BACK FROM KELANTAN.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 175, 23 January 1912, Page 6

BACK FROM KELANTAN.

RUBBER GROWER'S EXPERIENCE. DUNEDIN: MAN'S ACCOUNT. Mr. George Bell',, one of the managers of the Dominion- Rubber Company, who is at present on a holiday visit to Dunedin,. was approached last week by an Otago Daily Times representative, and gave a few interesting details of rubbergrowing in Malay, and also of the conditions of life prevailing there. Mr. Bell has been working on the Dominion rubber plantation for the past four years, and says they have now about 560 acres planted with trees, and that about 1000 acres will be ready for tapping in about three months' time. The first lot of 125 acres was planted with about 300 trees to the acre, but the management then decide)! that it would get better results if the trees were not so thickly sown; so the next portion laid off had .only •200 plants to the acre alloted to it, and the third plot 150 trees to the acre. When the trees are thought to be ready for tapping they return about lib of rubber per annum, and: this amount increases annually till between 21b and 31b can be drawn off. All the trees on the estate —those planted earliest being now just over three years old—are looking in good condition, but it should be explained that some of them come to matur- , ity much quicker than others. Mr. Bell states, however, that onwards from i about February the number of trees "becoming rubber-bearing will gradually increase on the total mentioned above. Indentured labor is employed on the estate, and at the present time about 100 Malays and 400 Chinese coolies are working there. The climate in Kelantan was stated to be not unhealthy, although the heat in the daytime runs to 94 in the shade, ■cooling off during the evening to between 70deg, and 80deg., and Europeans," therefore, do not find the heat sufficiently oppressive to prevent them from sleeping. Owing to the fact that the Messrs Bell take every care of their men and employ a Chinese doctor to prescribe for them in cases of illness, there is not a great deal of " sickness on their estate, which Mr. Bell says is the healthiest in Kelantan.

Mr. Bell and his co-manager, Mr. W. Bell—who were well-known cyclists when resident in Dunedin—still use their bicycles to ride round their estate, through which the fine road runs, and there are also plenty of side tracks; and, even with this means of transport, they are kept busy from sunrise to sunset looking after the work on the plantation. The coolies —who are indentured for 300 days—work from 6 oclock in the morning till 4 p.m., and receive in wages eight cents per day, their keep and housing, and any medicines which ( they may require. The men are mostly fed on rice and dried fish, and Mr. Bell states that those employed on the "Kusiah" estate are most tractable and easily managed, and that on some of the adjoining plantations the white overseers think fit to carry revolvers, a practice much resented by the colored laborers.

There are plenty of tigers in the vicinity of the "Kusiah" estate; and Mr. Bell has brought with him a beautiful tiger skin, the original owner ■ of which was shot within 400 yds of his house. This tiger had come down, to the homstead and killed a young bullock; but one of the coolies turned the tables on the offender by arranging a "trap gun," which the tiger himself fired, and received the bullet in the neck. The tigers, however, are said to be practically harmless unless interefered with, and are looked on with a favorable eye by rubber planters for the way in which they keep d*own the wild pigs and deer, which soon make short work of the young trees if they only get amongst them. . It was the rainy season when Mr. Bell left Malay, and, as showing how it can rain in these tropical districts, he states that loin of rain fell in 24 hours the day previous to his leaving, and that the river was up about 35ft. The chief requisite to enable rubber trees to flourish properly is an ample rainfall, anil it, is interesting to note that even in the dry season tropical showers of about' half an hour's duration fall nearly every afternoon. Last year the rainfall over i the Kelantan district totalled 105 in. Singapore is some two days' steaming | from Kelantan, which is situated at the mouth of the river which runs past the Kusiah estate. Mr. Bell says this town is a great shipping port—a free one—and in it and the neighboring Kuala Lumpur all nationalities of the world are to be met with. He was very much impressed with the fine motor cars seen m these towns, and as Mr. Bell was himself an expert in motor cars before leaving Dunedin he can speak with authority on this subject. Singapore has a large number of wealthy Chinese in its environs, and these almost without exception own motor cars driven by Malay and Chinese chauffeurs, who, Mr. Bell savs, will take a "lot of rubbing out as drivers."

The Dominion rubber plantation is situated in the Dud' Exploration Company's tract of country, which embraces some 300 square miles of country, and on which dredging, sawmilling and rubbergrowing are carried on on a very extensive scale. From this company and the King of Siam the local company has secured a lease of its estate for 909 years.