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THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[October i, 1908. 



to England, journeyed via Hawaii for the purpose of investigat- 

 ing the rubber situation there. In his opinion every condition 

 in Hawaii is favorable to rubber culture, with the single excep- 

 tion of the labor supply. He felt that so long as the present 

 difference exists between wages in Hawaii and Malaya, rubber 

 culture in the former territory will be at a disadvantage. 



YAaUI INDIANS FOE GERMAN PLANTATIONS. 



The Tabasco Land and Development Co. are referred to by 

 The Mexican Herald as having contracted with the government 

 of Mexico for the labor of 250 Yaqui Indians for service on their 

 estates in the State of Vera Cruz, including the "Oaxaquena" 

 rubber plantations. The government is reported to have con- 

 cluded arrangements lately with managers of several rubber and 

 other plantations for Yaqui laborers. The Yaqui (otherwise 

 Cahita) Indians are found in the southwestern coast of Sonora 

 and the northwestern coast of Sinaloa, in the valleys of the Yaqui 

 and neighboring rivers, and hitherto have given much trouble to 

 the government. If they have now been brought under such 

 control, so to render them capable of being employed on planta- 

 tions, a very considerable difficulty in respect of the labor supply 

 may have been disposed of. 



MEXICAN PLANTATION COMPANIES. 



San Antonio Plantation Co. was incorporated August 12, 

 1908, under the laws of California ; capital authorized, $ioo,coo. 

 The directors include F. L. Alexander, St. Helena ; J. B. Rich- 

 ardson, Oakland; and J. E. Settles, Berkeley, Cal. The company 

 advise The India Rubber World of the purchase of land in the 

 State of Vera Cruz, Mexico, in the river Tesechoacan, about 

 8 miles from Playa Vicente, on which they purpose planting 

 rubber. Roblito Rubber Plantation Co. [see The India Rubber 

 World, July i, 1908 — page 326] state that they expect to have 

 approximately 8,000 pounds of rubber to sell next January from 

 the planted and wild Castilloa trees on their estate in Chiapas, 

 Mexico. 



RETIREMENT OE MR. HART. 



Widespre.'KD regret will be felt at this announcement which ap- 

 pears in the July issue of the Bulletin of Miscellaneous Informa- 

 tion of the Trinidad botanical department : "Owing to the pros- 

 pective retirement of the editor of this Bulletin at an early date, 

 the present number is probably the last that will be issued under 

 his direction. It has been regularly issued from 1887 to 1908." 

 This note is signed by Mr. John Hinchley Hart, f. l. s., who 

 has edited the Bulletin from its inception. The articles in the 

 Bulletin have been numbered from the beginning, the last being 

 1908, and they have related to an exceptionally wide range of 

 topics, being mainly original articles by the editor. He has la- 

 bored in season and out of season for the development of agri- 

 culture in the West Indies, with a degree of success which must 

 be very gratifying to himself and to the people among whom he 

 lives. The last annual report of the Royal Botanic Gardens at 

 Trinidad is the twenty-first of the series, and these reports also 

 have been exclusively the work of Mr. Hart. Mr. Hart's con- 

 nection with the Trinidad botanical department really extended 

 over a period of 32 years and 4 months. He retires, under the 

 regulations of the service, with the maximum pension. It is 

 understood that he has purchased a house within sight of the 

 botanical gardens, and intends to open an office as an expert ad- 

 viser in tropical agriculture. 



RUBBER INDUSTRY AT SINGAPORE. 



The city of New York owns, for the use of the various munici- 

 pal departments, 100 automobiles, which are stated to have cost 

 $260,030. As these machines are in pretty constant use, a 

 current report has it that strict attention is not given to economy 

 in repair bills. The city is a pretty good customer for auto- 

 mobile tires, in addition to buying tires extensively for fire ap- 

 paratus and other purposes. Recently The India Rubber World 

 chronicled the purchase of 26.600 feet of solid rubber tire stock 

 for the fire department from a single factory. 



I 'HE rubber goods factory at Singapore appears to be one 

 in more than name only. The Nederlandsche Guttapercha 

 Maatschappij (Netherlands Gutta-Percha Co.), formed originally 

 for extracting gutta-percha from leaves under the Ledeboer 

 process, has been mentioned already in these columns as having 

 installed plant for the rubber manufacture, and to make tires. 

 In the last India Rubber World mention was made of their 

 having secured rights from a firm at Akron, Ohio, for making an 

 American tire in the Far East. More recently the news has 

 come of the issue of a British patent to L. A. van Rijn, manager 

 of the Singapore company, for a rubber "tire" which in point 

 of novelty, at least, compares with anything else in recent patent 

 office gazettes. 



In an extended article on the works referred to, the Straits 

 Times, of Singapore, says that the company have built up an 

 important business in making solid rubber tires for carriages, 

 motor cars, and jinrikishas. The last named vehicle is the type 

 most largely used in the region of which Singapore is the com- 

 mercial capital, and the Times mentions that tires for these 

 vehicles are now largely sought for. It is stated that shipments 

 are made to India, Siam and even the Philippine islands. The 

 Singapore company are referred to as supplying also various 

 kinds of rubber goods, for local railways and for other pur- 

 poses. 



The plant of the Nederlandsche Guttapercha Maatschappij 

 was inaugurated October i, 1899, and at one time it did a con- 

 siderable business in the production of gutta-percha from leaves, 

 but for some time work in that field has been suspended. It was 

 reported, recently, however, that the production of gutta-percha 

 had been resumed, and that shipments for London were about 

 to 'begin. A short time ago subscription 'books were opened 

 at Amsterdam for the issue of 250,000 florins [^$100,500] ad- 

 ditional capital of the company, in 6 per cent, preferred shares, 

 which was reported at the time to have been taken promptly. 



This Is More Than a Rubber Tire. 



Referring to the van Rijn tire, or wheel, men- 

 tioned above, the British patent office issues the 

 following abridged specification, in connection 

 with the cut reproduced here : "Disk wheels 

 are made of rubber in one piece, or in several parts 

 vulcanized together, the wheel being thicker at the 

 center than at the periphery. The tread may have 

 nails vulcanized therein ; or a tire of leather, wood, 

 metal, and the like may be used; or the tread may be 

 arched inwards or outwards. The rubber disk is at- 

 tached to the hub 'by gripping between two flanges 

 being smoothed or roughened," 



The gutta-percha mining fuse used in the United States is 

 still made in Europe for the most part. The domestic manu- 

 facture of mining fuse — which, by the way, is on a consider- 

 able scale — is confined mainly to the cotton taped quality, the 

 fuse being wrapped spirally with one, two, or three layers of tape, 

 chemically treated for protection against moisture. A corre- 

 spondent of The India Rubber World, who refers to the fuse 

 trade in the United States as being in the hands of a "trust," 

 says the cotton taped fuse nets the domestic manufacturers 

 about 100 per cent, profit. 



A PARAGRAPH in the last India Rubber World mentioned 

 M. P. Fillingham, a consulting and contracting engineer of 

 New York, as having taken on "the manufacture of vulcanizing 

 machinery in general." Of course the "rubber machinery in 

 general" was intended. On another page of this issue occurs 

 an illustration of a new machine brought out by Mr. Fillingham. 



