1. 1920.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



6S5 



concerns of Robert McLure and Sons, Limited, of Stockport 

 and J. and \V. Bourne, Limited, of Highton, near Preston. It 

 would seem from this that the tire making part of the com- 

 bine will have no need to go short of textile fabric. 

 GALOSHES. 

 The position as regards retailers' supplies is very difterent 

 from what it was a year ago. The erstwhile scarcity has given 

 place to plentiful stocks which at the end of the winter season 

 are causing some little perturbation to the retail rubber stores. 

 As the winter, was ver>- mild throughout and there was hardly 

 anything in the way of a snowfall, sales have not been up to 

 the average. It might have been thought that the extremely 

 wet period of .A.pril and the first three weeks of May would 

 have led to increased sales, but this has not been the case. The 

 British seem as conservative as ever as regards their limited 

 use of galoshes ; there is only a run on them in times of heavy 

 snowfall, and they are not used for rain, even in these days 

 of expensive and often leaky boots. Of course galoshes are 

 m.ore expensive than they were, the ruling price to-day being 

 10 shillings for men's and 7 shillings, sixpence for ladies'. A 

 large number of these are Canadian, which seem to have ousted 

 the American brands so well known in pre-war days. I am 

 told that the American are now too expensive and also that 

 the high price of the Canadian is due to freight and duty, or at 

 any rate to costs over and above those of manufacture. The 

 price of the Canadian and British galoshes is the same. 



RUBBER GROWERS' ASSOCIATION PRIZES. 



The Rubbers Grower--' Association, Inc., London, ofifers prizes 

 amounting to £5,000 for new ideas and for encouraging new 

 uses of rubber; a first price of ;£1,000, three prizes of i500, and 

 ten premiums of ilOO each. A sum of il,500 in addition will 

 be divided among other competitors who may ofTer ideas of 

 value. Suggestions must be in by December 31, 1920. They 

 must be practical and likely to increase the demand for the raw- 

 material. 



Competitors are required to give: (1) a brief description 

 of the idea; (2) a full, detailed description, with explanations, 

 samples, diagrams and designs, so as to make it possible to 

 work out the idea; (3) a statement of the facts on which the 

 idea is based and of the special advantages the competitor has 

 had for acquiring his knowledge ; (4) any available information 

 about cost, demand and the quantity of raw rubber likely to be 

 needed; (5) whether the idea is partly or wholly original or 

 not ; and (6) whether it is covered in any way by patents or if 

 patents have been applied for. 



Entries should be addressed to The Rubber Growers' Associa- 

 tion, Prize Competition, care of Fitzpairick, Graham & Co., 

 9Sa Chancery Lane, London, W. C. 2. 



FOREIGN TARIFF NOTES. 



I iTHu.-kNi,\ admits crude rubber free of duty, but imposes a 

 *— ' duty of 20 per cent ad valorem on india rubber products. 



.Malta's new preferential tariff in favor of Great Britain re- 

 duces the 15 per cent ad valorem duty on all rubber goods, now 

 in force, to 10 per cent, for those of British manufacture. 



France (April 23) forbids the importation of dress shields, 

 suspenders, garters and belts; manufactures with mountings of 

 rubber or celluloid, and fountain pens. 



Australia's revised tarifif, in force March 25, 1920, permits the 

 free importation of crude, waste, reclaimed, and masticated rub- 

 ber ; hard rubber in sheets, rubber thread and elastics. It in- 

 creases the duty on rubber belting, hose, mats, druggists' sundries, 

 other manufactures of rubber and rubber substitutes, and tires 

 and tubes to 40 per cent ad valorem ; but pneumatic tires weigh- 

 ing 2'A pounds or over and tubes weighing one pound or over 

 must pay 2s. 6d. a pound, if that amounts to more than the ad 



valorem duty. The preferential rates for British manufactures 

 are 25 per cent. For rubber shoes the duty is 35 per cent, prefer- 

 ential 25 per cent ; for rubber boots 10 per cent, British free. 

