82 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



Articles. 



Soap, toilet— 

 United Kingdom 

 British Colonies — 



British India 



New South Wales 



South Australia 



Straits Settlements 



Victoria 



Zanzibar 

 Foreign Countries— 



Austiia 



China 



Egypt 



France 



Germany 



Holland 



Italy 



Japan 



U. S., America 

 Russia in Europe 

 Switzerland 



Soap, bar— 



United Kingdom 

 British Colonies — 



British India 



Hongkong 



New South Wales 



Queensland 



South Australia 



Victoria 



West Australia 

 Foreign Countries- 

 Austria 



China 



France 



Germany 



Russia 



O c O 



■Ens o& 

 a ? o o. 

 =6 3 S 9 



3 ■£ O S 



2 * £ 



HQ ft 



Cwt. 



Cwt. 



Cwt 



2611 



2647 





g 





609 







23 







S 



2 



2 



41 



21 



21 



893 

 12 



23 



23 



1707 







10 



40 



45 



2 



1(169 



83 



85 



5421 







78 



45 



45 



1835 



148 



148 



5830 



21 



21 



3916 







7 



4 



4 



217 



3007 



3050 



173313 



1887 



1823 



32846 



1056 



1056 



7397 



58 



58 



649 



125 



125 



1 "41 



11?.:S5 



11335 



135945 



2678 



2078 



30432 



15 



15 



315 



2 



2 



48 



81 



81 



1125 



17237 



17173 



210498 



It will be seen that the total value of toilet 

 and bar-soap was R383,811 last year, or nearly 

 R40, 000 less than in 1906; such fluctuations must 

 be expected in a trade of this kind. The curi- 

 ous fact, however, is that while in 1891 nearly all 

 our soap came from India (R 70, 933) with R37.313 

 from the United Kingdom and R15,986 from 

 Germany,— in 1907, we find the Australian 

 Colony of Victoria supplying us with soap to 

 the value of R135.945, and Western Australia 

 R30,432, both in " bar-soap." while the U. K. is 

 represented by R32.846 and India only by R7,397. 

 In regard to " toilet soap, : ' however, R15l,635 

 came from the U. Kingdom, leaviug only R22,000 

 to represent what comes chiefly from Japan, 

 Germany and the U.S. of America. The trade in 

 "toilet" soap can scarcely be disturbed; but surely 

 Ceylon could, in the present day, manufacture 

 its own " bar " soap, with the advantage 

 of a 6i per cent ad valorem import duty, 

 considering that it manufactured and ex- 

 ported soap so freely twenty years ago ? A 

 great deal of the raw material — coconut oil 

 especially — is available in the island, and, 

 indeed, it is a question whether the preparation 

 of emollients should not, to some extent, become 

 a household industry. We do not know whether 

 such has become the case in the West Indies ; 

 but we cannot better conclude our present deli- 

 verance than with the following extract from a 

 W 7 est Indian journal of a good many years ago — 

 for, the statement has its lesson' tor Ceylon ;— 



A tropical country, unless it be pure sand or rock, ia 

 pretty sure to, it certainly can easily, be a great oil-pro- 

 ducer. The best oil-seeds and most of the palms grow there 

 and give it oil abundance, and yield it up at slight cost. 

 From these we obtain lighting, cooking, salad, and lubricat- 

 ing oils, soap, candles, oil meal for stock, and other use- 

 ful products. Every cook on board ship has his slush 

 bucket, and the grease he saves for the soap makers is a 

 perquisite that gives a welcome addition to his wage a 

 the end of the voyage. In North America many a thousand 

 housewives in clearings remote from towns, saving the 

 grease-offals from their kitchen and the ashes of their 

 wood fires (to dissolve out the alkali) make soft soap enough 

 for the family washing. Yet, in this Colony, with a super- 

 abundance of material, in various forms, we have put none 

 of it to use for soap till now, and none at all for candles ! 

 Let the Colonists abjure petty insular conceit and silly 

 pride, and humbly stoop to learn the many things they 

 are ignorant of, or— knowing - have neglected. 



The rude material of wealth, the opportunities of 

 industry, are almost boundless in these countries. 

 Better a moderate competency at these, with inde- 

 pendence, than an aching uncertain struggle for a place 

 in the few professions, or be one in a crowd of applicants 

 for a vacancy as clerk or salesman, without a trade or 

 creative pursuit in arm or brain to fly to in case of 

 failure. 



There is a lesson with a decided local ap- 

 plication in the above. Another industry 

 closely allied to Soap, is Candle-making. 

 Of candles, Ceylon imported to the 7*lue of 

 R96,289 in 1907. For what purpose could we 

 have imported last yoar 30,884 cwt. of Fuller's 

 Earth from India?— worth R65.094. 



OPINIONS OF COLOMBO MERCHANTS. 



The subject of the feasibility of soap manu- 

 facture in Ceylon has been taken up in one or 

 two quarters but is not looked upon with opti- 

 mism. A partner in a local firm which did a con- 

 siderable business in soap manufacture a little 

 over a decade ago, whilst admitting the local 

 advantages to the soap factor in Ceylon, looked 

 at the matter from a purely competitive point 

 of view, and on that ground could not support 

 its encoursgement. 



" We gave up soap manufacture on account 

 of the keen competition which we experienced 

 from home. Home firms made it quite as 

 good as we could, and at a cheaper rate. 

 They have all the advantages of machinery, 

 chemists, the best perfume treatments, and 

 compared with their methods we co uld do it 

 in only a very crude way. Moreover, Ceylon 

 is too small for soap manufacture to pay. 

 The Colombo market is much too small. Even 

 the common soap now-a-dajs is got up 

 with such neatness, such nicety, perfume, &c* 

 We could not develop an export trade from 

 Ceylon that would be likely to pay, in spite of 

 the freight from home. To Singapore it 

 would be about R14 for a ton, and it is only 

 about 22s 6d from home." 



Our representative mentioned that it was 

 understood there is a wealthy native gentleman 

 in Ceylon who is prospecting local soap manu- 

 facture on an extensive scale in view of the 

 advantages of local coconut oil, etc. 



"Then," was the reply, "he will not long re- 

 main the wealthy native gentleman that he is." 



Another member of a Colombo firm ex- 

 pressed the opinion that the effect of the climate 

 on soap that was stocked locally had mitigated 

 against the continuance of its manufacture 

 some years ago. " Unless it was sold as it 

 was produced," he remarked, " it was materially 

 affected. I have heard that one of the firms 

 in Singapore is in a bad way on this account ' 



