223 
an outbreak of the pest took place in Ceylon, in 1910; this is 
described in Circulars and Agricultural Journal of the Royal 
Botanic Gardens, Ceylon, Vol. V, No. 7, where, however, it has 
shown itself a scavenger rather than an enemy of plant life. — 
Agricultural News. 
BRACER FOR RUBBER. 
Tropical Life (London) for May, in its review of the rubber 
shares market, discusses a conflict between bulls and bears with 
regard to the price of Para, and then goes on to brace up the 
spirits of rubber investors in the following words : 
"The outlook, then, is one of uncertainty ; but this consumers' 
hand-to-mouth policy of buying only for immediate needs is 
becoming dangerous, and must be very hampering and nerve- 
racking, as in previous years it was the unquestioned policy to 
hold a fair margin of stock for future demands. These demands 
are going to be big. The motor industry is swallowing rubber 
with enormous rapidity, and its appetite grows with eating. 
"The holidays at the beginning of May, in conjunction with 
a large measure of uncertainty as to the course of the material 
market, has brought business in rubber shares to a compara- 
tively low ebb. Meanwhile, the tide of prosperity in the rubber 
industry flows steadily on ; proof of this being clearly shown by 
the large number of excellent reports now coming to hand. It 
is the nature of these reports — demonstrating as they do the big 
dividend-earning capacity of well-placed, well-managed estates — 
that makes one feel that the rubber industry is not a 'fairy's 
whim,' but a sensible, soHd, business-Hke 'undertaking of lasting 
merit. Reading the annual reports now appearing day by day, 
it is very noticeable how many of the comparatively young com- 
panies are entering the ranks of the dividend payers for the 
first time, with the prospect of largely increased distributions at 
this time next year." 
PUNA FOREST RESERVE. 
Following a public hearing held on June 28, 1911, by the 
Governor of the Territory and the Board of Commissioners of 
Agriculture and Forestry, Governor Frear, on June 29, signed 
a proclamation setting apart 19,850 acres of government forest 
land in the District of Puna, Island of Hawaii, as a forest re- 
serve. This proclamation is given on another page of this issue 
of the Forester. The report of the Superintendent of Forestry 
on this subject, approved by the Board of Agriculture and For- 
estry at a meeting held on June 9, 1911, was printed in the 
June number of the Forester. 
