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DISCOVERY OF A VALUABLE RUBBER TREE IN 

 NORTHERN NATAL. 



It is a remarkable fact, states the Financial News, that an 

 imperative demand for any commodity has the effect of unlocking 

 hitherto unsuspected sources of supply; and apparently rubber is 

 not to be the exception to the rule. Whilst millions sterling are 

 expended in planting Hevea Brasiliensis, explorers have been busy 

 testing the properties of the juices of other species of trees and 

 recent news from South Africa has it that a discovery has been made 

 in the portions of the State of Natal, particularly in the neighbour- 

 hood of Greytov^n and Krantzkop, in the Tugela Valley, v^here a 

 tree known as the Tirucalli abounds. It attains very large size 

 from a few inches to some 15 ft. in circumference, and has long been 

 known, when cut or gashed, to yield a sticky fluid congealing to a 

 putty-like mass. It has now been discovered that this " milk/' or 

 " latex," promises to add considerably to the world's rubber supply. 



The exudation of the Tirucalli tree has been submitted to analyses, 

 and is stated to be found to contain from 10 per cent, to 20 per cent, 

 of fine rubber and about) 50 per cent, of a valuable resin, from which 

 fine varnish has been made. The quality is stated (on the authority 

 of Dr. Philip Schidrowitz) to be equal to 60 per cent, of best hard 

 Para, and when the latex is still further deprived of its resinous 

 content a rubber is obtained that is scarcely less valuable than the 

 finest plantation smoked sheets. The Natal native Trust has granted 

 a concession for the Tirucalli Rubber Concessions, Limited, to tap 

 and fell the rubber-bearing tree over an area of some 600 square 

 miles. This company will issue its first subsidiary at an early date. 

 Cable advices recently received, signed jointly by three experts (Mr. 

 Herbert Noyes, a well-known Malay planter, Sir Salter Pyne, M.I.C.E., 

 and Mr. Stanley Stiebel), are of promising character. The following 

 are extracts from their cables : — 



April 15. — "2,000,000 rubber trees ready to tap, others innumer- 

 able." 



April 17. — "From personal inspection through the middle of 

 concession, rubber trees ready to tap innumerable, 10 to 48 ins. in 

 diameter. Within a distance of ten miles estimate 3,840,000 trees 

 extending indefinitely." 



April 21. — "Investigations continue to be of an extremely 

 satisfactory character. We can certify as to 10,000,000 trees. Cost 

 of production is i^d. per pound (this refers to cost of collecting the 

 latex and coagulating same)." 



Euphorbia Tirucally is a large shrub attaining sometimes a height 

 of 20 feet which, orginally a native of Africa, has long been plan- 

 ted in India as a hedge, and also used for shading young Mango trees 

 from sunlight. The latex which is very poisonous, causing excrucia- 

 ting pain if it gets into a cut in the skin or in to the eye, was formerly 



