and also at the great amount of practical knowledge he possessed 

 on the subject. Mr. HOLLOWAY says it was almost equal to actual 

 experience. 



Having seen some of the leading rubber people, he found they 

 were all of the opinion that rubber has come to stay, an 1 that there 

 need be no fear of overproduction, in years to come, if at all. He 

 says that the uses to which rubber would be put. in the event of 

 greater production would be legion, which fact alone w^ould always 

 help to keep up a certain price. He thinks that too much impor^ 

 tance has been attached by some rubber gtovvers to the table pre- 

 pared and printed in the Times of Ceylon tending to prove that the 

 greater the quantity, the poorer the price. Mr. HOLLOWAY read 

 the following from the table in question : — 



Stocks in London s. d. 



Jan. 1900 449 tons price 4 9 



Feb. 1901 1,346 „ 3 6 



Feb. 1902 1,602 ,, 2 11 



Sept. 1903 249 „ ,,48 



u The reasoning in the above table,' says Mr. HOLLOWAY, " does 

 not at all coincide with the impression formed in London, and the 

 editor of the India Rubber World is especially annoyed that this im- 

 pression should be formed as it would damage the rubber trade to 

 a certain degree by frightening would-be investors that do not know 

 sufficient of the trade, but place a certain amount of confidence in 

 such reports. The facts are that the above figures do not represent 

 the actual stock of rubber, but only the Manufacturers Stocks — this 

 should be remembered — and it stands to reason, that the manufac- 

 turer would buy less, in January, 10,00, at 4.S. gd., and much more 

 in 1902 at 2S. I id.'' 



u And to bear out that this reasoning is right, you must take the 

 actual stock of rubber on the market, on sea, &c, as near as pos- 

 sible. The visible supply of rubber that is stock in Britain, Europe 

 America, Para, and afloat in Januarys 1900, was 4,500 tons, prices 

 4s. gd ; in September, 1903, 1,817 tons and price, 4^. 8<r/. To say 

 that the stock in the United Kingdom determines the price, is to 

 put the cart before the horse." 



The price is bound to fall. — " And now as regards our Ceylon 

 rubber, the high prices here realised are due to the reason that 

 almost all the present supply (which is smail from Ceylon) is en- 

 tirely used by manufacturers for high class solutions only, and that 

 when larger quantities of it are sent the price is bound to fall to 

 a certain extent, for the reason that our rubber lacks "'nerve" 

 owing to our present mode of preparation leaving an undue amount 

 of albumen, &c. The idea at present is that this can be remedied 

 to a certain extent by the rubber, immediately after coagulation, 

 being put through a masticating machine on the estate while it is 

 quite soft, thus saving a great amount of pressure and power, as 

 the machines would masticate it easier being soft than if it were 

 done at home by the manufacturers, after it had thoroughly dried 



