THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, MAY 14, 1910. THE RUBBER BOOM.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10044, 14 May 1910, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, MAY 14, 1910. THE RUBBER BOOM.

As most of the sensible members of the speculating community anticipated, the rubber boom has just collapsed. It was really too "hot" to last. The break in the rubber I market, while only what was to be expected, will nevertheless cause enormous losses, and it will be weli if ; the nervousness engendered is not | communicated to other stocks, in which case there may result a more serious situation. It is a full generation since there has been such a period of wild Stock Exchange speculation. We have to go back to the Western Australian gold fever and the "Kaffir" gold fever, which came on immediately after, to parallel the recent gamble in rubber. According to the cabled information, recently published in the Age, the issues of rubber stock in the United Kingdom a'one represented a capitalisation of upwards of £100,000,000. And this did noi take account of the issues of the Continent of Europe and in America. Prospectuses have poured out s;.freely in all quarters that tc-d;\y it is almost impossible to anive ni ar.y '

thing like a reliable estimate of the relation between the rubber present! and in five years' prospect, and the consumption present and in five years' prospect. Estimates are attempted, but they cannot be used with safety as a basis for the com putation of the future. There is much confusioD, unpleasantly suggestive of the historic "South Sea bubble," yet differing from it in this most essential respect, that

whatever the excesses associated with the Stock Exchange gambling, thera is in this case an extremely solid industry at the bottom. We may be at the beginning of a crash in rubber shares which will be the ruin of thousands, many of whom have withdrawn their money from sound investments to participate in this speculative debauch. On the Stock

Exchanges it is sometimes cynically said that a real "boom" may be expected once in each generation, and only once. Ihe saying is based on experience. A new generation is ever growing up, and when it grows up it must have its dip into the lucky* bag. That it should draw rather more blanks than prizes seems to be in accordance with the constitution of thing*. It will draw a few blanks in rubber. Many of the "proposi-

tions" put off in London during the psst few months upon a credulous public have been, we may be certain, utterly worthless. They may return proud profits to their immediate promotcip, but they will never produce rubber. In this respect the rubber "boom" is similar to the gold "boorua" that have gone before. But until all the "wild cats" which appear so formidable on are eliminated it will be impossible to form reliable any estimates as to the quantity of rubber which will be offering, say, five or six years hence, as the result of the planting upon which the companies recently formed are to enter. In the end lubber must be a sound industry, for the world wants it iu ever increasing quantities, and is prepared to pay a good price for it. Investments shrewdly made in genuine rubber properties in the expectation of a reasonable commercial profit will probably not have been mis placed. But those who have put their fortunes to risk in the recent gamble will not lock back upon their speculations with any pleasure.