215 



KAPOK AS A TEXTILE. 



Hitherto Kapok has been found to be unspinnable as the fibre 

 is too short and brittle, and consequently has been only used for 

 stuffing pillows. Now it is reported that the Germans have dis- 

 covered a process of spinning it into yarn, as they have the equally short 

 fibre of Calotropis procera, IVIudar fibre. Why do not the English 

 people discover and secure as the Germans have done so many pro- 

 cesses such as these which would bring wealth to the nation ? It is 

 probably due to the well-known contempt for scientific research in 

 our nation. 



By means of a process evolved by Professor Goldberg, of Che- 

 muitz, the brittle and fragile fibre of the kapok tree is treated in such 

 a way as to render it easily spinnable and yarn up to 12 English is 

 now being spun from it. The yarn is of fine quality and of very soft 

 silky tenacious character. The process in question does not neces- 

 sitate the employment of any new machinery, but is based entirely 

 on a novel and somewhat complicated system of preliminary pre- 

 paration and spinning. 



The process is, of course, a secret one ( Queensland Agricultural 

 Journal, April 1910, p. 1 74.) 



Kapok lis common here and of no great value up-to-date, but 

 this discovery may make it a very paying crop. 



The Australian journal quoted finishes its article by saying : 

 " Kapok, sisal, and cotton thrive well in Queensland but the high 

 wages demanded by the white labourer are such a serious handicap 

 that it will probably pay the Australian manufacturer to import the 

 raw material produced by cheap black labour than to encourage 

 agricultural enterprise in this direction in any of the States of the 

 Commonwealth." Australia has a large area of tropical country 

 which cannot be properly worked by the white labourer and what 

 tropical work can be done by him costs out of all proportion to the 

 profits. As long as Australian socialists talk about white labour in 

 tropical Australia, she will have to buy the tropical produce she 

 requires from other countries instead of producing it herself, and her 

 valuable land will be almost worthless. Another example of the way 

 not to do things. 



RUBBER \H QUEENSLAND. 



The same journal gives estimates for opening up rubber estates 

 m Queensland by white labour. White labour costs there £8. 4s per 

 month, and opening up a 500 acre block of rubber to the sixth year 

 would cost £33,872, or £67. 15s an acre, that of New Guinea under black 

 labour £10,500 or £21 per acre while the same acreage in the Malay 

 Peninsula is given at £10,500 or £2i per acre: The cost of Papuan 

 labour is given at one pound a month, 8.57 dollars. 



