570 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



This last sub-section safeguards the right of 

 the occupier to keep a house, store, etc., for 

 the purpose of storing therein any rubber grown 

 on his own land without the necessity of obtain- 

 ing a license. It does not seem to have occurred 

 to the learned framers of the Enactment that 

 a similar exception should be added to sub- 

 section 2, or else the owner of an acre of land 

 with (say) twenty tappable trees thereon, who 

 'treats' his latex himself will have to take out 

 a license, for he will be ' keeping a place for the 

 purpose of treating cultivated rubber.' 



The casual reader may remark 'Well why 

 shouldn't he?' But the answer to this is to be 

 found in section 4 which requires payment of a 

 fee of $25 for a license, which 'shall not be 

 issued until the applicant therefor shall have 

 made a deposit of $200.' So that before the 

 small holder can treat his own latex, as many of 

 them do, he has got to deposit $200 and pay $25. 

 After this one is really surprised to read that 

 'interest allowed by the Bank' (what bank?) 

 'on the amount referred to shall be payable to 

 the depositor' and that the deposit itself will 

 actually be returned 'after the expiration of one 

 month from the date on which it expired.' 



It may be necessary, it no doubt is necessary, 

 to pass an enactment to control the dealers in 

 cultivated rubber, but it is, I submit, an un- 

 heard of thing that many small Malay cultivators 

 should be prevented from treating their own 

 rubber and be compelled, as they must be by 

 this Enactment, to sell or lease their trees to 

 those who have sufficient capital to put down 

 $225. We hear a great deal from time to time of 

 Gubernatorial and Governmental anxiety to 

 benefit the Malays, but I can hardly think that 

 the learned framers of this extraordinary law 

 can have reflected on the fact that if it passes 

 unamended probably nine out of ten of the 

 Malay smallholders cultivating rubber will be 

 deprived of a large part of their legitimate pro- 

 fits which will in future go to swell the profits 

 of the Chinese and European capitalist. 



Yours, etc., 



David Freeman. 



- -Ibid, Nov. 24. 



RUBBER IN B. N. BORNEO. 



Tambunan District. — Experiments are being 

 made with rubber stumps and seeds, 100 stumps 

 and almost 1,000 seeds having been planted. At 

 the time of writing no seeds had come up. 



Kudat. — The manager of the Pitas, Ranau and 

 Bandau estates is shipping by this boat a small 

 sample of Para rubber, about 100 lb., from the 

 400 trees he is tapping. Bound the manager's 

 house had been planted several trees of the 

 Ficus Elastica. Mr Metelerkamp as an experi- 

 ment tried mixing a small portion of the latex 

 of these trees with the same quantity of Para 

 rubber latex. The two or three sheets I saw 

 appear to be of a blood red colour when drying, 

 but do not appear to be as flexible as the true 

 para. I am informed that samples of this 

 rubber unmixed with para will also shortly be 

 sent home for report, — W H Hastings, Resident. 



Beaufort. — 1 found on my return that an estate 

 cooly under sentence had escaped and, making 

 his way to Padas Valley estate, had been badly 

 speared by a string trap set by the Manager's 

 orders to kill deer and pig. I found that large 

 numbers of these traps had been set and accor- 

 dingly fined the manager $75. He was lucky in 

 escaping a far more serious charge as the man 

 had a narrow escape from being killed. — P C 

 Brackenbury, District Officer. 



Kaningau.— I received 210 rubber seeds from 

 Tenom on this day and these are now coming up 

 well. On the 15th 100 stumps arrived for me, 

 100 being sent on to Tambunan the same day. 

 These I planted out at once. On the 16th, 17th 

 and 18th I was out on the bridlepath for the 

 greater part of each day supervising the bridges, 

 'f he Muruts are slow at this kind of work and 

 need a lot of help. On Sunday the 19th I re- 

 ceived a further consignment of 290 rubber 

 seeds, this makes a total of 500 that have been 

 supplied by the Resident. Up to the time of 

 writing 200 have already come up and there are 

 signs of a great many more which I hope will shew 

 up in a few days time. - H L W Stock, Assistant 

 District Officer.— B. N. B. Herald, Nov. 16. 



TEA AND RUBBER IN NYASALAND. 



The report by Governor Sharpe on the Nyasa- 

 land Protectorate for 1908-9 states that the tea 

 crop is chiefly confined to the Mlanje district, 

 598 acres being under cultivation. There is an 

 experimental plot of three acres in the West 

 i-hire district. A considerable quantity is con- 

 sumed locally, and during the year 23,948 lb. 

 were exported. Tea will always be a minor item 

 in the products of Nyasaland owing to the re- 

 stricted areas suitable for its cultivation. With 

 the exception of South East Mlanje, West Nyasa 

 is the mostideal district from a climatic point of 

 view. Rubber cultivation promises to become an 

 important feature in Nyasaland, and there 

 should be a considerable export of cultivated 

 rubber within the next two or three years. 

 During 1908-9 over 1,000 acres were planted, 

 and 3,523 acres are now under cultivation. The 

 climate, on the whole, is too dry for Para and 

 Castilloa, but Ceara grows extremely well on 

 suitable soils. A number of seeds of the new 

 Manihots — M. Dichotoma and M. piauhuyensis 

 — have been imported, the percentage germi- 

 nating proving very low. The growth of both 

 species is, however, promising and it is hoped 

 that the reported astonishing yields of rubber 

 obtained in their natural habitat will be main- 

 tained under cultivation. Para (Hevea Bra- 

 siliensis) is grown in the West Nyasa district 

 where the rainfall is copious and well distri- 

 buted throughout the year. Plants which have 

 been established about three years are full of 

 promise, being over 20 feet high. Castilloa 

 elastica is also making excellent growth in this 

 particular district. Experimental plots of Fun- 

 tumia elastica are established in various parts 

 of the Protectorate, but the rate of growth is 

 so far disappointing. During the year 1908-9 

 15,415 lb. of rubber was exported, valued at 

 £3,083, of which 1,514 lb. was cultivated rubber, 

 13,901 lb. being collected from indigenous vines, 

 — H. <fc C,iMail, J$ov. 19. 



