CHAPTER XIV 

 THE MALAY PENINSULA 



Cost of opening and bringing into bearing an estate of 1,000 

 acres Cost of maintaining 1,000 acres containing 108 six-year- 

 old trees to the acre General conditions concerning mainte- 

 nance costs-f-Estate management Equipment of factories and 

 preparation of rubber (Numbers and nationality of estate 

 labourers Tamil coolies The Tamil immigration fund Labour 

 from Java Malay labourers Population of the Malay Penin- 

 sula Varying rates of wages Daily work-hours Only small 

 percentage of skilled labour required Sanitary conditions and 

 medical regulations. 



r I ^HE cost of establishing a rubber plantation and 

 -A- maintaining it until it reaches the profit-earning 

 stage has been the subject of much difference of 

 opinion in the past, due in great measure to the fact 

 that abnormally high prices for the crude material led 

 to many extravagant practices in estate management. 

 With rubber at three times the present value, share- 

 holders cared little whether the expenditure was 30 

 per acre or half as much more. To-day matters are on 

 a different basis, and all expenses must be reduced to 

 the lowest possible point consistent with thoroughly 

 efficient results. The figures now given for the average 

 necessary cost of plantations are the outcome of prac- 

 tical experience, but they are, of course, subject to 

 slight variations occasioned by possible exceptional 

 circumstances. The detailed description of the labour 



conditions is for the purpose of permitting a full appre- 



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