March 1, 1911.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WOK1.D 



197 



Some Notes on 



NEU GUINEA CO.S REPORT. 



New Guinea Comfagnie (Berlin) publishes tlic report of its 

 executive committee and the business report of the directorate for 

 the business year ending March 31, 1910, accompanied by the 

 balance sheet for the period in question. The development of 

 the enterprise during the year is reported as exceedingly satis- 

 factory and the prospects for future progress favorable. Tlie 

 development of the plantations left nothing to be desired, and 

 Director Dr. Preuss, who devoted five months to a thorough in- 

 spection of the properties, expressed himself as in every way 

 satisfied with conditions and prospects. The rubber plantations 

 in lomba have been particularly successful ; the total output 

 amounted to 6,543 kilos, compared with 5,213 kilos the preceding 

 year, 62 kilos being produced by Hevca hrasilicnsis, 3,056 by 

 Ficus claslica, and 3,425 by Castilloa elastica. The area planted 

 to Hevea brasiliensis was increased from 41 to 127 hectares, and 

 the number of trees growing, alone and in conjunction with 

 cacao, increased from 56,291 to 98,445. The balance sheet shows 

 a total increase in valuation of 596,675 marks [= $142,008.65] 

 and profits of 1,466,913 marks [— $349,125.29]. 



MEXICAN INDUSTRIAL PLANTERS' CO. 



In a brochure addressed to the holders of the Junta Plan- 

 tation bonds, the general manager explains at length, his 

 failure to obtain a purchaser for the property, wliich he at- 

 tributes to a variety of reasons, mainly to the preference dis- 

 played for properties located in British possessions, where 

 British laws prevail, and to the fact that, for the most part, 

 they are based on the cultivation of the Hevea, which is 

 superior in constancy and quality of yield to the rubber 

 producing trees grown in other lands. He holds and hopes, 

 based on anticipation of a substantial revival of public and 

 speculative interest in rubber properties, that a sale may 

 ultimately be made, even if at a lower figure than was ex- 

 pected last spring. In the meantime, he states that the com- 

 pany will go ahead with its affairs, just as though no sale 

 was, or ever had been anticipated. 



KAMUNING fPERAK) RUBBER AND TIN CO., LIMITED. 



According to a recent report, the area of the company's prop- 

 erty was 5,919 acres, of which 1,550 acres were planted. In 

 addition there were 600 acres cleared which would be planted 

 before the end of the current year. Up to June 30, 1910, there 

 had been collected 67,046 pounds of rubber, which sold for 

 i25,170 ($122,489). The cost price, f. o. b., was about 1 shilling 

 6 pence, compared with a selling price of 7 shillings 6 pence. 

 Hevea seeds were sold amounting in value to £338 ($1,(544). 



TANDJONG RUBBER CO., LIMITED. 



At a meeting of the directors of The Tandjong Rubber Co., 

 Limited, held in Ceylon House, London, in the latter part of 

 January, it was decided to issue 16,000 shares of new stock. 

 These shares are a part of the available unissued capital of the 

 company. It was proposed to offer these shares to the stock- 

 holders of register on the books on January 25, in the pro- 

 portion of one new share to every five shares held. 



SUMATRA PROPRIETARY RUBBER PLANTATIONS, LIMITED. 



AccoRDiNT, to the report dated April 30, there had been pur- 

 chased 4,000 acres, of which 1,(XX) acres had already been cleared 

 and 475 acres planted with heveas to the number of 51,373. The 

 cultivation of coffee has not been taken up. 



MR. HEIMERS IN RUBBER PLANTATIONS. 



Mr. Hermann Reimers, for some years an important member 

 of the crude rubber trade in the United States, latterly as head 

 of the New York firm of Reimers & Co., and for two years 

 past a member of Heilbut, Symons & Co., of London, has be- 

 come a director in several rubber plantation companies working 



Rubber Planting 



in the Par East, and in the Anglo-French Mercantile and Finance 

 Corporation, which latter has to do with the financing of rubber 

 planting properties. At the late annual meeting of the Singa- 

 pore Para Rubber Estates, Limited, in London, the chairman 

 (Mr. Keith Eraser Arbuthnot), in discussing the satisfactory 

 results of the past year, said : "What is in store for us during the 

 current year it is difficult to say; but I am sure, with Mr. 

 Reimers on the board, we shall have the best advice as to when 

 to sell and when to hold." 



CONSULAR REPORT ON GUTTA-JELUTONG. 



The United States consul general at Singapore mentions the 

 United States Malaysian Rubber Co., Limited, as having turned 

 out 325,000 pounds of their improved gutta-jelutong, though the 

 period covered by the report is not specified. It is nicntioned 

 tliat as high as $1.25 per pound has been realized. The factory 

 which the company are erecting on the Karimon Islands, a short 

 distance south of Singapore, is intended to handle all the 

 jelutong received from concessions outside of Sarawak, Borneo. 

 The report states: "It is claimed that early in 1911, when the 

 mills will be in full operation, they can produce 6,000,(X)0 pounds 

 of jelutong gum, 10,000,000 pounds in 1912, and 12,000,000 pounds 

 in 1913." Evidently these figures relate to tlie quantities of 

 crude gum intended to be dealt with. 



The shipments of gutta-jelutong from the Straits Settlements 

 during the past two years are stated to have been as follow s : 



1908. 1909. 



To United States tons 3.983 12,824 



To United Kingdom 647 1,009 



To Continent of Europe 1,427 5,093 



Total 6,057 18,926 



Hitherto the arrivals of this gum in the United States have 

 been received mainly direct from Singapore, with a small per- 

 centage from England and still less from Holland. It would 

 appear, therefore, that a considerable quantity is utilized in 

 Europe, though some years ago practically all the world's pro- 

 duction was utilized in the United States. It may be noted here 

 that nowhere outside of America are statistics kept of imports 

 of jelutong as distinguished from india-rubber and gutta-percha. 



THE WHITE ANTS FALSELY ACCUSED. 



C-'^YS The Automobile in a recent issue: "The fondness that 

 *^ the white ants of the Malaysia territory show for the roots 

 of rubber trees as a steady diet has the effect of devastating 

 whole plantations at a time, and efforts are on foot to devise 

 plans for the extinction of the white pests." 



Will somebody be good enough to advise us as to just which 

 plantations have been "devastated"? Our own belief had been 

 that it was only an occasional tree that was attacked, and so 

 promptly were the planters informed by the department of agri- 

 culture of a single and effective means of destruction of the 

 pest that very little harm resulted. The fact is, insects of the 

 ant type are plentiful wherever Hevea rubber is cultivated, and 

 the starchy tap root must be guarded against these attacks, but 

 nowlicre has the planting industry suffered severely from them. 



CENTRIFUGAL PROCESS FOR "HEVEA." 



'T'llE success attained in the use of the "Empire" centrifugal 

 ■*■ rubber collector in dealing with the latex of Castilloa in 

 Mexico has been mentioned already. [See I R W — May 1, 1910, 

 page 280.] From time to time the manufacturers have received 

 high endorsements from planters in Mexico, one of whom wrote 



