MALAYA RUBBER

Hokitika Guardian, 29 December 1930, Page 7

MALAYA RUBBER

INDUSTRY IN BAD CONDITION

VALUABLE RESEARCH WORK

'■)/ — 1 ■ ™ In common, with most countries of the world, the Federated Malay States are; at present passing through difficult ' times. Of the two staple products, tin, which in 1926 was worth £3lO a a ton, is now valued at £114; and rubber, which, in 1910, reached the ‘•boom” price of over 12s a pound, to-day brings only a fraction over 4d. The depression in both industries has caused a great amount of unemployment, and/many rubber plantations and mines i have had to be closed. Mr Keith W. Manning, a son of Dr. L. ■S. Manning (Fendalton) has, for the last 12 to 13 years, been engaged in the. management of rubber plantations in Malaya. For the part four years lie has managed an : estate of 2550 acres at Selangor, a district midway between Singapore and Penang. Recently Mr Manning returned to dhristchurch' to spend an accumulated leave of about eight months, with his parents ; and, in an interview with the Press, . lie . I'gaye ;; / Some- interesting details /oh plantation life,;, and methods;/^.-/. ;: : “Oonditidns in the States are at present .vvegy bad, since both of the staple products are failing,” said Mr Manning. ?; “It is estimated that 85 per cent, of the rubberestates sre producing at a loss. The price of rubber has fallen to a level lower than any previously by about 51 per cent.

EFFECT OF OVER-PLANTING.

Rubber was, or’ginally planted in the States when the coffee industry gave out. There was a great “boom” in 1910, when it was worth over 12s a lb., and' since ' then the history of the industry was a history of “booms” and depressions. In 1927, rubber fell to what was then the lowest price at about 7d‘a lb.', but it- was now worth oply. a. fraction,. over 4d. The extraordinary decline is attributed by Mr Manning not only to the general -faljU-m world prices, but also to'the oyet-planting caused'by “booms” in the, past.' At present the supply of riibber greatly exceeded the demand. Tho -denignd had in the past shown a steady, increase of about 10 per cent, a year, but, the percentage increase was now also.;, falling. America took . almost three-quarters of the world’s consumption 1 of rubber, and the. greater part of - this was used: in the manufacture of > tyres. Although under modern methods more rubber was used in this manufacture, the tyres were lasting lphger and the demand was thereby decreased. - -/'’/ : ‘" ~. v ■ COMPETITION OF NATIVES. Although the estate which Mr Mnnning/is/nhanagmgi has been just able io pay itfeViiy by cutting down costs many other plantations, not go fortunat«i' have been closed down and their/ employees dismissed. One important .problem which the European

growers had to face was that of native-produced rubber. Many of the natives interplanted rubber trees with coconuts and coffee. They had no overhead expenses, and gave half the crop as payment for labour. Thus 45 per cent, of the total output was produced under conditions with which the European growers could compete only with the greatest difficulty.

Native labour, Chinese and Tamil, was used on the plantations, and each labourer earned about Is 2d a. day. Their conditions of employment and I living had lately been greatly improved, said Mr Manning. For instance, a Health Board had been set up, which divided the whole country into districts, and held the owners in each district responsible for its general health. Since he first went to Malaya, about 12 or 13 years ago, ; living conditions had greatly improved both for the coolie and for,the white man. Mr Manning said that he could now get meat from Australia and grow European vegetables on some of the hill stations. Clubs, tennis courts, and golf courses had been established, while other marks of . the increasing civilisation were the operation of hydroelectricity, the introduction of refrigerators (a very great boon indeed) and the building of. aerodromes. RESEARCH IN RUBBER. As in most other industries, a great amount of research has been concentrated on the production of rubber. “The only way the European growers can carrf on in face of the nntive competition is by improving methods of production and culture,” said Mr Manning. “A fine Rubber Research Institute has been established in the States within the last five or six years, Every year we are finding out new things about the treatment of rubber. For instance, to-day, instead of tapping trees on the ‘herring-bone’ system, we tap on a single cut over the whole circumference. In this way, and by giving the trees frequent ‘rests,’ we are able to get a much greater output. INCREASING THE YIELD. The effect of the improved tree culture was already seen in the. yield. About four or five years ago, the average yield was only about 41b a tree. Trees which were now coming on would 3 T ield between 10 and 201 b, said Mr Manning, and some even more tnan that. That notable improvement had been secured by methods of selection and bud-grafting. Rubber trees were so long in coming to maturity that the process of improvement was a lengthy and a difficult one. Even then a heavy-yielding tree did not necessarily pass on that valuable property to its progeny. The proving of a mother tree might take 10 years, and only by testing over several years could it be ascertained whether the yield would be normal or abnormal. Once the worth of a tree was established, buds frmri it were grafted on,, to seedlings. Then the grower had to wait for another five or six years until these seedlings reached , a state when they could 1 be.,tapped, although he could" take “test-taps” at .. three years. Even then the value of the

young tree would not lie definite until the end of another five years. TAPPING BEFORE SUNRISE.

It has been found that, curiously enough, the trees give their maximum yield if they are tapped as early as possible in the morning before the sun has reached them. The coolies usually start work at about 5.30 a.m. as soon as they can gee well enough to tap the trees, and by 9 a.m. each lias attended to between 180 and 200 trees. Whereas in the past the tree-tappers were called skilled labourers and not used for other work, they are not in the afternoon put on to the maintenance and cultivation of the estates. Mr Manning’s firm has been able to cut down expenses to their lowest by stopping cultivation and carrying on only with the work necessary to the cultivation of tlie'trees and the securing of the rubber.