Romance of Rubber

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 241, 31 December 1927, Page 10

Romance of Rubber

ESSENTIALS OF PEACE AND WAR

Wealth Won From Jungle

RUBBER, which is essential to civilisation in its manifold uses in transport, shop, home, factory and field, was first discovered by Europeans being used in one of its most popular forms by South American natives —as a ball. A special correspondent of “The Melbourne Herald” tells the story here, and also many' interesting facts of its production in Malaya.

What cattle and sheep mean to Australia and New Zealand, rubber and tin mean to Malaya. They are the

sources of its wealth, the subject of conversation, and object of activities. British men from the Home country and the overseas dominions, lured by the tales of perpetual sunshine and rapid prosperity. have come to Malaya. Some have succumbed to tropical diseases, others have failed in the acid test of this strange environment. A few have won wealth, while many make a good liying.

For the white man it is a country of high earnings and expensive living. It is a land of eternal summer, the heat is great, and the thirst greater.

This is the land where the rubber tree grows. Prices fluctuate, and with it the prosperity of the people. All through this country are rubber estates, and the planters form a large part of the white population. They used to grow coffee in Malaya, but over-production killed the industry. Then came rubber, and its coming saved many planters from ruin. Dummy to Dotage

This is the rubber age, the age of rubber tyres, rubber toys. It takes the jar out of many of life’s bad bumps. It brings comfort from the time of

“dummies” and teething rings, to that <rf tyres on the invalid chair. It reduces noise and increases efficiency. You find it in every room in the house: in school, hospital, shop, office and factory, and all over the road. It is essential in war and peace.

Behind this highly organised industry to-day lies the stirring romance ©f rubber. In 1500 the Spanish pioneers in Mexico found the natives playing a game with a hard ball of great resiliency. It was rubber. This discovery led the Spaniards to experiment with rubber for making their cloaks and boots watertight. For many years Central and South America supplied most of the raw rubber used by manufacturers. The best rubber, known as Para rubber, came from the Amazon Valley, and the inhabitants of Brazil would not readily part with the seeds of so valuable a tree, nor would it have been easy to grow it elsewhere had there been no mich difficulty, for the seed of this, tree soon loses its vitality. It is to Sir Henry Wickham that th/e world is indebted for making possible the present ample supplies of raw r\/fiber. He studied the rubber trees* in the Brazilian forests, and was <x»nvinced that it would be possible to cultivate them in the Kastern tropic.**. It was in 1876 that the Indian Gc/vernment agreed to finance the int reduction of rubber into India, after experiments had been carried out Kew Gardens. London.' Getting Seeds East Sir Henry was entrusted *with the difficult task of procuring quantity of the seeds, and delivering them to the Indian Government. greatest problem was how to get t’/iem out of the country without detection. While engaged in his researches on the banks of the Amazon, Sir Henry Wickham was surprised to see an ocean liner, the s.s. Amjizonas, the first of a new line of steamships intended for direct trade, between Liverpool and the Alto Amazon. Next day she left for the Uppe/r Amazon, and later news arrived the ship had been abandoned, and 'left on th© captain’s hands without cargo or resources.

Wickham seized the opportunity, chartered the vessel, loaded his precious seeds, and after an anxious journey down th*3* Amazon, got past the officials, and eventually delivered the seeds at Kew, where a fair number germinated. Later, the yevung trees were planted in Ceylon, arid eventually in Malay Peninsula. a;nd other parts of the Hast. Th© eas© of cultivation, the large yields and the high quality of the rubber soon encouraged development. and to-day more than ninetenths of the world’s rubber comes from these plantations.

The rubber tree is tall, and usually straight of bole, with a leaf resembling a walnut. It is fairly rapid of growth, and at the age of seven years is genecally ready for tapping.

The natives of Malay, often women, do the tapping, a task that requires judgment and skill. One year on© side of the tree is tapped, and next year the opposite side.

The bark is cut with a slightly downward slope, the razor edge of the knife—a special knife—just going enough to release th© lactex. The liquid rubber is like milk, and it trickles down the cut into a tiny aluminium cup or coconut shell, whUch is fastened there to catch it.

EBvery morning the natives go round, cut a mere wafer of bark, releasing a new flow-. So fine is the Strip of bark removed each day, that a year’s cutting may only leave the

scar two feet lons. Careless cutting will injure the tree and cause the new bark to develop bumps and deformities, and sometimes start disease. After the cutting of tbe bark each day, natives go round with buckets and gather the rubber or lactex.J One man may gather from 400 trees. The year’s average yield from one would be about 51b of rubber,. The rubber which is attached to each planta'don, is very like a butter or cheese factory. It is scrupulously clean. The 'lactex or milk from the rubber* tree is brought in in buckets, and, poured through strainers into hug/j aluminium-lined vats. These vats *are long and about three feet high, and the aluminium lining is grooved **very 1£ inches. The lactex is mixed with a proportion of water, the proportion of water depending on the qualiVy of the lactex. And again we find Che dairy resemblance, for it is a tester that decides the proportion of water. T Drns to Curd. After this added and stirred, the coagulating a»cids are put in and mixed, then thin al'/iminium slides are slipped down each groove 11 inches apart. Next day the rt zbber is like a thick curd, and divide*! into slabs by the slides which xvepe slipped down the grooves when it liquid. Each :*lab is now 11 inches thick. . * s p° /mded and rolled with rolling pins, likje pastry, until it is about twice its original extent, when it is cut in half. Afterwards it is passed through four j/ollers, each extracting more moist ffre, and compressing it, until the final which has a grooved pattern on the rollers, gives it a surface which will not adhere, so readily as a 4 smooth surface.

1 Jlie rubber sheets are now quite thin, an<i they are passed on to the smoke no/use, where they are smoked for seveijal days to finally dry them. After t/iis women inspect each sheet, cutting r»ut any dirty or wet patches or any blemishes which might lower its grade. The finished sheets are packed in metal-bound crates, 240 to the crate or 10 crates to the ton, and shipped to the tyre factories, or other manufacturers. ■^I ter .the war, the slump and overproduction of rubber nearly ruined the industry. Britain, which produces the greatest quantity of the world’s rubber, decided to pass restrictive legislation. This is still in operation, but like most restrictive measures, it is not universally popular. percentage a planter is permitted to tap depends upon his estimated annual yields. This differs according to the age of the trees and other determining factors, but roughly speaking, only about 50 per cent, of the rubber grown is tapped. Year’s Spell the . income tax apparently, a Uttle manipulation sometimes is possible m compiling the estimate. in this way, so I have heard it alleged some planters are tapping to their full capacity. To give a plantation a year’s spell certainly strengthens the trees, and increases the yield the following year, but the increase is not commensurate with the ioss of a whole year’s tapping. The Butch also cultivate rubber out here, but without restriction. Smuggling rubber from restricted British territory into unrestricted Dutch areas is carried on to quite a large extent, despite vigilance. This is another factor in minimising the value of restricted production among British l planters.

Two or three years ago rubber was 4s a lb, and that meant something like £6O an acre return a year—and wealth. It is now 60 cents, and even at that price, which is <£S or £lO an acre, it provides a fair living, but does not make any millionaires. The trees are planted in regular rows, and the weeds and jungle growth have to be kept clear. Cheap labour does this, taps the trees, collects the rubber, and works the factory, but for two or three with scientific knowledge, and even these are often coloured. The owner or manager is British, and sometimes he has an assistant of the same race.

Although the British Empire is so largely interested in the production of rubber, the United States of America consumes over 65 per cent, of the world’s production; but American interests do not control more than 4 per cent, of the total output.