123 



The upriver article comes from the head waters of the rivers 

 Madeira, Purees, Jurua, and Javary as far as 3,600 miles from here. 



The cost of Islands Rubber is from is. 2d. to 2s. per lb. The 

 cost increases with the distance. 



No system of cultivation exists, nor is any being attempted. 

 For more information I would refer you to the following Con- 

 sular Reports : — 



State of Para No. 2,140 of 1898. 

 State of Amazonas No. 530 of 1900. 

 I regret I cannot supply them to you, as I have no duplicate. 



I have &c, 



(Sgd.) H. B. S. Churchill, 

 Consul. 



The Secretary, Chamber of Commerce , 

 Singapore. 



H. B. M. Consulate, 

 Mexico City, D. P. 

 September 7th, 1901. 



Sir, — I have been requested by His Majesty's Consul to acknow- 

 ledge the receipt of your letter of the 25th of July, and to inform 

 you that there is practically no rubber at present exported from 

 Mexico, forty tons of wild rubber having been shipped from the 

 State of Chiapas, and ten tons from Coatzacoalcas, a port in the 

 State of Vera Cruz. 



2. The cost cannot be estimated, as the wild rubber is collected 

 by the Indians and sold by them to Traders at the mouths of the 

 Rivers. 



3. A very large acreage is being put into rubber there being 

 several plantations, which have from two to four hundred thousand 

 trees, none of these plantations have been in existence for seven 

 years which is the time needed in Mexico for rubber to give results, 

 so their ultimate future is problematical. 



I may add that the acreage is being greatly increased, the 

 majority of Companies and individuals who are planting rubber are 

 Americans. 



The average number of trees planted to the acre is 180, Ameri- 

 can investors seem to have every confidence that rubber in Mexico 

 will give large profits, but up to the present moment no results 

 have been given, which would justify these beliefs. 



H. Hastings Horne, 



Pro Consul. 



Chamber of Commerce, Singapore. 



* Part was produced outside tihs State. 



