842 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[September 1, 1920. 



ing on the works usually debited to loan account. No relief 

 was promised. 



CEYLON DURING 1919, 



During 1919 conditions were more favorable for rubber, 

 though the high rate of freight and the abnormal exchange 

 rate were serious factors in the cost of production. The price 

 for the first grades of plantation rubber fluctuated considerably, 

 falling from 2s. 2d. in January, to \s. 7d. in June to rise again 

 to 2s. l\d. at the end of the year. 



Reports from Ceylon show no serious increase of pests or 

 diseases during the year 1919, though brown bast had been 

 giving trouble on some of the older estates. 



The budget for 1920-21 disclosing that not only is the excess 

 profit tax to be retained but is to be increased to 60 per cent, 

 has caused considerable disappointment here. 



GENERAL NOTES. 



The present freight rate of rubber from Ceylon to the United 

 Kingdom is 165 shillings. 



The General Rubber Co. will shortly be moving into new 

 premises above the Eastern Bank, Limited, in Chatham street, 

 Ceylon. 



It is reported that a Badulla planter has left Ceylon for North 

 Borneo to open 200 square miles of rubber, 5,000 acres at a 

 time. 



It appears that the Holland-America Steamship Co. proposes 

 to begin a service of freight boats from Europe to the East with 

 an extension to America. Colombo will be a port of call. 



The new Dixon line is to run regularly from Colombo. It is 

 understood that Messrs. Struthers and Dixon will establish a 

 branch executive office at Singapore, better to handle the ports 

 in the neighborhood. 



The Ellerman & Bucknall Steamship Co., Limited, is start- 

 ing a regular monthly service froin Montreal to Port Said, the 

 Soudan, Aden, Bombay, Colombo, Singapore and Java. 



THE RUBBER INDUSTRY IN MALAYA. 



Special Correspondence. 



THE OUTLOOK for rubber is fully occupying everybody's atten- 

 tion. The general opinion seems to be that conditions are 

 favorable enough and that all would be well were it not for the 

 labor problem. Others look at the large new planted areas and 

 talk of overproduction and a slump in the market, while many 

 take comfort in the huge amounts of rubber used in America, 

 in the increasing use of motor-driven vehicles and the conse- 

 quent demand for tires of every kind, and have no fear of the 

 future. Those who talk of overproduction are told that diseases 

 are carrying off great numbers of trees and that all that is planted 

 is not destined to produce Not a very consoling answer, what- 

 ever the implication may have been. 



THE AMERICAN BUGABOO REVIVED. 



Some years ago there was a great outcry here from a certain 

 section of the planting community against the American invasion 

 of rubber lands. That bugaboo was eventually buried when the 

 Rubber Lands Enactment was enforced. However, it has ap- 

 peared again in new form and stalks about in the guise of Ameri- 

 can financiers who are gambling with rubber. At all events, a 

 letter in the "Malayan Tire & Rubber Journal," May 31, 1920, 

 signed by "Help Yourself," expresses astonishment at the rubber 

 growers of Malaya, Ceylon, Java and Sumatra who are allowing 

 American buyers to control the price of rubber. He, too, be- 

 lieves in a rubber shortage ; also is apparently anxious that the 

 price of rubber should be correspondingly high, and suggests a 

 combination of rubber growers of the Mid-East to control the 

 output and the price of rubber. 



RUBBER PRICES. 



The "Straits Times," May 27, says in an editorial : "From a 

 source which on many occasions we have found most reliable, 



we learn that there is a quiet movement on foot to take advan- 

 tage of the present low prices of rubber and to buy up control 

 of the local companies. The big manufacturing interests are said 

 to be at the back of the movement, and the reason given is tliat, 

 in their opinion, rubber is of much greater value than the 

 current prices would lead one to assume." As will be noted, 

 the "Straits Times" mentions no names and talks of no manu- 

 facturing interests in general — English, American, any kind. 

 It also counsels shareholders to hold on to their shares. 



It further says : "Malaya produces nearly three-fifths of. the 

 world's total output, so that it is within the power of the 

 Malayan companies to force prices up at any time they please." 

 It also advises the industry to perfect its organization and to 

 get experts to study the price question. 



ALTERNATE-DAILY TAPPING. 



In the life of an individual or a community there always comes 

 a time when a panacea is looked for that will cure all the ills 

 existing. No small section of the planting community is regard- 

 ing alternate-daily tapping as such a cure-all. It will solve the 

 labor problem, because half the number of tappers can be used; 

 the health of the trees will be promoted, because less bark will 

 be consumed, and some believe that it will even prevent brown 

 bast; overproduction and consequent low prices will be prevented, 

 because there will be a reduction in output amounting to about 

 40 per cent. 



It must be admitted that while estate managers are eager for 

 a solution of labor troubles, they do not like the idea of a re- 

 duced crop. Therefore, it has been suggested to combine alter- 

 nate-daily tapping with the practice of doubling the length of 

 the tapping cut, using a half spiral or basal "V" cut. Such a 

 system would probably still help in the labor problem, but the 

 chance of overproduction and low prices remains the same, so 

 that this suggestion will hardly be popular. In fact, the Rubber 

 Growers' Association has already squelched it by recommending 

 alternate-daily tapping without increasing the length of tap. 



The association states that alternate-daily tapping will eventually 

 prove the cheapest system. 



THE CHINESE PLANTERS' ASSOCIATION. 



A Chinese planters' association of Malaya has been formed at 

 Penang, somewhat on the lines of the Planters' Association of 

 Malaya. In the past, the latter association has often been handi- 

 capped because it could reach only a certain number of managers. 

 It is expected that now the two associations togetlier will be able 

 to exercise greater control over the rubber industry of Malaya 

 and it is hoped that they will cooperate as far as possible. Par- 

 ticularly in view of the labor shortage and the increasing de- 

 mands of estate coolies, mostly Chinese, who in some cases get 

 as much as $1.50 a day, it is hoped that the new association will 

 have a beneficial efl^ect. 



MALAYAN NOTES. 



It is reported that the assistant chemist of the local Department 

 of Agriculture, S. W. Bunker, B. Sc, A. I. C, has resigned to 

 take up a new billet with higher remuneration elsewhere. Much 

 regret is expressed by the rubber industry of Malaya, which 

 complains that the low salaries paid by the local government have 

 caused seven good men to resign since 1917 and to go to such 

 organizations as the R. G. A., the Holland-America Co., and the 

 General Rubber Co. 



The possibility of growing cotton in Malaya is receiving a good 

 deal of attention. It has been suggested that as a catch crop for 

 one year for rubber it would also be useful. 



J. Bremner axd A. R. Cox, Para, Brazil, have formed a 

 partnership under the name of Bremner & Cox, succeeding the 

 former firms carried on by them individually as buyers and ex- 

 porters of rubber and other Brazilian products, and will con- 

 tinue in the same business. The partnership dates from June 1, 

 1920. 



