22 THE RUBBER INDUSTRY 



part to the high wage for labourers handling the coal at 

 Para, Manaos, and elsewhere, or cutting firewood on the 

 river-banks for the supplies required by passing steamers. 

 The crews of vessels engaged in the river traffic are paid 

 out of all proportion to the services rendered, and the 

 National Coasting Trade Law obliges the owners of 

 such craft to employ many more men than are actually 

 required for efficient navigation. The port authorities 

 are dilatory in despatching and receiving shipping, and 

 serious delay, entailing loss of time and money, thereby 

 results. Representations to the Federal Government 

 in connection with these unsatisfactory conditions have 

 availed nothing hitherto, and there is small immediate 

 prospect of any practical reforms being adopted to meet 

 the urgent necessities of the situation. The consequence 

 of the difficulties referred to is that the transport charges 

 for freight and passengers are abnormally high, in view of 

 the heavy fall in the value of rubber during the last two 

 years, and they have become a factor of very great im- 

 portance at the present critical stage of the industry. 



Apart from unnecessary obstacles, due for the most 

 part to incompetent administration, many natural phys- 

 ical impediments to navigation exist in a large number 

 of the rivers. These consist principally of cataracts 

 and rapids obstructing the passage of all craft except 

 flat-bottomed boats or native canoes, and they occur 

 notably on the rivers Jurua, Purus, Madeira, Tapajoz, 

 Xingu, Tocantins, and Rio Branco. In one case only 

 has this difficulty been overcome by establishing a rail- 

 way to connect the upper and lower reaches of the river, 

 the line of the Madeira-Marmore Company starting 

 from below the cataract of San Antonio and giving 



