January 1, 1921 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



291 



a rubber crop for the whole of British Malaya in 1919 of 106,- 

 757 tons and an export of 108,393 tons from the Federated 

 Malay Slates alone may possibly be accounted for by the holding 

 back of part of the previous year's crop owing to the lack of 

 shipping facilities. 



Upon estates of 100 acres and over in extent in the Federated 

 Malay States there were 234,195 laborers employed. The com- 

 position of the labor force for the rubber estates of the whole 

 of Brilish Malaya was as follows: 



F. M. S. Elsewhere Total 



Tamils 174,274 53,656 227,930 



Chinese 39,871 31,602 71,473 



M.ilavs 10,733 15,400 26,133 



Javanese 7,935 9,026 16,961 



OtherF 1,382 1,444 2,826 



Totnls 234,195 111,128 345,123 



THE F. M. S. RtrBBEH CO. 



The annual report of the Federated Malay States Rubber Co., 

 Limited, a Belgian concern operating in Malaya, shows that the 

 company owns 7,630 acres of land, 4,690.51 acres of which are 

 under old rubber, 536.56 newly planted and 31 acres cleared; 

 314.35 acres are devoted to buildings, etc., while the remainder is 

 held in reserve. Since October, 1919, the company has gone over 

 to the alternate-daily system of tapping and at present 4,665j/2 

 acres are being tapped on this system. The new method of 

 tapping has resulted in decreased yields. The total crop was 

 1,588,123 pounds; the f. o. b. costs were Is. Syid., against 10 9/\0d. 

 in the preceding year. This difference in costs was due to the 

 decrease in crop. The company paid out total dividends amount- 

 ing to 110 per cent. 



CEYLON 



The foreign trade of Ceylon for the six months ended June 30, 

 1920, shows a decrease of nearly 50 per cent in exports, one of 

 the contributing causes being the decrease in exportations of 

 rubber. This has been accompanied by a general slump in the 

 prices of rubber. Though in September, 1919, rubber liad reached 

 a record price of 1.27 rupees Ceylon currency (normal rupee 

 equals 32 cents United States currency), for best-grade crepe, 

 today's price is 0.067 rupee only. Producing estates have had to 

 contend with increased production costs, which amount to as high 

 as 0.15-rupee a pound. Shares in rubber estates are dropping 

 rapidly and in some cases the Ceylon value of such stocks has 

 already decreased by 50 per cent. The prevalent opinion among 

 exporters is that rubber prices have not yet reached the lowest 

 level. 



RUBBER AREAS IN CEYLON 



Estates Over Small Tolil 



15 Acres Holdings Acres 

 Acreage in rubber tapping, September 1, 1919 253,930 13,032 266,962 



Acreage in rubber over 5 years cf age but not 



in tapping, September 1, 1919 20,752 3,552 24,304 



Acreage in rubber over 1 year and under 5 

 years of age not in tapping, September 1, 



1919 61,416 20,875 82.291 



Acreage of one-year-old rubber 13,392 10,945 24,337 



Acreage of land cleared ready for planting. .. 7,132 7,132 



Totals 356,622 48,404 405,026 



On small holdings there are sometimes as many as 250 and 

 more trees to an acre. The acreage has been taken as 200 trees 

 per acre as some small holdings have been thinned out in 

 accordance with estate practice. 



Of the areas of over 15 acres, some belonged to planters' 

 associations and others did not. Of the former class, the total 

 acreage was 285,539 distributed over 21 planting districts of 

 which the most important are: Galle, 23,858 acres; Kalutara, 

 52,197 acres; Kandy, 24,885 acres; Kegalle, I8,966j4 acres; 

 Kelani Valley, 50,734^ acres; Matale, 39,086 acres; Sabara- 

 gamuwa 27,973 acres. The total acreage of estates not members 

 of associations was 71,083, distributed over 11 districts. The 

 Katnapura district had the I-ighest total acreage, 19,0\7%, but 

 Kalutara had the highest acreage in tapping, 7,039H, although 

 its total was but 7,039;/$ acres. 



