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too, Malacca is in a more flourishing state than it has been since 

 the time of Albuquerque and so wealthy have the Chinese there 

 become that they have even largely increased the sale of town 

 land in Singapore by their investment there. Twenty years ago 

 there was a bank in Malacca but it had long died of inanition; now 

 we understand there are three, and that Malacca is again becoming 

 an important town. It is interesting to note that the first practical 

 planter in the rubber industry v/as a Chinaman in Malacca, Mr. Tan 

 Chay Yan, who led off with his estate at Bukit Lintang. Mr. T. 

 Heslop Hil], however, our pioneer planter, had a fine lot of Para rub- 

 ber trees much earlier, though nothing was done with them till later. 



There has been a slight tendency we find among Chinese, and 

 in or two cases among Europeans to abolish coconuts for rubber. 

 This seems to be a mistake. It is by no means desirable that any 

 country should depend entirely on one product, and this is especially 

 the case in dealing with trees which are of slow growth. The rush of 

 planters to one cultivation leading to the abandonment of others 

 naturally causes a rise of price in the latter and sooner or later they 

 come in again. We note with interest the reappearance of gambier 

 and pepper again in Singapore during the last year. We note too 

 the appearance of two more parasitic fungi on our rubber trees, the 

 dangerous black Diplodia rapax, and the Hymenochaete. Compara- 

 tively little attention has been paid to the former. The treatment 

 for Fomes by the more up-to-date planters will equally dispose of the 

 Hymenochaete, 



Many planters are now stubbing their estates with a view of 

 destroying the parasitic root-fungi remaining in the ground from the 

 relics of the original forest trees, and ploughing both with the native 

 plough and disc-ploughs is being also resorted to. Curiously there 

 has been rather a reversion in feeling towards the formerly despised 

 lalang land, owing to its being quite free of underground wood and 

 roots, likely to carry fungi. 



In manufacture the notable thing is the return to smoked rubber, 

 this form having obtained very high prices during the year. In 

 1898 and following years rubber was commonly smoked but later the 

 clear amber coloured biscuits took the fancy of the trade and the 

 darker coloured smoked rubber was at a discount. The increase in 

 output of rubber from the East is given by Messrs. Gow Wilson and 

 Stanton as 2,252 tons from the Peninsula in 1909, as against 250^ in 

 1906, and 4J2 tons from (^^eylon in 1909, against 98^ in 1906, the 

 Malay Peninsula having increased its output nine times, and Ceylon 

 four and a half times. 



Since writing the above we learn that the low price of tapioca 

 has been a considerable factor in the increase of rubber growing 

 among the Chinese, as the tapioca growers find that at the present 

 price it does not pay. The Dutch and J avanese, we learn from Mr. de 



