393 
through  Mr.  Kidley,  the  Director  of  the  Botanic  Gardens  at 
Singapore. 
f am, 
Vours  faithfully, 
WYNDHAM  R.  DUNSTAN, 
Director, 
F.  A.  Galloway,  Esg., 
Klang,  Selangor,  Federated  Malay  States. 
PARA  RUBBER  FROM  JOHORE. 
The  following  letter  to  a well-known  Johore  planter  will  be  of 
interest. 
‘‘  I enclose  you  a copy  of  the  brokers  report  on  your  8 cases 
India-rubber  ex  “Glengarry  ”.  The  valuations  given,  will,  I am 
sure  be  very  satisfactory  to  you.  The  Rubber  is  being  sold  to-day, 
and  probably  in  a postscript  to  this  letter,  I may  be  able  to  give 
you  the  result.* 
“I  went  down  this  morning  to  see  the  samples  put  out  for  buyers' 
inspection,  preparatory  to  the  sale,  and  1 saw  the  broker’s  man 
specially  entrusted  with  this  business.  He  pronounces  vour  Rub- 
ber as  splendid  stuff,  nothing  could  be  better,  but  he  is  not  sure 
that  it  is  worth  while  (if  it  cost  more)  producing  these  very  thin 
biscuits,  such  as  a large  part  of  your  shipment  consists  of,  and 
more  especially  such  as  you  sent  home  packed  in  cigar  box,  by 
post. 
“T  enclose  a biscuit  selected  from  your  own  parcel  which  gives  you 
an  idea  of  what  is  necessary  in  the  way  of  thinness  ; you  need  not 
go  to  the  trouble  of  producing  anything  thinner  than  the  enclosed. 
Looking  at  the  sample  put  out,  which  fairly  represents  the  whole 
shipment,  I was  disappointed  to  find  so  much  of  it  “blocked”  as 
we  say  in  the  case  of  Gambier;  in  other  words,  there  were  several 
lots  of  some  half  dozen  sheets  which  had  stuck  together  so  firmly 
that  they  could  not  be  separated,  this  of  course  detracts  from  the 
value;  of  course  it  is  merely  sentimental,  but  still  it  has  the  effect 
of  lowering  the  price,  and  it  occurs  to  the  people  here  that  the 
biscuits  were  packed  before  they  were  thoroughly  dried  and  that 
pressure  was  put  on  in  order  to  reduce  the  bulk  of  the  shipment 
for  purposes  of  freight;  thus,  being  packed  in  this  moist  condition, 
the  sheets  of  rubber  have  stuck  in  ihi^  objectionable  manner.  In 
the  same  parcel  1 found  a lot  of  biscuits  only  partially  adhering 
together,  which  were  entirely  separated  by  a gentle  pull. 
“It  occurs  to  me  therefore  that  you  should  give  great  attention  to 
the  packing  of  this  stuff,  see  that  the  biscuits  are  thoroughly  dried 
For  note  vidi.’  pago  8. 