 Insulated wire and cables 15 per cent, British free. 



The Serb-Croat-Slovene State, of Jugoslavia, on March 19, 

 1920, prohibited the importation of rubber or part rubber boots 

 and shoes, floor cloths and mats, toys and articles of soft or 

 vulcanized rubber, hard rubber or gutta percha, or wholly or 

 partly covered, coated, or saturated with rubber, if combined 

 with the finest materials or precious metals. 



Austria requires an export license for raw, reclaimed, or 

 waste rubber, and for pneumatic tires and insulated wire and 

 cables. 



Germany, since February 28, 1920, requires licenses for the ex- 

 portation of crude and purified rubber, gutta percha and balata; 

 rubber, gutta percha and balata scrap and waste ; and rubber 

 substitutes. Furthermore for all manufactures of rubber, or 

 partly of rubber export licenses are required. 



Persia and Great Britain have formed a new commercial agree- 

 ment which went into effect April 2, 1920. By it crude rubber 

 enters Persia free; if prepared, in slabs, sheets or threads, it pays 

 a duty of 3 kran a batman (21 cents on 6^< pounds). Rubber 

 shoes pay S kran (35 cents) a batman, but if the rubber is com- 

 bined with textiles which are more valuable than the rubber, 

 the shoes rank as clothing and pay 15 per cent ad valorem. Tis- 

 sues covered with rubber pay 10 per cent, and all other manu- 

 factures, including tires for bicycles or vehicles, 12 per cent ad 

 valorem. .All these goods must pass through specified custom 

 houses, except by special permission. 



EUROPEAN NOTES. 



PIRELLI & Co., OF Milan, Italy, made net profits of 5,420,000 

 lire in 1919, paying dividends of 55 lire per share. The 

 company has decided to increase its share capital from 40,000,000 

 lire to 60,000,000 lire. One lira equals $0,193. 



A cable manufacturing company has been started at Sodertalje, 

 not far from Stockholm, Sweden, by the A. B. Svenska Maskin- 

 verken with a share capital of 18,000,000 kroner, the mother 

 company retaining 8,000,000 kroner of the amount. A krona 

 equals about $0.27 United States currency. 



France imported 32,455 metric tons of rubber in 1919 as against 

 19,927 tons in 1918, the values being 216.130,000 francs in 1919 

 and 113,578,000 francs in 1918. Of this amount 12,638 tons came 

 from English ports, 3,235 tons from Brazil, 516 from French 

 Congo, 321 from Senegal, 1,000 from the west of Africa, 8,264 

 from the British Indies and 6,481 tons from other countries. 

 Besides this 11,722 tons of manufactured rubber goods were 

 imported in 1919, including tires, tubes, shoes, clothing, bandages, 

 tubing and so on, worth 221,134,000 francs. .\ large proportion 

 came from the United States. 



American automobile tires are in demand in Constantinople, 

 the prices, even at the present rates of exchange, being ap- 

 parently no obstacle. Salesmen who could not sell tires in 

 France have disposed of them in the Turkish capital. 



Kan & Kan, dealers in rubber, asbestos, etc., have removed from 

 Doetinchem, to 17 Utrechtschestraat, Arnhem, Netherlands. 



The India Rubber Products Co., Limited, 47-48 Farringdon 

 street, London, E. C. 4, a branch of the United States l^ubber 

 Co. and associated companies, has now registered for the future 

 conduct of its business as the "United States Rubber Co., Ltd." 

 Other offices are maintained at Birmingham, Liverpool, and 

 Glasgow. 



Rubber was honored by King George V. through the inclusion, 

 among the birthday honors for this year, of knighthood for Sir 

 Henry .-Mexander Wickham, who forty-odd years ago, conveyed 

 from Brazil to England the seeds of Hcvea which w^ere used to 

 start the Ceylon and East Indian rubber plantations. 



