116 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[December 1, 1913. 



Rubber Notes From Singapore. 



By Our Special Correspondent. 



PERHAPS in mj' letter of last month 1 did not emphasize the 

 reasons for my belief that Singapore is to be the future 

 world's market for Para rubber. The economy of direct 

 buying I think I made clear. Now as to the city as a commercial 

 center, and particularly as a rubber center : 



In the fir,st place, it is a free port with the best of shipping 

 facilities, warehouses, banks, etc., etc. It is also a big city — 

 225,000 inhabitants. Further, it is in the center of the great 

 planting districts where there are already more Hevea trees than 

 in all of the rest of the world. I have asked The Indi.\ Rubber 

 World to prepare a map showing just how central it is in regard 

 to planted rubber. Within touch of it are some 1,500,000 acres. 



Singapore will undoubtedly be of the utmost importance 

 and interest to you in the near future, because it is the 

 natural center of the rubber' planting mdustry in the mid- 

 East. There are altogether some 1,500,000 acres of planted rub- 

 ber out here, of which about 700,000 acres are in the Malay 

 Peninsula, 60,000 acres in .South India, 30,000 acres in Burmah, 

 240,000 acres in Cevlon, 208,000 acres in Sumatra, 200,000 acres in 



produce of which all goes to Colombo, the natural center of all 

 the rest, which one might call Malayan rubber — 1,200,000 acres — 

 is Singapore, and to Singapore it will shortly come, nearly all of 

 it, for disposal in an open market, which will be of the utmost 

 importance to the United States of America. 



PLANTING IN THE PHILIPPINES. 



It has been recently suggested to me by an American that I 

 should go to the Philippines with a view of encouraging the plant- 

 ing industry there. This can only be done by attracting capital 

 there from America, and I think that the only way to do this 

 would be to go straight to headquarters in New York. I have 

 studied and planted cocoanuts for many years, and recently pri- 

 vate capital was raised for cocoanut planting in a carefully se- 

 lected region in East Malaya, on a large scale, based on my esti- 

 mates. I am convinced, however, that cocoanuts in the Philip- 

 pines, if properly planted and administered, would do extremely 

 well, and would bring in as much revenue in the future as 

 rubber ; i. e., about 20 per cent, to 25 per cent. 



Certain parts of the South Philippine Islands are very suitable 



ACRtS POUNOS 



Planted Produced 



iNiJ/AN OCEAN 



ToTAV, »^5i0, ooo r&K., 192, ooo 



VMl « <Q 



THE INDIA RUBBEHWOftlB 

 DEC. laia. 



M..\r Showing Sing.^pore's Centh,\l Position in E.vstern Rubber Production, Present Acreage and Estimated Yield for 1913. 



Java, 60.000 acres in Borneo, and some 30,000 acres elsewhere. 

 The Java areas are very uncertain and inaccurate, and contain 

 many thousands of acres of odd lots — Fi<:i(.f, Castilloa, Ceara, etc., 

 — which are of no earthly use here commercially. Few of the 

 Java properties are of any value at all as rubber estates, being 

 mainly coffee, tea. and tobacco estates, with some rubber. Out- 

 side of possibly 60,000 acres, no one considers Java seriously, as 

 the yield of the best is none too good there, tho labor is very 

 cheap. 



Deducting the 300,000 acres in Southern India and Ceylon, the 



for rubber, so that any American manufacturing company which 

 would like to have its own plantation would do well to start 

 there. 



RUBBER PL.WTING IN CENTR.VL .-XMERICA. 



I believe that a good deal of American capital has been recently 

 put into planting projects in Centra! .America. I would very 

 strongly advise against this in most cases, as you have not got 

 the abundant cheap labor that we have, averaging 20 cents 

 gold per day, nor the labor discipline, nor the trained staffs, etc. 

 .\ great deal of good money might be saved by sending really 



