342 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[April 1, 1912. 



see in the commissioner's report any statement as to the valua- 

 tion of balata. but in the Blue Book it was mentioned as 

 $670,192.32. Of course, that was a very low valuation On 

 calculating the exports, 1,162,588 pounds, at one net price realiz- 

 able at Georgetown, say, at 74 cents, the valuation would be 

 $860,315.12. The royalty of two cents would be $23,251.76. and 

 for licenses the figure would be $22,470.72, or a total of 

 $47,722.48. or 5.55. The additional 2 cents export tax meant 

 another $23,251. He could not get at the ratio of taxation in 

 connection with timber properties as the Commissioner (mly 

 mentioned timber exports. Timber exports, however, were 

 $94,275.29, while royalty and licenses were $9,384. The timber 

 sold locally was not mentioned, and as the figures included all 

 wood cuttings there could be no comparison. He thought that 

 with all those figures they were perfectly justified in approach- 

 ing the government with a view of getting the 2 cents per pound 

 export duty on balata withdrawn, 'and he thought that if they 

 did not see their way clear to withdraw it, it sliould be util- 

 ized for the benefit of tlie industry. They were not being 

 fairly treated. The result of the additional 2 cents tax, or 

 $23,251, was to increase tlie ratio of taxation liy nearly 4 per 

 cent, and make it about 8.66 per cent. He did not think that was 

 fair and certainly thought that the association should approach 

 the government in the matter. Julius Conrad, a director of the 

 British Guiana Balata Co., who is on a visit to the colony, said 

 that the tax had caused some unrest. .\ committee was ap- 

 pointed, comprising J. B. Laing. manager of the British Guiana 

 Bank, W. White (Consolidated Rubber and Balata Estates. 

 Limited) and Henry Daley (Essequibo Rubber and Tobacco 

 Estates, Limited) and as a result of its deliberations a strong 

 petition asking for a reconsideration of the whole matter was 

 subtnitted to the government. 



This petition after enumerating many reasons for abolishing 

 the export duty concluded as follows : "Your petitioners humbly 

 pray that Your Excellency and the Honorable Court will abolish 

 entirely the export tax placed on the balata industry last year, 

 or faihng this will order that the amount so realized will be 

 utilized for purposes in connection with the industry. And your 

 petitioners will as in duty bound ever pray." 



In response, the Acting Governor, Hon. C. T. Cox. C.M.B., 

 has sent the following minute to the government secretary : 

 "When the Combined Court is in Committee of Ways and 

 Means, I shall be glad if you will invite the committee to extend 

 the export tax now levied on balata to rubber, timber and all 

 produce of the colony, not necessarily in the same proportion 

 as to value, but at a rate and in a manner which may be found 

 most convenient." He then goes on at some length in the 

 attempt to justify this suggestion. 



This, however, does not remove the grievance, but appears 

 to give consistency to the impost. That will not be done, how- 

 ever, until a general colonial export tax is imposed. It will be 

 interesting to see whether the legislature will be swayed by 

 notions of stout equity or expediency. 



The newspapers are against the tax. The "Daily .Argosy" 

 said editorially : "There is no insidiousness or ambiguity about 

 a direct tax. Nothing intervenes to distract attention from the 

 weight of the burden it imposes. It drops heavily, and in the 

 case of the balata tax it has struck where it has fallen. Whether 

 the tax increases the cost of production, or amounts to a sheer 

 abstraction from profits, the interests aflfected have been unable 

 to pass it on to others. Hence the grievance and the petition 

 for redress. The tax regarded at an ad valorem rate amounts 

 to less than 2 per cent., which, compared to the rate levied on 

 the necessaries of life, is infinitesimal. This circumstance, how- 

 ever, has no bearing on the equity of the tax. It does not make 

 it less unfair, and good arguments can be adduced in favor 

 of taxing, for revenue purposes, commodities that enter largely 

 into consumption. It is safe to assert that in the absence of 

 this impost there would be a greater likelihood of capital coming 



in for investment than there is today. On the other hand, capi- 

 talists would hardly be so unreasonable as to maintain that they 

 should not contribute a fair share to the public revenues in ex- 

 change for the benefits they receive — first for those received 

 from the use and occcupation of lands belonging to the Crown 

 and not to them ; and. secondly, for those that are supposed 

 to accrue in a well-ordered community, which provides an 

 appreciable amount of security of property, to say nothing of the 

 ordinary conveniences of a civilized country." 



The "Daily Chronicle" said: "The decision of the Balata .As- 

 sociation to appoint a committee to protest against the export 

 ta.x on balata in order that the matter may be brought before the 

 forthcoming annual session of the Combined Court is an 

 eminently wise one, and it is to be hoped that those members 

 of the court who have had some experience in the industry will 

 make their voices heard when the subject comes up for dis- 

 cussion." 



CUTTING OF RUBBER TREES— A NO\"EL PROSECUTIOX. 

 -A somewhat novel prosecution was made recently at one of 

 the country police courts when two East Indians of Plantation 

 De Kinderen," a sugar estate, were charged with having had in 

 their possession a quantity of rubber trees reasonably suspected 

 to have been stolen. The men said that they did not know 

 they were of any value, but an overseer of the estate said that 

 one of the defendants knew very well, as he worked on the 

 rubber cultivation on the estate. Tlie magistrate told them that 

 even in the forest people could not cut any trees as they liked, 

 much less on cultivated land. They were fined $15 each or a 

 month's imprisonment. 



POSSIBILITIES OF HEVEA IN THE COLONY . 

 Mr. Daley recently returned from a visit to the Essequibo 

 Rubber and Tobacco Estates property on Liberty Island, and 

 said that the Heveas were doing exceedingly well. Great prog- 

 ress was also being made at the Hills Estate, the property of the 

 Balata Estates, Limited. He advised anybody "who was inter- 

 ested in Hevcq cultivation to take a trip up to the Hills Estate 

 if he wishes to see what Ilcvea Brasiliciisis can do in this colony 

 under proper management." 



ELECTRICITY AND RUBBER GROWING. 



The idea of supplementing natural influences in agriculture is 

 not new, but has in the past engaged the attention of scientists. 

 It is, moreover, only appropriate that initial agricultural opera- 

 tions should benefit from the progress of modern science and 

 ingenuity, in the same manner as has been the case with the 

 later operations connected with the harvesting and preparation 

 of cereals. 



Dr. Franz Miiller, of Frankfurt, has, among others, long been 

 working for the promotion of the electro-chemical culture of 

 plants, his plans having recently been described by Mr. Emil 

 Lowitz in a lecture at the Royal Botanical Gardens, London. He 

 stated that by means of an electrical apparatus it is possible to 

 invigorate trees and plants, to pump food into them in order 

 to promote their growth, to introduce insecticide for the ex- 

 terminating of parasites, and to treat the soil. 



In an experiment with a small rubber tree, before treating it 

 with insecticide, Dr. Miiller pumped plain water into it, with the 

 object of finding the efifect produced. After a few days, on tap- 

 ping it, he found the latex flowed from it more copiously than 

 before. Moreover, the parasites were exterminated, their death 

 furnishing nutritive matter to the plant. 



Rubber planters have to contend with difficulties, in the re- 

 moval of which this new method may prove of great importance. 

 Poor soil, arising from a deficiency of the needful chemical prop- 

 erties, or from its strength having been exhausted by previous 

 crops, is among the troubles Dr. Miiller's plan is meant to obviate. 



