Dye Stuffs. 40 



H. M. Consul at Mozambique, in a dispatch in 1904 to the Foreign Office, 

 states that the quantities of mangrove bark exported from the principal ports 

 of Portuguese East Africa during 1904 amounted to 12,105 tons. These exports 

 seem to have been sent principally to Germany, the United States and Russia, 

 small quantities only being sent to the United Kingdom. In addition to these 

 large exports it is further stated that a large amount of mangrove bark was, at the 

 end of 1904, lying in the various ports awaiting collection, and it was understood 

 that two sailing vessels were being chartered to convey it to Europe owing to 

 the uncertainty of steamship facilities for the transport of the bark. The value 

 of the bark in European markets at the end of 1904 is stated by the Consul to have 

 been from £4 10.s to £6 10.s. per ton, and he goes on to say that while the demand in 

 Germany was slack, that in the United States and Russia was firm. The cost of 

 collecting, drying and packing the bark in Portuguese East Africa is estimated at 

 from 20,s. to 30s. per ton, including the export duty of 2s. per ton. The freight to 

 Hamburg at that time was about 32.9. per ton. 



The Diplomatic and Consular Report on the British East Africa Protectorate 

 for 1902 No. 2903, p. 13 gives the following statistics of the exports of mangrove bark, 

 known locally as " boriti bark," from that country: — 



Value. 



1900- 1 ... ... ... £998 14s. 8d. 



1901- 2 ... ... ... £908 14s. 8d. 



The export duty on the bark from British East Africa was then 10 per 

 cent- ad-valorem. 



The Diplomatic and Consular Reports for Sarawak, Brunei and British 

 North Borneo, for the period 1898—1903, give the following figures for the exports 

 of mangrove cutch made there. These exports went principally to the United 

 Kingdom : — 



EXPORTS PROM SARAWAK. 



Piculs. Value. 



1899 ... ... ... 1,612-5 £1,197 



1900 ... ... ... 1,260-0 £1,039 



1902 .. ... ... 3,488-75 



EXPORTS PROM BRITISH NORTH BORNEO. 



cwt. 



1903 ... ... ... 18,000 (estimated) 



These figures may be supplemented to some extent by the import returns 

 for cutch in the United Kingdom, which show that in 1903, 269 tons of cutch, 

 valued at £7,149, and 1904, 254 tons, valued at £5,299, were imported into the 

 United Kingdom from British North Borneo. It may be assumed that this was 

 entirely mangrove cutch. Mangrove cutch, as already explained, is principally 

 used by dyers, and it seems to have taken the place to some extent of the 

 true cutch largely produced in North- West India and in Burma, from the wood 

 of Acacia catechu— Bulletin of the Imperial Institute, Vol. Ill, No. 4, 1906. 



