136 THE RUBBER INDUSTRY 



This allows a high rate of cost for all work and for 

 the erection of first-class permanent buildings, but does 

 not include the capital employed for recruiting coolies, 

 which on an estate of 1,000 acres would amount to the 

 sum of from Rs. 15,000 to Rs. 20,000. Nominally these 

 so-called "^oast advances" are recoverable; in reality 

 they are very seldom refunded. 



As has been pointed out already, the older planta- 

 tions, where rubber has taken the place of tea, can 

 hardly be said to have any original capital value, unless 

 the cost of bringing the tea under cultivation in former 

 years is taken into consideration. What frequently 

 happened was that local companies were formed to 

 obtain control of groups of these former tea estates. 

 These, again, were sold to London companies with 

 sterling capital. One such group was the Grand 

 Central, which now has 12,500 acres under rubber. In 

 this case the properties were turned over by the vendors 

 at a valuation of 91 per acre. Another instance is 

 the small property of Doranakandy, which was pur- 

 chased for 44,000, contains 220 acres of rubber now 

 averaging twelve years old, and yielded 112,000 pounds 

 of rubber in 1913. In very few instances do any fixed 

 interest charges exist, nearly all development being 

 carried out by money subscribed for the ordinary shares. 

 As shown in the foregoing calculation, the actual neces- 

 sary cost of opening up a new plantation, and main- 

 taining it properly until the trees are six years old, 

 should not exceed 30 per acre for estates of from 500 

 to 1,000 acres, this including purchase price of land and 

 the necessary buildings and machinery. A carefully 

 checked estimate furnished by a most reliable and 

 practical planter places the cost of a thoroughly well 



