i8a THE RUBBER INDUSTRY 



was influenced by high prices for rubber and conducted 

 on strictly economical principles ; (2) estates purchased 

 at high prices by syndicates and joint-stock companies 

 in 1909-10 from Group No. i, together with new estates 

 opened up during the "boom " period; (3) estates estab- 

 lished during 1911-12 by public companies or private 

 enterprise. 



The first of these groups originally comprised about 

 250,000 acres, and they consisted principally of coffee, 

 sugar, and tapioca estates, converted into rubber plan- 

 tations by interplanting existing crops with Para rubber- 

 trees; they were owned partly by British capital, and 

 partly by Chinamen resident in the Malay Peninsula. 

 The original capitalization was small, and the cost of 

 interplanting with rubber exceptionally low. When 

 the rubber boom occurred, some two-thirds of these 

 properties were purchased at high prices by joint-stock 

 companies formed in Europe, Shanghai, Hong-Kong, 

 and Singapore. The remaining area of this group, 

 containing approximately 80,000 acres, continued work- 

 ing and producing on^ their original low capital basis, 

 and they naturally succeeded in paying very high 

 dividends. Among these were Bukit Rajah, Cicely, 

 Federated Selangor, Inch Kenneth, Linggi, Pataling, 

 Selangor, Vallambrosa, and many others. 



Group No. 2 comprises some 500,000 acres owned 

 by joint-stock companies formed chiefly during 1909 

 and 1910 ; it consists of estates purchased from Group 

 No. i at boom prices, and of new plantations opened 

 in 1909, 1910, and 1911. This group must be regarded 

 as decidedly over-capitalized in relation to the necessary 

 cost per acre for bringing plantations to the yielding 

 stage. 



