53 
XIX.—RUBBER IN LAGOS. 
[ K.B., 1897, pp. 414, 415.] 
The following extract taken from the Annual Report for 1895 
n the Colony of Lagos, West Africa (Colonial Reports, Annual, 
No. 185, 1896), contains interesting information respecting the 
progress of the rubber industry lately developed in that 
dependency. 
The rubber industry was discussed in these pages two years ago 
(K.B. 1895, pp. 241-247 with plate ; and 1896, pp. 76-77) [pp. 44, 51 ]. 
* By far the most important factor is the extraordinary develop- 
ment of the rubber industry, the statistics of which are almost 
ineredible. On the Gold Coast we are told that the export of 
rubber, which in 1882 was nil, had attained in 1893 to the annual 
value of £200,000. Lagos, in n 1894, shipped 5, iba lbs. of rubber to 
Great Britain, Li 144 lbs. to Germany, in all 5,867 Ibs., of the 
value of £324 6s. 4d. In 1895 these pii rs ‘to no less than 
5,069,576 Ibs., "T a total sterling Salus of £26 
* So far back as 1882, Sir Alfred akg a a M.G., to whom 
is due the credit of starting the industry mn the Gold Coast, had 
suggested the possibility of a similar industry in Lagos, but it was 
not until 1894 that any progress became apparent. In that year 
the Governor of Lagos, Sir Gilbert Carter, K.C.M.G., issued the 
following notice :—- 
** His Excellency the Governor desires to notify to the mer- 
cantile community of Lagos that he has been able to induce a 
f natives from the Gold Coast, experienc r 
collecting, to come to Lagos, with a vi the development of 
this valuable and important industry. Th hav eady 
inspected certain epis which they report to be rich in rubber- 
producing plants, and it is confidently hoped that Lagos will 
Shortly be able to compete with the sister Colony of the Gold 
Coast in the great export of the product,’ 
“This confident hope was quickly justified. Merchants took 
up the idea with enthusiasm. With startling suddenness the 
easy-going native awoke to the fact that wealth abounded in the 
forests round him, and ley for the first time that in sitting 
under his own fig tree had been unconsciously reposing in the 
shade of the family ban k. 
* There is, unhappily, reason to fear that the usual result may 
follow this sudden discovery. Already there seem to be mm ica 
for the belief that, in so far as the term ‘rubber industry ' implie 
the — growth and cultivation of the plant for profit, it 
conveys a false impression of the methods in vogue in the 
interior. 
* Judieious tapping with due regard to the life of the pee, pas 
its future usefulness, is psu exception ; rubber-bearing t 
ruthlessly sacrificed by irresponsible seekers after M s 
dead trunks are Faime a too familiar feature in the landscape 
of the productive districts. Sooner or later a purely destructive 
policy of this kind must exhaust the richest d ; adventurers 
will have to stray further afield, and the cost of transport 
equal or exceed the value of the artic le. 
