494 



HIGH PRICES OF PARA RUBBER. 



The Ceylon papers write jubilantly of Ceylon rubber as 

 having beaten the record of high price for Para rubber at 5s. q%d., 

 but as a matter of fact it appears that Perak rubber had already 

 reached that price. A still higher price of 6s. is said to have been 

 given for some Ceylon rubber, but from the following extract 

 from the "Straits Times" November 29, 1904, we see that Perak 

 rubber still keeps ahead of Ceylon, fetching 6s., while Ceylon 

 was only quoted at 5s. o,\d. : — 



" Rubber continues to go up. Messrs. Sandilands, Buttery 

 & Co., of Penang, have just been advised that one of their 

 consignments of fine dry well-cured pale Perak-grown ' biscuit ' 

 has fetched 6s. id. per pound. This is good news indeed, and 

 establishes a record for F. M. S. rubber. Elsewhere the pros- 

 pects of rubber plantations are becoming successful. The out- 

 look in Burma seems to be excellent. A Rangoon firm which 

 took up 2,000 acres in the Shwegyin Sub-Division has applied 

 for 5,000 acres in addition, to extend its plantation. Good roads 

 are badly wanted in that part of the Province, for, as yet, though 

 only a few miles from the railway, planters are cut off from it 

 most of the year by thick jungles or impenetrable swamps. An- 

 other Rangoon firm has a rubber plantation near the Leiklho 

 Hills, in the Toungoo District, which is most favourably situated 

 as regards water-supply and where plants of two and three years' 

 growth are in excellent condition. Besides these two plantations 

 financed by Europeans, many Burmese and Karens have small 

 plantations, and the Government plantation in the Mergui 

 District should soon be in a position to export rubber. In the 

 presence of the rising prices of rubber in the markets of the 

 world, there seem to be excellent prospects for the Burma rubber 

 plantations." # 



These high prices, however, must be looked on rather as fancy 

 ones, and are not to be expected as a permanent possibility. 

 They are chiefly interesting as showing that first class rubber 

 is badly wanted just now, and that Malay rubber is still the first 

 in the world, always keeping a little ahead of Ceylon. 



The "India-Rubber journal Market Chart" for Fine Para shows 

 that the prices have fallen but are on the rise again. In August 

 the price is given at 5s. z\d. which is the highest record in four 

 years. The price then fell to 4s. g\d. in September and rose 

 in August and November to 4s. u^d. 



SOY AND BEAN CHEESE. 



Among the number of small manufactures by natives in Singa- 

 pore, many of which are quite unknown to the ordinary residents, 

 the manufacture of the Chinese sauce known as Soy, is one of 

 some interest and importance, and having had occasion lately 

 to visit three of these factories, I put together such notes on 



