RAILWAYS AND RUBBER

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 100, 5 January 1912, Page 2

RAILWAYS AND RUBBER

A DIFFICULT AND EXPENSIVE UNDERTAKING. Many people think that the days of pioneer work are over, but those who read: Mr. R. Johnson's account, in the Railway Magazine, of the making of the Madiera-Mamore railway in Brazil, will see plainly that they are not. The line will be about three hundred miles in length, and its terminus appears to be not very far from the Bolivian frontier. Thus it is in the heart of the great continent. The reason for building a railway in such desperately difficult and unhealthy country is, of course, the rubber industry. It is to carry away the product of a vast belt of rubber-produc-ing land. Moreover, the rubber is the variety known as Para, that is, the beet rubber. Taking the price of rubber at its lowest, 3s a pound, the average output of the Amazon Valley is about £12,000,000 a . year; but the price is often as much as 7s a pound, instead of 3s. Several previous attempts appear to have been made to construct the Madeira-Mamore railway, but all failed from want of capital. In order to build the line, seventeen camps have; been established, one about two hundred miles away in. the jungle, near the Bolivian frontier. The writer says:—The contractors employ about 500 skilled and 3000 unskilled workers, and the lowest wage is 21s per day, with board, for a white man, and 7s 3d per day, with board, for a laborer. The monthly pay roll averages about 300,000 dollars gold. Speaking literally, the climate is deadly. A man may be healthy and strong today, and yet buried to-morrow. Deaths average from three to six per day from disease alone, and many more are killed (and probably eaten) by savages when wandering too far into' the forest. It is estimated that the railway will cost more money per mile than any in existence, and will certainly involve the sacrifice of more human lives than any other work, not even excepting the early stages of the Panama Canal, which might l)e regard) d a* a "convalescent home" compared' to tliis undertaking.