417 



In 10 years (1919) presuming* that 25,000 acres are 

 planted annually during the next live years (a very reason- 

 able estimate, considering that over 40,000 acres were 

 planted during the year in both 1907 and 1908), the rubber 

 trees of the Federated Malay States should yield not less 

 than 50,000 tons of dry rubber, which at 3s. per lb. re- 

 present a value of $144,000,000. This amount, should the 

 demand for rubber increase at the rate it has been annually 

 rising for the last nine years, will probably at that time be 

 less than 25 per cent, of the world's consumption. 



It is 70 years since the discovery of vulcanisation by 

 Goodyear made rubber available for economic purposes. 

 It is now a necessary of civilised life, and it is only by 

 means of rubber that we can solve the difficult problems of 

 transport and communication. Without it electric wire in- 

 sulation for telegraphy and lighting, pneumatic and cushion 

 tyres, and the air brakes of railways would all be imprac- 

 ticable; and in the purposes for which it is used in medicine 

 and surgery it is an absolute essential. The optimistic view 

 Hint the demand will before long exceed the supply is not 

 more unlikely than the more usual view of the pessimist 

 that the continued planting of rubber will result in a supply 

 larger than the demand and consequently a considerable 

 drop in prices. 



That the market will be overstocked with rubber is 

 still a haunting fear of the owner of rubber property, but 

 as en ch year brings new uses for rubber, and increases the 

 amount used in directions where its value is already known, 

 the possibility of over-production seems less probable. 



Many expert authorities expect that developments in 

 the direction of rubber street-paving, covering for decks of 

 ships, etc., may be looked for in the near future. Some two 

 or three years ago, when I was looking into the question of 

 rubber pavement, I estimated that two inch-thick rubber of 

 the quality which the London and North Western Railway 

 had so successsfully used in the rubber pavement at the 

 entrance of Euston Station if used for paving the streets 

 of London, which are at present laid with wood or asphalt, 

 would require about 90,000 tons of crude rubber. 



If the prophecies so frequently made by experts as to 

 the increase in the use of motor cars are fulfilled, we have 

 another large and increasing demand for rubber of good 

 quality, and wherever the future possibilities of expansion 

 in the rubber market is studied it is found to be more than 

 hopeful. The purposes for which rubber can and will be 

 used economically are unlimited, and we may look forward 



