IMPORTANCE OF RUBBER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 December 1939, Page 8

IMPORTANCE OF RUBBER

IN TIME OF WAR. The importance of rubber in the life of a nation quickly becomes manifest in times of war. In the Great War, one of the first things Germany ran short of was rubber, and she had to adopt all kinds of primitive substitutes for her automobiles during the latter stage of hostilities. An idea of the extreme shortage of motor tyres in Germany can be gathered from the fact that, in 1916. as much as £l4O was paid for a pair of car tyres in Germany, and the vendor was sentenced to a week’s imprisonment for selling them. Hardly had the present war started before Russia had to negotiate with Great Britain for 10.000 tons of this vital commodity. In fact, without rubber, tens of thousands of automobiles,’ motorised units and aircraft would not; be playing such an important part in the conflict that now confronts the world. In. Australia, the scope of the rubber manufacturing industry is not fully realised by the average citizen, nor its importance to the industrial and. home life of the nation. To start with, the industry contributes nearly £400,000 a year to the Federal Treasury in the form of 2d lb impost and 10 per cent primage on the raw rubber which is fundamental to the industry. In the fiscal year ended June last, 14,597 tons of rubber valued at £1,362,802 had to be imported to supply the requirements of the industry, which is one of Australia’s greatest. *The latest available Government statistics show that the wholesale value of the output of the Commonwealth’s rubber manufacturing industry in 1937-38 was £7,686.000.

Persons employed in the industry totalled 7.544, while salaries and wages reached £1,438.000 exclusive of amounts drawn by working proprietors. Land, buildings and plant aggregated £3.260,458. It is of interest to mention that £4,873,905 of the £7.686.000 output of the Australian industry in 1937-38 comprised pneumatic tyres of various types, the balance being spread over a wide range of rubber goods. When the war of 1914-18 started, the Commonwealth was importing a fairly large percentage of her motor tyre requirements; today the Australian rubber plants can easily cope with the tyre needs of the Commonwealth’s 909,307 autominobiles. in addition io supplying huge volumes of every conceivable type and class of rubber goods essential to our public services, industries and in our sports and home life.