94 MOZAMBIQUE 



and greatly depreciated in value. It will be 

 seen that this rubber trade in Mozambique is in 

 about as bad a state as it well can be. Fairly 

 clean stem rubber was valued at the same time 

 at 7s. 9d. a kilo. 



The Matadane forest is, I think, the only rubber 

 forest on the East Coast of Africa under sys- 

 tematic management. Several rubber concessions 

 have been granted or are projected in the 

 Province, and in Natal an attempt at working a 

 forest of 200,000 acres will shortly be made, but 

 the Matadane concessioner has begun operations, 

 and I regard this enterprise, the first of its kind, 

 as of special interest not only in the Province 

 but on the whole coast. It is breaking fresh 

 ground, and the success or failure of Matadane 

 may mean a great deal to the country. Success 

 will encourage others : failure may frighten them 

 away. 



From the Government point of view there is 

 a great difference between the exploitation of a 

 root rubber forest and that of an ordinary 

 Landolphia forest where the latex is extracted 

 from the stems. The belief is crystallizing that 

 the only way to work a forest profitably is to 

 cut down the vines and strip the bark from 

 them, and I shall return to the consideration of 

 this question ; but whatever doubts may exist as 



