268 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[May I, 1906. 



of canker there is engaging his attention. Under his advice, 

 the government, as a precautionary measure, has begun the 

 policy of reserving large belts of forests in Selangor with a 

 view to isolating rubber districts from each other. 



Measures are under discussion in the Federated Malay 

 States to protect investors in rubber estates from injury at 

 the hands of "company promoters." It is intended to adopt 

 a regulation for the appointment for licensed valuers, and 

 allowing no land to be valued except by these people. If 

 companies can only be floated upon reports from government 

 valuers — that is to say, upon presumably actual valuations 

 given by trustworthy men — it is believed by Sir John Ander- 

 son, high commissioner for the Federated Malay States, 

 that the company promoter evil will receive a substantial 

 check. In an interview by 77(1? Times of Ceylon on the over 

 capitalization of estates due to the work of company promot- 

 ers, .Sir John said : " It is a regrettable fact that the public 

 will not take notice of warnings until they arc bitten. They 

 will buy anything at the present time that sounds like rub- 

 ber." 



The Chinese have long been jjlanters on a large scale in the 

 Federated Malay States. They got large blocks of land in the 

 early days at purely nominal prices and grew tapioca upon 

 it. Now tapioca exhausts the soil quickly, and renders it 

 useless for a time. The Chinese as soon as they exhausted 

 the soil at one place, quietly moved on to a new plot, leav- 

 ing the first neglected. Wherever this was done belang grass 

 sprang up, further impoverishing the soil. Some years ago 

 the government perceived the damage done in this way and ' 

 compelled a good many of the Chinese to plant rubber on 

 the land, so as to prevent its being impoverished by the 

 grass. The Chinese grumbled a good deal and regarded it 

 as a very great hardship. And jet these very celestials, who 

 considered themselves hardly used, have now properties of 

 enormous value in rubber. 



In the Ceylon legislative council (March 16), the Hon, 

 John Ferguson asked if the government was inclined to ap- 

 proach the secretarj- of state for the colonies to urge British 

 consular agents to endeavor this year to report on rubber in- 

 terests in their respective districts, including progress in 

 planting and the prospects of a continued supply of raw rub- 

 ber. The lieutenant governor, presiding, said the Ceylon 

 government had no objection to such a motion. ^^The coun- 

 cil voted 10,000 rupees as a first contribution to the expense 

 of the coming rubber exhibition at Peradeniya. 



Mr. Stanley .-Vrden has resigned his government position 

 as director of the experimental plantations of the Federated 

 Malay States, to become manager of the Hevea Rubber 

 Planting Co., lately formed, with $476,000 registered capital, 

 on a concession granted by the Sultan of Johore in the south- 

 western part of that state. The capital is said to be sub- 

 scribed principally in Italy. 



The Penang Gazette (March 15) summarizes the first annu- 

 al report of the Sandycrofl Rubber Co., operating on the Ma- 

 lay peninsula. During the }-ear405o Para rubber trees were 

 tapped twice (at an interval of 6 months) and 5238 other 

 trees once. The product was 6979 pounds of sheet and 1823 

 pounds scrap rubber — a total of 8802 pounds from 9288 trees, 

 in the first year. This j-ear 12,325 trees have been marked 

 for tapping. The company have 154 acres under rubber, in- 

 terplanted with cocoanuts, and this year's planting amounts 

 to 78X acres. The company capital is 185,000. The first 



year's net profit, after writing off preliminary expenses and 

 for depreciation, was $9785.88, allowing for a 10 per cent, 

 dividend ($8500) and $1285.88 to be carried forward. 



THE OHIO RUBBER CULTURE CO 



[Platitatioii "Capuacan," Canton of .M;iii.aill;ui. Slate of Vera Cruz, Mexico. 

 Ofiice, t'anloii, Ohio.] 



I ^IIIC first year's work on this plantation shows a result of 

 -^ over 800,000 rubber trees, planted since June 20, 1905, 

 and found by the officiail nspector, who visited the plantation 

 in January, to be from 3 to 4 feet in height. Orders have been 

 given the Minatitlan Contracting Co., who are under con- 

 tract to develop the property, to clea^ sufiicient ground this 

 year to bring the planted area to 1,000,000 trees. This new 

 planting will be done the coming June. No side crops are 

 raised, with the exception of corn, etc., sufficient to feed the 

 laborers. The stockholders of the company are mostly, rep- 

 resentative business men of the state of Ohio, including 

 several rubber manufacturers ; while the development of the 

 plantation in Mexico is in the hands of tropical planters of 

 the past eleven years' experience. 



UBERO DIRECTORS SUSTAINED. 



' I ^11 F, supreme court at Boston, by Judge Hammond, on 

 ^ April 16, sustained the demurrer of the directors in the 

 Consolidated Plantations Co, of Ubero, in the action brought 

 against them by Hugh W. Ogden and Jeremiah Smith, Jr., 

 receivers of the company, to recover monej's which the re- 

 ceivers allege were unwarrantably expended owing to the. 

 negligence of the directors. Suits were brought against the 

 directors on the ground that they did not repudiate a con- 

 tract made by the Ubero company with the Tropical Securi- 

 ties Co., whereby large sums were paid to the latter, pur- 

 porting to be for development work on the Ubero estates in 

 Mexico, but really, as the plaintiffs allege, for the benefit of 

 William D, Owen, and his associates, to the detriment of 

 the investors in the Ubero company. Judge Hammond held 

 that the grounds for maintaining the bill of complaint are 

 ineffective, because the contract was made with a full knowl- 

 edge of all the facts pertaining to the situation on the part 

 of those who were then interested in the plaintiff. His 

 Honor says that on the evidence before him he did not see 

 any fraud on the part of the directors, and that where there 

 is no fraud, no one can be defrauded. Leave is given to the 

 receivers of the Ubero company to amend their bill, within 

 certain limits outlined in the decision. 



RUBBER CONCESSIONS IN JOHORE. 



'nr^O THE Editor of The India Rubber World : I am in- 

 -^ structed to inform you that the Sultan of Jehore, acting 

 on the terms of the concession granted to the Malaj' Penin- 

 sula (Johore) Rubber Concessions, Limited, has appointed 

 Mr, Karl Kirchberger, director and manager of Messrs, Katz 

 Brothers, Limited, of 49 Lime street, E. C, as his nominee 

 on the board of that company. I should be glad if you 

 would kindly notifj' this in your columns. I am. Dear sir, 

 Yours faithfully, 



A. E. MOREMAN, Secretary. 

 13, Rood lane, E. C, London, April lo. 1906, 



