279 



Price of Labour. 



"Java has the better of the Straits and Ceylon in regard to 

 labour ?" 



"From what I could see Java will be paying a 7 per cent dividend 

 when the Straits are only covering expenses. This will be the result 

 of the cheapness of Java's local labour which draws on an average 4| 

 to 5d. sterling daily and that after 2,000 acres have been opened in one 

 district in one year, and consequently caused an advance in the rate 

 of wages. That wage, 30 Ceylon cents, as you will see, is rather less 

 than the Ceylon wage, and placing the Straits pay at 35 dollar cents, 

 or 58 Ceylon cents, you will see that Java stands first again." 



"What about consumption and the prospects in the future?" 



"About 70,000 tons is the present consumption, and the present 

 price tends to increase the uses to which it is put. The area opened 

 in cultivated rubber is, say, 400,000 acres allowing one ton for every ten 

 acres, i.e., at the rate of 224 lbs., per acre per annum, we have only 

 40,000 tons. When present opened land all gives 224 lbs., per acre 

 per annum — and this may never be obtained, for land has been planted 

 in the F.M.S., Java, Ceylon and India, which is unsuitable for rubber 

 — we have to displace 40,000 tons of wild rubber. Plantation rubber 

 now commands 4d. per lb., more than wild rubber and as plantation 

 gets cheaper the demand for wild rubber will not increase, as the 

 demand for inferior tea and coffee has not increased. The tendency 

 is always to buy the purer article. If rubber falls to 2s. per lb. I 

 expect it will be placed on board for one shilling when estates are in 

 full bearing. We have, therefore, a margin of 224 shillings per acre. 

 We can bring our rubber into bearing for £35 per acre even in the 

 Straits, so that at 2s. a lb., we should earn 30 per cent. Diseases may 

 come on ; bark may renew more slowly : wild rubber may show large 

 profits at Is. 6d. per lb., that is to say, 6d. per lb., below the price we 

 put on the cultivated article ; but still I cannot look on rubber as 

 likely to yield anything but a handsome profits to the man whose 

 rubber cost him £35 per acre, for many years to come." 



"What did you think of the growth of rubber in the Straits'?" 



" I only visited some estates near Klang, I am sorry to say, but 

 I thought Straits rubber at four years equal to Ceylon and South India 

 (at 51) and on 'account of the soil and being able to constantly tap, 

 as you have no droughts, the Straits and Java yields should exceed the 

 yield of Ceylon and South India." 



Quality of Java Kubber. 



"Can you say anything about the quality of rubber in Java V 

 " At present there is no Para rubber being shipped from Java, but, 

 looking at the soil, there is no reason to anticipate — especially when 

 we take into consideration the price being obtained for the rambong of 

 which there is a good quality and quantity, and rambong in Java is 

 much finer than the product I have seen in the Straits — that there 

 will be anything wrong with the quality of the rubber. A large 

 acieage has been, and is being, opened in Para. The product, is how- 

 ever, still in its infancy, and very little has been done regarding the 



