RUBBER ROMANCE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 97, 14 October 1911, Page 11

RUBBER ROMANCE

HOW EAST INDIA PROFITED B¥ BRAZIL'S GREAT LOSS. 1 How Mr. H. A. Wickham smuggled I out of Brazil the seeds from which has I sprung the enormous wealth of rubber : in British East India reads like a romance. In 1803, when a large part of the Amazon basin was terra, incognita to the white man, Mr. Wickham found the hevea. tree, which yields the best kiml of Para rubber, on a high tableland between the Tapajos and the Madeira, two tributaries of the Amazon. Struck by the possibilities they offered for exploration, he returned to England

and endeavored to induce his friends in the city to take the matter up. But lie was laughed at as a visionary. "Fortunately, I came across Sir Joseph Hooker, then at Kew Gardens," said Mr. Wickham to a representative of Lloyds' Xews. "He had been endeavoring to induce the Government of India to take up the .cultivation of rubber, foreseeing its possibilities in that country, and the growing demand for the commodity. From him I obtained a commission to go out and try my luck on behalf of the India Office.

"As it turned out, it was very lucky for me that I was entirely unhampered by instructions. The Brazilian Government were doing best to keep the knowledge of the existence of these trees a secret, and they were quite certain to forbid the export of any seeds. All I 'had to do was to get the seed 6 over in a state in which they would germinate." Mr. Wickham returned to Santarem, but it was a long time before he had a chance of getting the seeds out of the country. "One day the few Europeans who lived on the Upper Amazon were startled by the apparition of a big ocean liner, which turned out to be the first of a line which wa9 to bring the upper reaches of the Amazon into connection with Europe. "Soon after this the supercargoes cleared out all the cargo and left the ship on the captain's hands. "I chartered the ship on behalf of the Government of India, and then started off up the Tapajos in a canoe to gather the seeds. It was ticklish work. My little canoo was often nearly upset on the rushing river. I got together as many of the Tapuyo Indians as I could, and we ranged the forest and gathered all the seeds we could l find.

"I got the Tapuyo village maids to make open-work baskets of split cane, into which we packed the seeds in layers of wild banana leaf.

"I was the only white man in this primeval forest. It was a scene of wonderful beauty, the abode of strange forms of life, strangely plumaged birds and elfish little 'ti-ti' monkeys, which never descend to the ground throughout their lives, but swing and gambol about in the aerial gardens of dainty ferns and sweet-smelling orchids, for every tree supports an infinite variety of plant life. "We all labored with furious energy, and many long days' tramping lay before us until we got back to the banks of the Tapajos with our precious burden of seeds. At last we reached our steamer, and we hung up our treasure-trove in the vacant forehold, where it had the advantage of plenty of air."

The next difficulty was getting past Para and out to sea without the Go-t vernmnemt stepping in. Mr. Wickham knew what difficulties Sir Clements Markham had to encounter in getting chinehona bark away from Peru. ''Fortunately I had a friend at court in the person of the British Consul. He went with me on a special call on' the chief of the Alfandiga, and hacked me up nobly when I said that I was in charge of a ship which contained delicate botanical specimens specially gathered for her Britannic Majesty's own Royal garden at Kew. ' ' ''An interview, carried On in the most polite manner, full of mutual compliments paiid and received in. the best Portuguese manner, enabled me to get under way, as soon as the captain had got the dinghy hauled on board. 1 soon had the hatches off, and the open work crates slung in the open. air. We had line weather all the voyage home. "Sir J. Hooker was delighted. The seeds of the 'hevea' did not fail to respond to the care I had taken with them. A fortnight after we had 70,000 plants in the glass houses, all flourishing. Some of them were despatched to the Eastern Botanic Gardens at Colombo. "It is from these plants that the whole of the 'hevea' trees now growing in the Eastern tropical countries have sprung. It was some years before the planters woke up to the great possibilities which lay before them., but now thev have done so." * British Malaya grew 1,030,8031b of nibber in lOOfi. Last year the production was 12,245,8641b.' In the' same four years the output in Cevlon went up from Hfi tons to lttOl- tons. N T ow the cultivation has extended to Southern India, which promises in tlie near future to supply the world with large quantities of rubber.

It is not often that the pioneer reaps the harvest of his enterprise, but as a mark of appreciation the Rubber Growers' Association of London and the Planters' Associations of Cevlon and Malaya presented Mr. Wickha'm with a cheque for 1000 guineas and an annuity. Only lately he has been out in New Guinea to advise on the starting of the rubber industry on that island