518 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[JrNF. 1. 1919. 



Balata and Rubber Enterprises in the Guianas. 



special Correspondence. 



A NEW BALATA ENTERPRISE. 



SOME changes for the better have taken place in the balata 

 industry in Surinam during the year. Several valuable 

 concessions have exchanged hands and are now held by 

 the Consolidated Rubber and Balata Estates, Limited, a British 

 Guiana concern. Tlie Consolidated is to operate this new enter- 



ExPANSE OF Still W.mer, Upper M.^iROni. 



prise on a gigantic scale; every available part of the acquired 

 lands that has the "goods" will be exploited, the object being 

 to take out the balata as soon as possible. In other words, the 

 company intends to rush matters. 



This will mean thousands of dollars to the local trade: the 

 laborers must be fed, and provisions purchased in the local 

 market. When the men return to town and receive their wages 

 it is all spent in the street, and the stores will derive all the 

 benefit from this new source of revenue. It is said the purchase 

 price paid to the sellers was $30,000 cash, and this amount is 

 considered, by people who know, as being very reasonable. 

 The concessions are situated in the Nickerie district of the 

 colony and are well known to be rich in wood and easily 

 reached from New Town, the starting point. 



PRODUCTION IN 1918- 



On the whole, 1918 was a prosperous year for the industO'. 

 and all the concerns operating made more or less satisfactory 

 returns on the capital invested. The Balata Company Surinam, 

 for instance, cleaned up a big crop which realized high prices. 

 The firm of A. F. C. Curiel, operating with United States capi- 

 tal, did well; in fact, they all made money, while the smaller 

 undertakings have also no cause to grumble. 



The total production for 1918 was 663,930 kilograms of which 

 were exported as follows: To United States, kilos, 26,891; 

 Great Britain, 24,385 ; sold to the Consolidated in British Guiana, 

 573.746; total exported, 625,022. 



Balata undertakings in Dutch Guiana have always proved 

 veritable gold mines to those companies operating with ex- 

 perienced bleeders and with good administrative head men who 

 study the conditions before starting in. .A. short sketch of what 

 is most required to make the venture a success will, therefore, 

 be interesting. 



HOW CONCESSIONS ARE SUCCESSFULLY OPERATED. 



The land which is granted by the Government must be paid 

 for in advance. Charts are necessary to indicate the position 



of tlie land; these also must be paid for in advance. Then 

 comes the prospecting party which consists, generally, of 20 

 men and a foreman, to each of whom is advanced a sum of 

 money. Provisions and implements are purchased to feed and 

 keep the men busy at prospecting for three months. Boats are 

 either built or hired to convey the party to the fields. If the 

 lands are situated on the Maroni, the transportation of men and 

 provisions costs much higher than in any other district, owing 

 to the rapid state of this river which entails hiring Indians or 

 bush negroes to take the party over the falls. This means of 

 transport generally costs $10 per man and the same sum for 

 every hundred kilos of freight. Each boat can carry no 

 more than five men and five hundred kilos of freight, which also 

 inchides the baggage of the laborer. 



When the party reaches the spot where operations for pros- 

 pecting are to take place, the men are sent out in every direc- 

 tion: lines or paths are cut through the forests by means of 

 the cutlass and every tree encountered is marked and noted 

 down so that the foreman at the end of the prospecting term 

 can tell more or less the number of trees to each hectare of 

 land. With this knowledge at its disposal the company, before 

 exploiting or bleeding operations begin, will know exactly what 

 the production will be at the end of a season, conditions, of 

 course, being normal. In this way, therefore, it can be plainly 

 seen that one can tell more or less what to expect from a con- 

 cession of 40,000 hectares with, say, 20 trees to the hectare. 



BALATA INVESTMENTS ARE SOUND. 



Dutch Guiana halata investments are sound ones and many 

 liave reaped fortunes from this source. In the Nickerie dis- 

 trict, for example, there are two full-blooded negroes who, ten 

 years ago, were ordinary bleeders. To-day they are well-to- 

 do men, being worth, individually, about $200,000 cash, owning 

 landed property valued at $150,000. These two men are the 

 exception, for the general run of the balata men are "wasters" 

 and drunkards, with never a cent to show after being a week 

 in town. 



."Vci-ording to the new balata laws, which came into force not 

 very long ago, only men with some capital will be granted lands 

 by the Government, for the reason that the responsibility is 

 great. For instance, in the case of a company operating a 

 concession with, say, 500 laborers, the Government must be 

 satisfied that after the contract time of these men has expired. 

 their wages will be paid in full the day after their arrival in the 

 city from the concession. In the past, several poor men were 

 made victims by dishonest and unprincipled employers ; all this, 

 however, is past and the new laws protect both employer and 

 employe. 



THE INDUSTRY IN FRENCH GUIANA. 



In French Guiana the industry is prospering. .\ syndicate 

 at the head of which is M. Galmot, well known in United States 

 society and a popular Paris journalist, is doing wonders on the 

 Maroni. This concern has employed an able balata foreman, 

 John Moses, for years in the employ of the Balata Company 

 Surinam, where he made good. Mr. Moses is placed in charge 

 of the syndicate's affairs and has men and means at his disposal 

 to run the enterprise according to his own judgment. Several 

 hundred bleeders are scattered all over the different concessions 

 on the Maroni and its tributaries and have, up to the date of 

 writing, made ample use of their time by producing a tre- 

 mendous quantity of gum which, when prepared for market, will 

 amount to several hundred thousand kilograms. French Guiana 

 will, in a comparatively short time, become a rival to both 



