Mav I, 1905.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



281 



with the Ubero companies, nor does he hesitate to affirm his 

 confidence in their absolute sincerity. Had the land, even if 

 not of the best, been planted with rubber, there would have 

 been to-day millions o( trees, and their value in a very few 

 years would have been great. As it is, with 358.000 trees at 

 Ubero and 293.000 on the Consolidated properties, if the stock- 

 holders should put a caretaker on the property and wait three 

 or four years, they might get something back. 



UBERO PLANTATION CO. (iNDIANAPOLIs). 



On April 3 Judge Carter, in the superior court at Indianap- 

 olis, appointed the Union Trust Co. receiver for the Ubero 

 Plantation Co. — the Indiana corporation— on the petition of 

 Charles L. Nordyke, owner of 1 1 shares of stock, on the ground 

 that the company had been mismanaged ; insolvency was not 

 alleged. The application was not opposed, but it was stated 

 that the company had become temporarily embarassed through 

 the failure of the Mexican Traders' Co. to carry out its pait in 

 certain contracts. 



At a meeting of shareholders at Indianapolis on April 20 a 

 vote of confidence was given to the directors. Secretary O. M. 

 Fowler stated that there had been some mismanagement, but 

 that the situation was not serious. There remained $16,000 of 

 treasury stock, of which $4000 was subscribed for by those 

 present to provide funds for carrying on work which had been 

 stopped by the appointment of a receiver. 



Ubero Plantation Co. was incorporated in Indiana in 1S98, 

 with $200,000 capital, to acquire 1000 acres from the Mexican 

 Rubber and Coffee Co., the latter company agreeing to clear 

 and cultivate the land for five years, for which service it was to 

 receive §200,000. This contract expired in November, 1903, 

 when the land was turned over to the Ubero company. Origi- 

 nally the official lists of the two companies were identical ; Wil- 

 liam D. Owen, president ; Nat U. Hill, vice president; A. C. 

 Daily, treasurer; Judge U. Z. Wiley and William I. Overstreet, 

 additional directors. 



RUBBER NOTES FROM EUROPE. 



DR. C. O. WEBER AND SYNTHETIC RUBBER. 



[from "the INDIA.RUBI.EK JOURN.M.."] 



IN some of the memoirs of the late Dr. Weber the statement 

 has been made that it was his belief he would have " dis- 

 covered " the synthetical manufacture of rubber within five 

 years. From a fairly close acquaintance with Dr. Weber, we 

 have little hesitation in saying that no such remark was ever 

 made by him seriously. Certainly he knew too well the vicissi- 

 tudes of scientific research ever to have put a time limit on his 

 enterprise. Synthetical rubber has been " discovered " already, 

 but the cost of manufacture is hundreds of times more than the 

 present cost of rubber. What Weber's research was directed 

 upon was the commercial synthetic manufacture of rubber. 

 Not more than a year ago he confessed to us that he was as far 

 off the solution of the problem as ever. While almost every- 

 thing is possible to science, yet commercial possibilities present 

 different problems. How keen was his hope, and how far re- 

 moved was he from the near realization of it, could be estimat- 

 ed by the eagerness with which he threw himself into the inves- 

 tigation of many of the secret processes suggested by inventors. 



The Des Moines (Iowa) street car company have been sued 

 for $2500 damages, for injuries alleged to have been sustained 

 by Mrs. Harriet C. Bancroft in slipping on the steps of one of 

 their cars, her contention being that the company were negli- 

 gent in not having the steps protected by treads of India-rub- 

 ber or corrugated iron. 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 



THE Vienna firm, Josef Reithoffer's Sohne, have issued a 

 circular to their customers in the following terms, in 

 connection with a chart illustrating the rise in the prices of 

 Para rubber since 1902 : 



The chart going herewith shows the variation in the prices of our raw 

 material, Para rubber, during the past years and up to the present time. 

 All unprejudiced persons must admit that our selling prices arc not in 

 accordance with the constant rise in the purchasing prices. The result 

 is that we, as well as our competitors, are doing business at a loss. Two 

 Austrian rubber works have already succumbed to the unfavorable con- 

 ditions and are now winding up their affairs. An important loss of cap- 

 ital has been the result, and a considerable number of workmen and offi- 

 cers have lost their employment. 



The instinct of self-preservation demands that we at last take the re- 

 quired measures for regulating our selling prices, and we therefore state 

 that the prices and terms, both those accepted for previous orders, 

 or quoted verbally or by letter, when not covered by our letter of accept- 

 ance of orders, are to be considered as not binding and that we are 

 compelled to reserve the right of regulating our selling prices in each 

 separate case. 



GREAT BRITAIN. 



Thk directors of the Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co., Limited, 

 have declared an interim dividend on the preference shares at 

 the rate of 5 per cent, per annum for the six months ending 

 March 31. 



= Rritish Insulated and Helsby Cables, Limited, report gross 

 earnings for 1904 of ^129,817. During the past year, the re- 

 port says, the volume of trade has been large, but competition 

 still continues very keen. Under these circumstances, the di- 

 rectors consider the result of the year's working satisfactory. 

 Dividends of 6 per cent, were paid on the preferred share capi- 

 tal [;^5oo.ooo] and 8 per cent, on the ordinary shares [.£500,- 

 000]. besides i,}i per cent, on the debentures [^500,000], these 

 figures being the same as for the preceding year. Important 

 additions to the company's works were made during the year. 

 NEW BRITISH PUBLIC COMPANIES. 



CONTINEN I'AL Tyre and Rubber Co. (Great Britain), Limit- 

 ed ; registered March 29. Capital, ;|rio.ooo ; object, to adopt 

 an agreement with the Continental Caoutchouc and Guttaper- 

 cha Co. (Hanover, Germany), and to manufacture and deal in 

 pneumatic and other tires. Directors : Sigmund Seligmann, 

 Adolf Prinzhorn,and Willy Tischbein. Registered office: 104- 

 108, Clerkenwell road, E. C, London. 



= London and Leicester Rubber Co., Limited; registered 

 March 29. Capital ^ 15,000 ; object, to take over the business 

 of India-rubber manufacturers of Ambrose Foster & Co., Lei- 

 cester, England. 



GERMANY. 



Vereinigte Hanfschlauch- und Gummiwaaren- Fabriken zu 

 Gotha. Actiengesellschaft, with a capital of 1,800,000 marks 

 [ = §347,400] paid a dividend for their seventeenth business year 

 of 6 per cent., against 7 per cent, in 1903. The report says : 

 " The manufacture of pneumatic tires for bicycles and automo- 

 biles, taken up by us in the second half of the past year, has so 

 far proved quite satisfactory. Our goods were favorably re- 

 ceived, so that for the coming spring we were enabled to close 

 out the larger portion of our production." 



= Actiengesellschaft Metzeler&Co, (Munich) made at the re- 

 cent International Automobile Exhibition at Berlin an ex- 

 tensive display of their pneumatic tires for automobiles and 

 motorcycles, which was visited and specially complimented by 

 his Majesty, the German emperor. 



