September i, 



>9°3] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



417 



THE GREAT PARA RUBBER PLANTATION CO." 



THE two pictures on this page are accurate reproductions 

 from recent advertisements of the Para Rubber Plan- 

 tation Co. These and other pictures used in thi 

 connection purport to illustrate details of the work of 

 this "great trading and rubber gathering company," " on its 

 mammoth properties in Venezuela," and on which " six thou- 

 sand men are working." Its "trading pos's make average profit 

 of 100 per cent.," and mention is made of " steamships trans- 

 porting its supplies to and from station to station." 



This is not the first time, by the way, that the two pictures 

 referred to have appeared in the reading pages of Tin: India 

 Rubber WORLD. The picture on the left, labeled ■• Packing 

 Rubber for Shipment," and which we find in an advertisement 

 of the Para Rubber Plantation Co. in Leslie's Weekly of June 

 25, 1903, was copied by that company from a half page view in 

 The India Rubber World of March 1, 1902 [page 177] of the 

 warehouse of the long established rubber exporting firm of 

 Witt & Co., at Manaos, Brazil, through which, in a single year, 

 more than 7,000.000 pounds of rubber have been shipped. Our 

 picture appeared before the Para Rubber Plantation Co. had 

 an existence. 



The picture on the right, we find in an advertisement of the 

 Para Rubber Plantation Co. in Leslie's Weekly of July 23. 1903, 

 under the heading, in large type "THIS IS A TRADING 

 POST," and in smaller type, " on the Casiquiare river - - -. 

 The entire length of this river is owned in fee, without bonds, 

 by the great Para Rubber Plantation Company." But this pic- 

 ture was copied from a half page view in Tut India Rubber 

 World of January 1, 1902 (page 117), described as " Ramaie 

 de Males— A Rubber Station on the River Javary "— a point 

 not to be reached from the Casiquiare river without 2000 miles 

 or more travel. 



There are many other things in the advertisements of the 

 Para Rubber Plantation Co. that have not been copied from 

 The India Rubber World, and these we are prepared to ad- 

 mit to be original— indeed, to be pure invention on the part of 

 the company's promoters, with no relation to actual conditions 

 on the Casiquiare. The advertisements have not failed to at 

 tract attention in Venezuela, relating as they do to matters not 

 before known in that country. The Venezuelan Herald, of Car- 

 acas, on February 15, 1903, said of a prospectus of the Para 

 Rubber Plantation Co : 



The article is interesting, for it informs us, a fact of which all the 

 world was in ignorance, that cacao is to be found in the valley of the 



If all the figures furnished by the Antwerp promoters of this 

 company are as exact as this statement, we pity the future shareholders. 



The same journal of July 31, 1903, spoke of the legations and 

 foreign consulates at Caracas being " inundated with demands 

 for information about the Para Rubber Co.", which enterprise 

 was " totally unknown " there. 



It may be added that Tin: India RUBBER World has re- 

 ceived many similar requests for information since our issue of 

 November 1, 1902, in which the details of the company's pro- 

 spectus were set forth a: considerable length. The Para Rub- 

 ber Plantation Co. was incorporated August 11, 1902, under 

 the laws ol Arizona, with $5,000,000 capital authorized, and its 

 offices are at No. 52 Broadway, New York. We are unable to 

 learn that the company has any business elsewhere. 



An advertisement in one of the monthly magazines describes 

 the trip of an unnamed visitor to the Casiquiare. Leaving Para 

 he reached Mandos by steamer in two days [other people re- 

 quire five or six], tieing up at " the wharf used by the Para 

 company." Then "taking one of the steamers of the Paia 

 Rubber Plantation Co. at 9.30 p.m.," he arrived almost at once, 

 and without noticing the rapids in the Negro which impede 

 other travelers, " at San Carlos, the head trading station of 

 the Para Rubber Plantation Co., a town mainly controlled by 

 this great company, situated at the mouth of the rio Casiqui- 

 are, where it empties into the rio Negro." Here he was " roy- 

 ally entertained " overnight by the general manager for the 

 company [name given]. The next day he steamed up the Casi- 

 quiare, reaching "Station No. 3." at " Danano creek," about 

 noon, when, after "a lunch of tinned delicacies and native 

 wine," he took to the woods and watched the natives gather 

 rubber by methods different from any ever before described in 

 print, and at a cost to the company " figured at about 35 cents 

 per pound, packed for shipment." 



This advertisement was printed in January, 1903 ; in the Oc- 

 tober preceding, the manager named in it visited The India 

 Rubber World office, not then having gone to his post to be- 

 gin the initial work of development. At that time the Casi- 

 quiare region was reported to be a virgin forest ; everything 

 remained to be done. According to later advertisements, this 

 new §5,000,000 company paid a 6 per cent, dividend in March, 

 and now a second dividend is announced, payable September 

 20. Very rapid development, for a new country. 



According to all the maps, the Casiquiare has two outlets to 

 the Atlantic ocean — one through the Orinoco, and one through 



THIS IS A TRADING POST on the Casiquiare River. 



— Advertisement. 



9 



,- T 'T"!lT'i 



PACKING RUBBER FOR SHIPMENT. 



View oi Will & Co.'s warehouse in Man;ios, appropriated for advertise- 

 ments of the Para Rubber Plantation Co. 



View of a trading station on the river Javary, in lirazil, appropriated for 

 advertisements of the Para Rubber Plan tali 



