THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



457 



The India Rubber Trade in Great Britain. 



liy Our Regular Correspondent. 



AT THE ANNUAL MEETING of the India Rubber Manufacturers' 

 Association, J. T. Goudie, of the Leyland & Birming- 

 ham Rubber Co., Limited, vacated the chair after five 

 years of strenuous occupancy, and Stuart A. Russell, of the 

 Silvertown Rubber Co., Limited, was elected to the position ; H. 

 C. Coles, of Wm. Warne & Co., Limited, the vice-chairman, hav- 

 ing declined the honor. Mr. Coles also gives up the position 

 of vice-chairman and is succeeded by E. Healey, of W. A. Bates, 

 Limited. After the chairman's remarks he was presented with 

 a silver tea and coffee service which had been subscribed for 

 by members of the Association. 



Mr. Goudie referred to the fact that during his long chair- 

 manship the membership of the Association had increased to 

 such an extent that it now comprises 98 per cent of the produc- 

 tion of the rubber industry in the United Kingdom. Reference 

 was made to the restrictions on the import of American cotton 

 duck while rubber goods containing it had been freely admitted. 

 This anomaly, he stated, had now been removed. Mention was 

 made of the recent increase in railway rates, the incidence of 

 which he said would prove more of a hardship to rubber manu- 

 facturers than might be supposed by those who had only seen 

 press references. 



Emphasis was laid upon the need for an increased output 

 from labor as now advocated by some of the more imporlam 

 labor leaders who are warning the workers not to be led away 

 by revolutionary methods. A passing reference was made to a 

 matter which is at present causing some controversy, namely, 

 whether rubber garment makers are included in the five shillings 

 per week advance granted to rubber workers by the Trade Coun- 

 cil. This point has not yet been satisfactorily settled. 

 RUBBER SOLES. 



As the price of boots keeps high, it is not surprising that the 

 rubber composition soles are increasing in favor. A setback to 

 their use has been that they have been largely barred by the 

 bootmakers and repairers, and many people will not go to the 

 trouble of putting them on for themselves. Moreover, they have 

 not until recently been prominently on sale at a reasonable pric^. 

 Now. however, permanent makes like the Wood-Mihie and Mac- 

 intosh can readily be bought in our towns at about 2s. 6d. a pair 

 and shoemakers are ready to nail them on to the leather sole. 

 The firms mentioned make higher qualities, but it was bound 

 to come about, as in the older rubber heel business, that con- 

 siderable variations in quality are to be met with on sale. Some 

 firms will not touch the cheaper qualities, while others recognize 

 that there is a demand for them. 



A new firm in this line is Synthetic Leather, Limited, of Embee 

 Works, Shearbridge Road, Bradford. Mr. Marshall, late of 

 Wood-Milne, is managing director, and only a high quality sole 

 is made, to retail at about S shillings a pair. 



Another one-time prominent official of Wood-Milne, Walter 

 Wild, having now been demobilized, in company with one or 

 two others, has started the Victor Rubber Co., Limited, at Ley- 

 land, and is specializing on rubber soles. Some premises which 

 will shortly be vacated by the Monarch Rubber Co., Limited, 

 of Gladen Street, Bradford Road, Manchester, are to be taken 

 over by the adjoining Rivolite Co., Limited, in order to extend 

 their rubber sole business. 



THE PROOFING TRADE. 



Despite a general increase in costs of production, this branch 

 of the trade is very busy. Although all classes of proofing arc in 

 demand, especially for stripping purposes, there has been a 

 great spurt in the cheaper lines at close competitive prices. One 



effect of this has been that the oil substitute manufacturers have 

 had a much busier lime than during the war. Let us hope that 

 the results generally will prove satisfactory, though past history 

 has many records showing defective work and complaints were 

 much more rife in the lower cut lines of proofing than in the case 

 of high-class proofing. 



At the present time most of the retailers are having sales of 

 mackintoshes and waterproofs at about half what is stated to be 

 the usual price, i.e., the war-time price, and it is rather a nice 

 question for the astute purchaser as to whether it is the better 

 economy to buy a mackintosh of good quality two or three years 

 old or a new one at the same price, but really of an inferior 

 quality of proofing owing to the rise in cost of production. The 

 case of weatherproofs is not on all fours because they do not 

 depreciate in wearing value by keeping, but styles change, hence 

 they are now being offered at a considerable reduction. 



The oil proofing business shows a renewed activity, the new 

 loco Works at Aumisland, near Glasgow, having taken up this 

 branch energetically, although not many of our regular rubber 

 proofers have touched it. This last remark applies also to the 

 shower-proof garment trade. This class of proofing, which is 

 largely concerned with wax, is mostly in the hands of finishers 

 to the textile tenders in Lancaster and Yorkshire, as the cal- 

 enders, etc., used in the finishing industry are readily adaptable 

 to the wax proofing of cloth so largely used in India and other 

 hot climates. 



The name of Burberry's is well known to the sportsman and 

 purchaser of expensive waterproofs, but details as to the produc- 

 tion of the special cloth have in the past been known only to a 

 few. Now, however, we are let into the secret by the acquisition 

 by Messrs. Burberry of the cotton mills and business at Farn- 

 worth and Manchester of S. & J. Prestwick, who have been the 

 makers and proofers of the Burberry clothes for about twenty 

 years. 



A new firm in the proofing trade is Carmac Rubber, Limited, 

 of Huntershill Works, Bishopbriggs, Glasgow. The equipment 

 is extensive in order to undertake proofing to the trade. 



This company owns substantially the whole of the share capital 

 of George Spencer-Moulton & Co., Limited, of Bradford-on- 

 Avon and Wood-Milne, Limited, of Leyland, togetlier with the 

 Pundut Rubber Estates, and arrangements have also been entered 

 into with Federated Textiles, Limited, to run a mill at Tittle- 

 borough near Rochdale so as to insure the companies having an 

 adequate supply of canvas for their tire production. Rubber 

 footwear is also to be made in a new mill in course of erection 

 at Tittleborough so that the activities of the new company ccver 

 a wide range of the trade. For the purpose of financing these 

 developments and for the acquisition of the control of the South 

 African Rubber Manufacturing Co., Limited, as well as for gen- 

 eral purposes, an issue of 500,000 six per cent cumulative prefer- 

 ence shares of £1 each has been issued at par free of iiicome 

 tax up to 6 shillings in the pound sterling, 



NEW MOTOR TAXES. 



It is expected that the new tax for motor cars will be based 

 on £1 per horse-power. This appears to have the support of 

 the motor trade as the existing Treasury horse-power formula 

 favors the smaller bore and longer stroke of the average British 

 motor as compared with the larger and slower running .Ameri- 

 can engine. 



