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THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[January 1, 1914. 



RUBBER NOTES FROM BRITISH GUIANA. 



By Our Regular Correspondent. 



■ I 'HE most important event that has happened since I last 

 ■*• wrote is the return of the Governor, Sir Walter Hgerton, 

 K. C. M. G., from Iiis journey through tlie hinterland of this col- 

 ony, made with the object of ascertaining the possibility of 

 developing the country by means of a railroad. His Excellency 

 went through the bush, across the Rupununi savannahs, as far 

 as the Brazilian frontier, and he and all the members of his 

 party (which included a railway engineer named Bland, in the 

 employ of the Nigeria government, Dr. K. S. Wise, govern- 

 ment bacteriologist, and Mr. W. C. Anderson, forestry officer), 

 returned looking all the better for their experience. His Ex- 

 cellency has returned full of enthusiasm. In the course of an 

 interview he said that the savannahs could support an enormous 

 quantity of cattle, and those he saw up there he described as 

 being very fat and in excellent condition. "I see no reason," he 

 added, "why almost any tropical product should not be grown 

 there with success. But it is no use growing anything there at 

 present because of lack of means for transporting the produce to 

 market. Settlers must have cheap means of communication with 

 the coast." Subsequently he made a more considered pronounce- 

 ment in the Combined Court, which was slightly more qualified 

 but not less enthusiastic. I quote his remarks under this head 

 in part. He said : 



"Iihave just returned from a memorable journey through the 

 interior of the colony up to the Brazilian boundary on the Ta- 

 kutu river. I was fortunate in being able to travel with Mr. 

 Bland, the railway engineer brought here to examine into the 

 best route for and the probable cost of building a railway 

 through our magnificent timber forests to give cheap and rapid 

 connection with the savannahs and with the Brazilian Province 

 of .^mazonas. 



"I was much impressed with the wealth of greenheart and 

 other timber that would lie brought within reach in the forest 

 region by such a railway and by the large area of fertile land 

 there awaiting the tropical agriculturist ; but it is doubtless in 

 the great savannah plains that the most rapid development will 

 take place if the 'transport-to-coast' problem is ever solved. 

 There are said to be some 9,000 head of cattle on the savannahs. 

 They are lost in the vast area, and I believe the calculation that 

 three-quarters of a million might find grazing thereon is a reason- 

 able estimate. I also believe that large areas of those savan- 

 nahs are very suitable for agricultural and mechanical tillage. 



"Cattle, sheep and horses thrive. The cattle are large, healthy 

 beasts in good condition and furnish excellent meat. The sheep 

 are small and of inferior breed. The horses are small, and are 

 more properly ponies, but they are capable of an astonishing 

 amount of work. The rcmarka1)le thing is that during long 

 years of great prosperity in this colony no attempt was made to 

 open up this rich southern country. I confess tliat 1 can see no 

 way of doing this except l)y a railway." 



Not less' important are the views expressed by Mr. Bland in 

 the course of an interview. I lis report has not yet been pub- 

 lished and naturally he was a little reticent ; nevertheless, his 

 statements are of great importance. He said that there are no 

 very great difficulties in getting a railway to the Rupununi sa- 

 vannahs — there would be no bridging difficulties to encounter 

 and black labor could be imported from the West Indian Islands ; 

 that there are great possibilities in the country, the timber re- 

 sources of which alone would prove a reliable asset; and if the 

 country is to go ahead a raihvay will have to be built. 



These, in brief, are the views of the engineer. Their impor- 

 tance, as they affect the future development of the balata in- 

 dustry, cannot be exaggerated. The recent fall in the price of 

 balata (and this is most marked in the New York market, ac- 

 cording to our daily cable advices, which quote lialata in that 



market at 50 cents per pound) is greatly hampering the in- 

 dustry. The expense of dispatching an expedition to the savan- 

 nahs is enormous and at present prices can yield only a very 

 small profit, if any at all. The superintendent of Garnett's Balata 

 Station on the Rupununi states that it takes him twenty days to 

 get to his station, and he takes with him sixteen hands, besides a 

 bowman and captain. He averages the cost at $400. The diffi- 

 culties with which the balata industry has to contend under these 

 circumstances can readily be understood. The construction of a 

 railway could not fail to enormously reduce these traveling ex- 

 penses and to insure the commercial success of balata exporta- 

 tion. It will not be forgotten by some of your readers, perhaps, 

 that I drew attention some months ago to the possibility of 

 growing Ceara rubber on these Rupununi savannahs, providing 

 there were some effective means of transport to the coast. 



The annual report of the Institute of Mines and Forests for 

 1912-13 has just been published. The report states that in the 

 past twelve months "there has been much progress made with 

 the rubber plantations, and the highest authorities here are now 

 quite satisfied that the cultivation of Hevea Brasiliensis has 

 reached a stage warranting the belief that results will be 

 reached equalling anything obtained in the Far East. Tapping 

 of this species gave most encouraging results. With large areas 

 suited to the cultivation of rubber all over the colony, it is not 

 too much to expect that greater attention will be given to, and 

 more capital expended on, increasing the area devoted to this 

 purpose." The Institute states that there are 9,0(X),000 acres of 

 easily accessible Crown lands suitable for rubber cultivation 

 which can be leased from the government on most favorable 

 terms, but it points out that only 2.(XX) acres are now planted 

 with rubber, by far the greater area being in Hevea Brasiliensis. 



With regard to the balata industry, the report states that the 

 outlook is very promising. "Employers have not been victimized 

 by unprincipled laborers to the same extent as was the case last 

 year. This is one of the beneficial results of employers com- 

 bining to give a fixed amount and no more by way of advance, 

 and the refusing of employment to those who had given much 

 trouble in past years by absconding and in other ways. Combin- 

 ing did away with much of the reckless competition to secure 

 labor, which condition of things was taken advantage of by 

 tlie dishonest laborers. The result of the combination to deal 

 with labor in a settled way has shown clearly what had often 

 been alleged, viz., that there were sufficient good men to supply 

 the wants of employers and therefore no occasion for extra in- 

 ducements to be offered to get the labor wanted." The exports 

 of balata this year are nearly double those of last year, and the 

 fact that this has been obtained by fewer companies is evidence 

 of the improvement in labor conditions. If it were not for the 

 falling prices the balata industry would at the present time be 

 in a very healthy condition. As I have already pointed out, 

 however, in the absence of adequate transport facilities, jour- 

 neys to the far interior, with balata selling at SO cents per pound, 

 cannot be very profitable. 



SPECIAL BOXES FOR PACKING RUBBER. 



There has been a great deal of complaint among dealers and 

 manufacturers because of the improper packing of much of the 

 rubber shipped from the plantations, the rubber being forwarded 

 in all sorts of cases — many of them rough on the inside so that 

 splints of wood become imbedded in the sheets 5nd biscuits. 

 To meet the situation the Acme Tea Chest Co., Limited, of 

 Glasgow, is manufacturing a packing box especially for rubber. 

 It is of standard size, 24 x 19 x 19 inches and holds 200 pounds. 

 The inside of the box is smooth so that the rubber comes out in 

 a clean block. These boxes are shipped to the planters flat and 

 are so constructed that they can be put together with very little 

 effort and in a few minutes' time. They are kept in stock at 

 several different points in the plantinir countries. 



