14 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[October 1,1902. 



and Central America, and Australia. In four weeks recently 

 the exports to London were valued at $6568, $10,797, $13,850, 

 and $16,000, respectively. One vehicle shipped to Southamp- 

 ton was valued at $4500, one to Hamburg $2000, and two to 

 Liverpool, $1500 and I1400. Several shipments have been 

 made to France. There is no reason, by the way, for suppos- 

 ing that these exports have been made on other than a bona 

 fide demand. 



In spite ot all that has been said in regard to imported auto- 

 mobiles, the total number entered at United States custom 

 houses during the fiscal year 1900-01 was only 40, of the aver- 

 age value of $1077.35, or a total of $43,094. Later official re- 

 turns of such imports are not yet available, but the total during 

 the past year must be much smaller than the volume of ex- 

 ports. 



The production of automobiles in the United States, in the 

 carriage industry, during the year ended June 30, 1900, was 

 3901, of the value of $4,680,276, or an average of $1199.76, ac- 

 cording to Census Bulletin No. 241. Of these, 3472 are classi- 

 fied as " passenger and pleasure " vehicles and 429 as " delivery 



and transfer." The production was distributed, by states, as 



follows : 



Massachusetts. . 1173 New Jersey 244 Missouri 28 



Connecticut. .. . 896 Ohio 334 Maryland 25 



Illinois 671 Pennsylvania 68 Wisconsin 17 



New York 582 Indiana 33 Maine I2 



Four are credited also to Rhode Island and one each to Kentucky, 

 Louisiana, Delaware, Nebraska, New Hampshire, and Virginia. 



In addition, mention is made of 56 automobiles among the 

 " other products" of bicycle factories, of the value of $60,788. 

 Still other vehicles were produced in other establishments, 

 by the assembling of parts purchased from the respective 

 makers, so that Census Bul'etin No. 243 -devoted to Locomo- 

 tives—gives a larger total production for the United States for 

 the census year, classified and with the selling values as fol- 

 lows: 



T\PEs. Vehicles. V'alue. 



Steam 1681 $1,147,927 



Electric I575 2,873,464 



Hydrocarbon 936 878,052 



Total 4'92 



$4,899,443 



THE RUBBER SITUATION IN BOLIVIA. 



AN official report on the rubber resources of Bolivia, and 

 the progress that has been made in their development, 

 by Sefior Manuel Vicente Ballivian, the head of the 

 national oflftce of immigration and statistics of that 

 country, which appeared under date of August 2, 1902,* will 

 contribute largely to a proper understanding of the rubber sit- 

 uation there. The rubber interest is regarded by Senor Balli- 

 vian as second in importance only to the greatest natural source 

 of wealth in Bolivia, namely, mining. While the great extent 

 of those regions which constitute the habitat of the rubber tree 

 in Bolivia is widely known, very little really has been done by 

 the authorities to regulate the acquisition of the rubber lands 

 by private parties, and their utilization, for the benefit both of 

 industrial interests and of the national treasury. 



Senor Ballivian during the past ten years, in addition to nu- 

 merous articles in the periodical press, has written several 

 pamphlets dealing with the development of the Bolivian rub- 

 ber industry and the importance of more systematic attention 

 to this matter by the state. One such pamphlet was a report on 

 his exploration, in an official capacity, of the territories of the 

 Northwest and the department of Beni, in 1S93-94. A later 

 report referred to the work being done in the exploitation of 

 rubber in the regions of Beni, MamortS, Madidi, and Madre de 

 Dios, by parties who had been engaged in similar work on the 

 Rio Madeira.! 



One of the results of the investigations of Senor Ballivian 

 during all these years has been the framing of laws now pend- 

 ing before the Bolivian congress, having for their object a re- 

 form in the system of granting concessions for rubber estradas, 

 abandoning the system of granting very large tracts of land 

 having an illusory number of estradas, very often unverified and 

 not accurately designated. In this connection the Brazilian 

 laws regarding the adjudication of unoccupied lands has been 

 followed. 



Having established definitely the extent of the rubber re- 

 sources of Bolivia, and laws having been framed for the en- 



* lodustria de la Goma Elastica en Bolivia. Movimiento de peticiones, con- 

 cesiones y cuadros de referencia, desde l8g2 hasla 1902. La Paz: 190-2. [8vo, 42 

 pages,] 



t A synopsis of still another report, by Senor Ballivian, indicating the limits of 

 the various rubber districts of Bolivia appeared in The India Rubuer World ol 

 August I, 1900. — The Editor. 



couragement of the exploitation of rubber, Senor Ballivian next 

 interested himself in an investigation into the status of the 

 concessions of rubber lands that had been made in the differ- 

 ent provinces. Statistical work is still pursued with diflficulty 

 in Bolivia, however, particularly in the more remote parts, and 

 this report embraces only the details regarding the districts of La 

 Paz, Santa Cruz, the Beni, Cochabamba, and the national dele- 

 gation of Madre de Dios — leaving out for the present the large 

 Acre district and the territory drained by the Puri'is. 



Still this report is sufficient to show that only a small per- 

 centage of the rubber concessions granted have become valid 

 through full compliance with legal requirements. In some 

 cases the concessions have been abandoned after compliance 

 with the preliminary formalities, and it appears that a great 

 portion of the rubber lands is still in possession of the state and 

 could be granted to any capitalist prepared to exploit them. 

 From the beginning of the year 1896, and up to July i of the 

 present year, it appears of all the rubber concessions applied 

 for in the districts above named, the legal provisions have been 

 fully complied with only to the extent of 30.179 estradas, while 

 1 10,000 estradas covered by applications on file have been aban- 

 doned. This suggests to Senor Ballivian that very much rub- 

 ber territory has been explored without a clear title, which view 

 is supported by the custom house statistics, showing a constant 

 increase in the exports of rubber. The attention of^the gov- 

 ernment is called to these facts in order that steps may be 

 taken for the more thorough collection of revenues from rub- 

 ber. 



Sefior Ballivian's report, after these general considerations, 

 gives a complete list of the applications filed for rubber con- 

 cessions in the several departments, with a record of the pres- 

 ent status of each concession. The name of the concession- 

 aire in each case is given — several hundred in number — with 

 the location of the property and the number of estradas com- 

 prised. The book thus forms a valuable basis for whatever 

 steps may be undertaken by the administrative authorities for 

 the closer supervision of the rubber industry. 



* * « 

 One explanation of the large number of rubber concessions 

 applied for, as compared with the number actually developed. 



