle land wore added., and tho Lukiit estate taken over frotn'the JJ.iuggi Plantations, Ltd, ginfco' then the area has been in-creaßcd to 3000' acres cultivated, flnd of this area about 550 acres are hearing' rubber. Wo have 700 aerea of trees five years old and upwards; the balance was planted since, May, 191L V . The average timo taken by' rubber trees in Malaya to como into hearing is between four and five years.. This is about one year earlier' than in Ceylon and the Majority of other rubberproducing ceu-ntries. The output varies "according to'age,'but the- usual estimate is, for tlio .first year of tapping iOOlb'. per acre of dry rubber. That is a low estimate,, It increases year by year, \nvbil -about- the eighth or ninth yea*, when the yield will bo about 30.01b. per acre. Yields up to 9Qolb. pbf nero ifave been known in Malaya from oldn matured trees..

Thß Ru&ber. Eooni. "Tho pritfe of rubte when I left' Singapore was 25. 3d.,'per lb. on the' London market. It went lip to 12s. !.Bd> per lb. during the recent boom. At that' time there was a shortage of the A'mar zott Variety of tlie real hard Para rubber, and thefo was ail extreme, demand from the American and English trade oil account of tho enormous expansion, of the motor industry in 191.0., This causei! a temporary and artificial shortage. Every Bit of rubber ■coming- ori the jria'r-. kot wits snapped tip at famine prices. The Americans' future- demand at'the. time, too, was outrageously ovor-cstinvdte.d. Instead of a steady indie/aso ■of -20 per cent, por annum, .as they expected,'' their increased consumption ,in 191? amounted to about 1000 tons extra. _ It was anticipjttod that their rcguire-" ments wolild be 12,000 tons.. In the meantime, the extensive plantings in the east hadbecn going on owing to the boom prices, Tho '<■ natural ■ result was ti rapid increase in production., which lias nearly qvoftokon the consumption. Tho rubber industry is now getting on a (inn basis.. Tbo days of 926 per cent, dividends havo gone,' I should not think it likely, considering the ■enormous area that has been planted in 'Malaya* that tho demand will oatts.6 a B'hortiVgo again. Catch <rroj,s aro. not cultivatdd in tho rubber plantations, as it i has been found to throw back the timo of tlto maturity of the tides, Tapiqcil was tried in tire Malacca territory, with tho result that the rubber there, is iMost ■backward. ■ ~

How Labour Is. Procured. "Tbo labour on ,tbo plantations is equally divided' between -Tamils—natives of Southern India—and Chinese. The Tamils' aro mostly reeim'tcd from the Madras, Presidency. Labour is not indentured, but tho coolies aro recruited at, tho employers' exponso. They cost about 12 rupees per head, paid to tho iccruitcrs. The coolies aro brought to Malaya by tho British India Co., under contract to the Malaya Government. Tho company is paid out of an immigration fund inaugurated by a loan .from tho Government for tho purpose. This is being gradually redeemed by an assessment por head of labour employed, and paid by tho planters to tho Government. Tho recruiting estate receives a rebate for each new coolio imported. Coolies must be landed freo in the country, and they aro at liberty to leave at any time by giving a month's notice. The usual wage paid is about lOd. per day for men and Bd. i.er day for women, and they ktfcp themselves out of that. Tho States are bound to provido medical Attention for thorn. Tho Chinese coolies are, for the.most part, genuine immigrants, and wis rato of pay is considerably higher—about doublo that of tho Tamils."

Northern Territory and Malaya, Asked ifho could compare the N6rtliorn Territory with Malaya, and the. prospects of tropical cultivation in the former, Mr. Jellprson, who spent two years In the. Territmy, said that from what ho had seen, unless local marketß wore deliberately cicatcd for tropical products in the Tcnitoiy, together with an absolutely insurmountable protective tariff wall, they'could not bo produced at a profit. "In Port Darwin," he said, ''I heard of n cotton planter who camo from East Africa and established plantations in tho Territory. Tho toil and climato in every way proved suitable, but he found that white labour at 125., plus high overseas freight, put out of tho question for him, even maiketiug. Grant that a white man can do Ihrco times us much work ns a native, three natives cost 85.., tho whito man 12s. This .still leaves the mhito man handicapped by 9s, on tho day's woik, which more- than pays for the overseas freight to any part of tho world. Unless Port Darwin Is turned into a, big manufacturing centic, and sends its goods out in a finished .state, ihev have no hope of competing with other tropical countiics."