“NO CRAWLING TO YOU!”

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 82, 28 June 1927, Page 13

“NO CRAWLING TO YOU!”

ALLIANCE AND UNEMPLOYED NO-CONFIDENCE MOTIONS SECRETARY’S CANDOUR Press Association. WELLINGTON, To-day. “You can’t pass no-confidence motions in us and then expect us to come crawling after you. We are not going to allow a body of men, 50 per cent, of whom are not trade unionists, to come here and tell us we are not doing our job properly. If you are going to do that, then we might as well tell you to go and do the job in your own way.’’

Such was the statement tof Mr. Bromley, secretary of the Unemployment Committee of the District Council of the Labour Alliance at a meeting of unemployed to-day, following the submission of a motion urging the unemployed to refuse any work offered, unless they were paid trade union rates.

Mr. Bromley submitted that the motion was one of no-confidence. The discussion at times was heated; but the motion was eventually declared carried by a small majorityOne request was that the unemployed should be given representation on the committee: but Mr. Bromley explained that there was no power under tUe constitution to do this, ’me committee's main concern was to find work for the -'nemployed. CRUDE RUBBER. ROMANCE OF BUSINESS. BRITISH HAVE CONTROL. To-day, 95 per cent, of the world’s consumption of rubber comes from the Middle East, from Sumatra, Java, Malaya, Ceylon, India and Cochin China. This has not always been the case. The story of the transfer of this vast industry from South America half way around the world, Is one of the most interesting romances of business, says a writer in “Goodyear News.” Rubber comes from a milky substance called latex, that flows from the bark of rubber (hevea) trees, which grow in what is called the rubber belt, extending about 10 degrees north and south of the equator. Trees are tapped by cutting a small strip from the bark, and the latex which flows out is collected in buckets. It is coagulated (something like the curd separates from the whey as milk turns sour), and this curdlike substance is lifted off, run through rollers, and comes out in sheets of pure rubber. It is then dried and is ready for shipment. The natives of South America and of Africa, who were first to gather rubber for the market, poured this liquid over a stick turned slowly over a fire, gradually forming a ball of rubber, in which shape the primitive originally came to market. '

Outside the Congo, South America was the great rubber producing area of the world until about 20 years ago. At that time 90 per cent, of the world’s rubber came from Brazil. Within five years the rubber producing industry was moved almost bodily to the Far East, and to-day, and for a number of years, the East has furnished the great bulk of the world’s needs in rubber, the balance being wild rubber, mostly from Brazil and Africa. The explanation is that a farsighted Englishman, Sir Henry Wichham, had shipped some rubber tree seeds out of Brazil in the year of 1876, set them out in Kew Gardens, London, and shipped the young shoots to Cession. To-day the British c®ntrol about or per cent, of the world’s acreage of plantation rubber, the Dutch about 15 per cent., the rest being divided between native, French, Japanese and American owners. Two American rubber companies own plantations, Goodyear and one other. There are 4,300.000 acres set out in rubber in the Middle East, representing a total investment of £170.000.000.