THE NETTIEJU.AND EAST INDIES 



The several things that are worrying Netherland Indies rubber 

 producers are ; additional taxes, the proposed change in the 

 labor laws and the low price of rubber. The Netherland Gov- 

 ernment is considering a proposal to modify the budget for 1920, 

 which would mean an increase in taxes for producers. 



The International Association for Rubber Culture in the Neth- 

 erland East Indies has protested, pointing out that the taxation 

 policy will frighten away needed foreign capital. In fact, not 

 long ago a foreign concern was ready to invest 50 million guilders 

 in rubber plantations on the East Coast of Sumatra, but it backed 

 out chiefly because of the Netherland East Indies' fiscal and 

 general policy. 



The proposed measures abolish the so-called "penal sanction" 

 in the laws pertaining to coolie labor, by which "penal sanction" ' 

 a coolie is bound over to an estate for a certain number of years 

 and the employer has the right to force the coolie to fulfil such 

 a contract and punish him if he fails to do so. The measures 

 under consideration would be severe on Sumatra which has 

 vast undeveloped areas of valuable land and a proportionately 

 small indigenous population. Up to the present the opening up 

 of the island has been made possible by the use of large numbers 

 of indentured Javanese held to their work by the "penalties." 

 The uncertainty of the present conditions is having a bad influence 

 on private enterprises. It has been suggested that the government 

 allow Palembang, Benkoelen and West Coast of Sumatra, 8 years 

 and Tapanoeli, Atjeh, East Coast of Sumatra, Riouw and Djamhi 

 at least another 13 years of this "penal sanction." 



The extent of European and American enterprise in Sumatra 

 and particularly Deli, may be gathered from the fact that while 

 exports of rubber in 1914 were about 6,500,000 kilos, this rose to 

 32,120,000 kilos in 1919, and the estiinated output for 1920 is 

 about 42,000,000 kilos. 



NEW ESTATES 



It is reported that the Anglo-Dutch Plantations of Java, which 

 received the sum of 17 million gilders from the Netherland 

 East Indian Government for their privileged freehold property, 

 have invested a portion of this money in the purchase of some 

 200,000 acres of land from the Sumatra Land Syndicate. 



E. N. Cummins, manager of the Sungei Renching Rubber Co., 

 is said to be in Sumatra at present for the purpose of investigating 

 and reporting on the newly acquired land which, it appears, 

 will be mainly planted to rubber. Only a part of the leasehold 

 rights over the 200,000 acres has as yet been granted by the 

 government. The value of these rights is estimated at fl. 10 per 

 acre. The estates are situated in Bencarlen, Palembang and along 

 the West Coast, of Sumatra. The shares of the Sumatra Land 

 Syndicate are held by Mr. Hammond, manager of the Anglo- 

 Dutch Plantations. 



CENTRAL RtlBBER EXPERIMENT STATION 



The new building for the Central Rubber Experiment Station, 

 Buitenzorg, was recently opened. A number of officials and 

 planters were present at the opening. It will be remembered that 

 this experiment station was temporarily housed in the former 

 foreigners' laboratorium in the botanical garden. The labora- 

 torium soon became too small for the constantly growing activi- 

 ties of the station which now has a fine building of its own. 



Dr. van Leeuwen, Ph.D., director of the Botanical Gardens at 

 Buitenzorg, Java, is shortly to visit Malaya, Siam, Saigon, Japan, 

 Honolulu and Manila in order to strengthen the relations of the 

 Buitenzorg institutions with similar foreign institutions and to 

 study the progress of botany and zoology in the countries men- 

 tioned. 



RUBBER AREAS 



Official statistics for 1919, regarding the areas devoted to 

 different crops, show that in Java and Madura, 463 rubber 



