7 2 



in Ceylon and tlie Straits Settlements, -and which, no doubt, will find 

 its way into West Africa. It is not so many years ago that the re- 

 sults already obtained were held to be impossible of achievement, 

 but the cries of the pessimists have been falsified in the event. 



Comparison of Values. 



There are yet one or two technical points as to the comparative 

 value of the rubber produced in Brazil and Ceylon to be settled, but, 

 in this general survey we did not stop to inquire into them. Suffice 

 it to say that fine Para rubber is now being grown in Ceylon, and 

 finds a ready market at prices quite equal to what is ruling for the 

 forest product. Although such forestry operations are of necessity 

 slow in their growth, and the capital expenditure unremunerative 

 for a number of years, it may be taken that plantation rubber is 

 now an accomplished fact, and that from this source in many parts 

 of the world the supply of natural rubber will be augmented to an 

 increasing extent in the future. The rubber manufacturers say that 

 in order to ensure them busy and progressive times, Para rubber 

 should be in the neighbourhood of $s. per lb.; quite recently it has 

 touched 5^. 5^/., and it must be confessed that the price which would 

 be welcomed by manufacturers and customers alike seems, at the 

 present time, very remote, and the user of rubber goods must per- 

 force accept the situation with what degree of equanimity he can 

 command. Perhaps the chief element which tends to threaten his 

 quiescence of mind is a suspicion that, although rubber manufac- 

 turers are apt to act promptly in raising prices when necessity com- 

 pels, they exhibit a somewhat sluggish movement with regard to a 

 reduction when the price- of the raw material falls. Now, with res- 

 pect to the prices of the various qualities of rubber on the market, 

 the ordinary man cannot be expected to be informed, but as all 

 other rubbers follow the price of Para more or less closely and as 

 Para is quoted in the market reports of most of the daily papers, 

 there is nothing to prevent the engineer who is a buyer of rubber 

 goods from forming his own opinion, to some extent at least, as to 

 when the time has arrived for the removal of the import. Of course, 

 he can keep on at old prices now if he wants to, but, as we have 

 already indicated, we think this would be a wrong policy, as he 

 would assuredly get an inferior article, although the reduction 

 might not be apparent to the senses. 



(Extract from the <( Straits Times" of the 17 th February, 1905.J 



PARA BEATEN BY CEYLON. 



Victoire acquise aux anglais ! Thus commences an article by 

 Mr. ClBOT in the Journal d' Agriculture Tropicale. Mr. Paul 

 ClBOT who has travelled to Venezuela to study Para rubber has 

 also been lately in the Malay Peninsula where he expressed his 



