October i, 1910.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



35 



Rubber Interests in the Far East. 



DIRECT SHIPMENTS TO AMEBICA. 



THE suggestion made by the American consul in Ceylon that 

 an opportunity offers for an American shipping line to 

 that island, via the Philippines, is commented on at length 

 in the Ceylon Observer, which also prints interviews with local 

 merchants on the subject. The consul in his report made a point 

 of the fact that a shipment of 86,000 pounds of rubber had been 

 made from Colombo to New York on a single vessel. 



The Times of Ceylon of August 8 reported : "663 cases of 

 rubber were shipped by the Parisiana (equal to 86,000 pounds) 

 by Messrs. C. W. Mackie &. Co. on Saturday last — the largest 

 shipment ever sent from this port. The next largest was 320 

 cases by the some firm ten days ago per steamship Kansas, also 

 for New York." 



Messrs. C. W. Mackie & Co., who are mentioned as having 

 shipped two-thirds of the rubber which has gone from Ceylon to 

 the United States, said that they would like to see more com- 

 petition in the shipping trade. They were paying 70s. [^17.03] 

 for 50 cubic feet, and from the end of the year it would be 7Ss. 

 [=$18.24]. It was formerly 60s. [=$14.59]. Most shippers to 

 -America, they said, were confined to three or four lines, because 

 if they shipped through any other they lost a substantial dis- 

 count. There was a "shipping ring." 



The Observer comments: "We believe that Messrs. Whittall 

 & Co., and Messrs. Harrisons & Crosficld ship direct to their own 

 houses in New York ; so that in their case the 'American' import- 

 ers would not necessarily insist on their produce going by the 

 American line. As these firms do a very considerable amount 

 of tea and rubber e.xporting, this fact has an important bearing 

 on the question." 



AMERICAN RUBBER MAN IN THE EAST. 



Newspapers in the Far East noted recently the presence in 

 that part of the world of Mr. Edgar B. Davis, second vice-presi- 

 dent of the General Rubber Co., which is the crude rubber buying 

 department of the United States Rubber Co. The Times of Ceylon 

 mentions the presence of Mr. Davis for several months in the 

 Malay peninsula and Sumatra, but he was not disposed to say 

 anything regarding the intentions of his company in the matter 

 of growing rubber in British Asia, or its ownership of rubber 

 concessions in Brazil. Mr. Davis was leaving for New York at 

 the time of the publication of some interviews with him. The 

 Times of Ceylon says: "Mr. Davis expects to be back in the 

 East again in November, but the countries beyond Ceylon will 

 again engage most of his attention." 



LONDON AS THE WORLD'S RUBBER MART. 



In commenting upon an interview with Mr. C. Arthur Lampard 

 — a director in a number of rubber plantation companies in the 

 Far East — and on correspondence elicited by the interview, the 

 Times of Ceylon says : "For years Mr. Lampard has worked to 

 help make London the rubber market of the world. It is not that 

 yet by a long way; but it is going to be. When he first made 

 this statement in New York to the president of the United States 

 Rubber Trust, that gentleman poo-poohed the idea as being an 

 unrealizable dream." 



KEPITIGALLA SHARES WIDELY DISTRIBUTED. 



At the annual meeting of Kepitigalla Rubber Etates, Limited 

 (London: July 27), in answer to a question relative to the fre- 

 quent fluctuations in the price of the company's shares, the 

 chairman stated that something like 50 per cent, of the total 

 share capital (£225,000) is held outside of Great Britain — in 

 Switzerland, France, Germany, Holland, Belgium and Ceylon, 

 in which latter country the estates are situated. Consequently 

 when there are large buying orders in the English market for 



Kepitigalla shares, there not being a large supply in England, 

 the price rises rapidly. This statement was made in answer to 

 the intimation that sudden changes in the market were due to 

 inside manipulation. 



TEN POUNDS OF RUBBER PER TREE. 



At the annual meeting of the Linggi Plantations, Limited 

 (London: May 2), the chairman stated that 750 twelve-year-old 

 trees yielded an average of 10.7 pounds of rubber; 9,000 ten- 

 year-old trees 6^ pounds, and 4,400 five-year-old trees an aver- 

 age of 2.81 pounds. The average yield was 3.69 pounds per tree 

 in a total production of 345,219 pounds. Many of the trees, how- 

 ever, were tapped for the first time during the year, and only 

 during six months. 



HIGH PRICED RUBBER FOR 191 1. 



The details of the forward sale of rubber by the Straits Settle- 

 ments (Bertram) Rubber Co., Limited, were gone into at the 

 last annual meeting of the company (London: July 28). They 

 have contracted to supply monthly during 191 1 two tons 

 of rubber, at 11 shillings per pound. The transaction involves 

 53,760 pounds of rubber, at $2,675/2, gold. The contract was 

 made through the well-knov/n London rubber brokers, Messrs. 

 William, James and Harry Thompson. 



RUBBER PLANTING MISCELLANY. 



Yves Henry, director of agriculture for French West Africa, 

 in a paper read recently at the International Congress of Tropi- 

 cal Agriculture and Colonial Development, at Brussels, on 

 "L'Hevea a la Cote Occidentiale d'Afrique," declared strongly 

 in favor of planting Hevea rubber in West Africa, in view of the 

 success attending experimental efforts to date. 



Mr. R. W. Harrison, of Klang, Selangor, after twenty-five 

 years of strenuous work in planting in the Far East, during 

 which time he contributed notably to the development of rubber 

 cultivation, has retired and returned home to England. 



A sale is reported in the Ceylon Oberver of a twenty acre rub- 

 ber plantation for 45,000 rupees. [=$14,599.50], or about $728 

 per acre. Another rubber estate of 30 acres is mentioned as 

 having been offered at £ 160 [=$778.64] per acre. 



In the Times of Ceylon a correspondent notes the decay of the 

 "rnmbong," or Assam rubber trees {Ficus elastica) at the 

 Peradenyia gardens. These trees are now about 75 years old, 

 and one has reached the height of 130 feet, and the diameter at 

 base of 10 feet. They seem to have lost their vitality, and cutting 

 them down has been begun. 



Messrs. David Bridge & Co. (Castleton, Manchester, Eng- 

 land), made an extensive and varied display of their machinery, 

 for the rubber industry and for rubber plantations, at the Brus- 

 sels Exposition which opened in April. Fortunately the rubber 

 exhibit of which the Bridge display formed an important part 

 was not injured by the fire reported in The India Rubber 

 WoKLU last month (page 437.) 



The Ceylon Planters' Rubber Syndicate, Limited, have de- 

 clared a second interim dividend for the current business 

 year, making a total of 80 per cent. The dividend for the 

 whole of the preceding year was 100 per cent. [See The India 

 Rubber World, April i, 1910 — page 249], this being the first of 

 the rubber plantation companies to be able to distribute a profit 

 of 100 per cent, in one year. 



An increasing amount of attention is being given in Ceylon 

 to the smoking of planted Hevea rubber, particularly since the 

 London trade seems to demand rubber cured in this manner. 

 Mention was made recently of a patent on a rubber-smoking 

 process having been applied for in Ceylon by Mr. Martin Hohl, 

 manager of the important Ceylon firm of Freudenberg & Co. 



