128 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[January i 1909. 



the old Market House, and in sight of the great cathedral and the 

 statue of Laurens Janszoon Coster, whom the Dutch claim 

 as the inventor of printing. Whether it were he or 

 Gutenberg, it isn't in my province to decide. At any 

 rate in the old Haarlem Town Hall, surrounded by 

 portraits of florid burgomeisters, some of them priceless, 

 there are ancient models of Coster's presses, so perhaps he was 

 No. I in the art that made publishing possible. 



To digress a moment from the very interesting scenes and say a 

 word about the Dutcli language : everywhere were signs and very 



CRUDE RUBBER INTERESTS. 



Bakker & Zoon's Horse Polo Ball. 



soon most of them were readable to any one who knew English 

 with a slight smattering of German. For example — "Zunlight 

 Zeep" on a flaming advertisement could mean nothing else but 

 "Sunlight Soap" ; "verboten'' wherever encountered meant "for- 

 bidden". Then too, we soon learned that the custom of putting a 

 i after the i in so many words indicated that J was long and the / 

 not sounded. Of the surnames on street signs were many that 

 were very pleasantly familiar ; such names as Vermeule and Van 

 Vliet were in evidence and made one feel at home. 



After a ride through the residence section of the city, where are 

 many elegant houses, we put in the rest of the afternoon visiting 

 the Colonial Museum, which has perhaps the most complete col- 

 lection of industrial products in existence. The Dutch colonies 

 are of course very thoroughly represented. There are models of 

 native houses, boats and canoes, wonderful collections of arms, 

 ornaments, head dresses and native tools, and thousands of speci- 

 mens of woods from all 

 over the world. There are 

 herbaria filled with strange 

 and rare plants, hundreds 

 of jars of grains, seeds, and 

 nuts used for food, and in 

 one large room devoted to 

 india-rubber there is per- 

 haps the best collection of 

 gutta-percha-, balata and 

 East Indian rubbers that 

 can be found anywhere. 



It was almost nightfall 

 wlien we reluctantly left 

 this most interesting sym- 

 l)osiuin of Dutch progress 

 ;nid l)idding good-bye to 

 our friend Merens who 

 had acted as guide and 

 A Dutch \\'in:i.\iill. explainer all the after- 



noon, caught our train and returned to Rotterdam. 



ECHO OF A FRAITD IN RUBBER. 



A CIRCULAR issued in connection with the affairs of The 

 ** Brazilian Rubber Plantation and Estates, Limited, an 

 English company in course of liquidation by the official receiver 

 [see The India Rubber World, August i, 1908 — page 364], asks 

 the shareholders to sign a petition for a court order staying the 

 liquidation until a shareholders' meeting can be held. It is 

 proposed to reduce the nominal capital from ii8o,oco to £60,000, 

 of which the present holdings will represent £50,000, with £10,000 

 to be found by the directors and their friends. Of the latter 

 it is estimated that creditors would absorb £5,000, and £5,000 could 

 be devoted to working capital. The circular asserts that "the 

 area of the property [in the State of Ceara] has undoubtedly 

 been overstated, but that rubber is there in abundance cannot 

 be doubted." The company was registered January 31, 1906. 



A RUBBER COMPANY TO HUNT GOLD. 



At a special meeting of shareholders of the Inambari Para- 

 Rubber Estates, Limited (London. November 10), the chairman. 

 Sir Martin Conway, spoke at length of the gold prospects in 

 the Inambari river region which will be opened up by the com- 

 pletion of the road which the company are building as one of the 

 conditions of their rubber concession. He proposed, and it was 

 voted, that the rubber company subscribe £20,000 to the capital 

 of a £100,000 company to be formed under the name Inambari 

 Gold Dredging Concessions, Limited. 



RUBBER IN PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA. 



The annual report of the Companliia de Mozambique for the 

 • year 1907, which on the whole makes a favorable showing, refers 

 with satisfaction to the company's trading in rubber. The col- 

 lections reached 19,760 kilograms [43,472 pounds], which was 

 sold in London and Hamburg for £7.400, to use round numbers. 

 The highest price realized was 4 shillings per pound. The net 

 profit was upward of 47 per cent., or about £3,520. This would 

 figure out at 40 cents (gold) per pound. The rubber came mostly 

 from wild Landolpliia creepers, and a small amount from cultivated 

 Ceara. The Mascarcnhasia clastica has been found on their 

 concession and yields good rubber. Its cultivation is proposed. 

 [See The India Rubber World, May i, 1906 — page 265.] 



RUBBER IN PORTUGUESE WEST AFRICA. 



A GROUP of Belgian capitalists, it is reported, will exploit the 

 rich rubber supplies of Lunda district, in Angola (Portuguese 

 West Africa), the development of which has been retarded by 

 the lack of local capital. The territory mentioned adjoins the 

 Congo Free State ; all shipments are to be made through the 

 port of Loanda. which is within the Portuguese sphere. 



LARGE RUBBER ARRIVALS AT NEW YORK. 



On Thursday, December 3, 57 invoices of crude india-rub- 

 ber were passed in the first division of the customs appraiser's 

 warehouse at New York. The net value of the merchandise 

 was $2,172,964.35. These are official figures furnished by 

 William S. Harris, examiner of rubber in the United States 

 public stores. 



BRIEF MrNTION. 



M. AuGUSTE Chevalier, of France, well known for his scien- 

 tific explorations in West Africa, which have contributed so 

 much to the world's knowledge of the rubber species in that 

 region, was lately reported to be about to start on another 

 mission of the kind, on behalf of the French government, to 

 last for two years or more. 



Tlie imposition of a tax of 2 pence per pound on all rubber 

 exported from Madagascar has lessened materially the collection 

 of the low class rubber found in the west of the island. The 

 total exports of rubber during 1907 were 972,391 kilograms, 

 worth 5,242,637 francs, against 1,267,203 kilograms in 1906, worth 

 7,537,946 francs. 



