Jan.  I,  1897.] 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
455 
sent  en  route  to  Ceylon  to  enable  the  transfer  to  be 
completed.  Our  agents  in  Ceylon,  Messrs  Finlay, 
Muir,  and  Co.,  have  now  obtained  control  of  the 
other  four  estates,  and  the  tea  of  recent  growth  has 
been  shipped  home  to  the  company,  the  first  of  it 
being  printed  in  public  auction  for  tomorrow.  The 
delay  with  regard  to  the  transfer  of  Doragalla 
estate  has  caused  delay  in  making  application  to  the 
Stock  E.xchange  committee  for  a special  settlement 
and  quotation,  but  all  the  papers  have  now  been 
lodged,  and  it  is  probable  that  the  Stock  Exchange 
committee  and  its  meeting  today  will  arrange  the 
matter.  The  aggregate  yield  of  all  the  properties  up  to 
latest  advices  received  is  satisfactory  in  comparison 
with  the  corresponding  period  of  189.o,  and  the  teas 
sold  by  the  vendors,  the  proceeds  of  which, 
for  all  manufactured  after  the  1st  of  July, 
belong  to,  and  will  be  accounted  for  to  this  company, 
show  an  advance  in  prices  over  those  obtained  at  the 
time  of  the  formation  of  the  company.  The  outturn 
is  also  better,  and  in  fact  everything  bids  fair  for 
smooth  working.  I hope  to  visit  the  estates  within  the 
next  three  months,  having  other  business  in  the  East, 
and  to  be  able  to  give  my  personal  views  at  our  first 
ordinary  general  meeting.  With  regard  to  the 
making  up  of  accounts  and  the  payment  of  dividends, 
the  directors  have  decided  that  the  preference  divi- 
dends shall  be  paid  in  two  equal  instalments  on  the 
3lst  of  March  and  30th  of  September,  which  divi- 
dends will  relate  to  the  periods  ending  .31st  of  Decem- 
ber and  30th  of  June,  me  interval  of  throe  mouths 
being  necessary  to  get  the  produce  home  and  sold 
and  the  accounts  made  up.  I shall  be  pleased  to 
answer  any  questions,  and  hope  at  the  next  meeting 
to  have  a much  more  interesting  account  to  give. 
In  reply  to  a shareholder,  the  chairman  stated  that 
the  tea  which  had  been  sold  belonging  to  the  vendor- 
had  been  of  good  quality,  and  had  reached  higher 
price  than  was  anticipated. 
A vote  of  thanks  to  the  chairman  for  presiding 
at  the  meeting,  proposed  by  Mr.  E.  Loewenstein 
and  seconded  by  Mr.  G.  W.'Bake,  was  unanimously 
adopted. 
The  Chairman,  in  briefly  responding,  expressed 
the  hope  that,  being  an  old  tea  planter,  his  forth- 
coming visit  to  the  estates  would  be  beneficial. 
The  proceedings  then  terminated. 
[The  quotation  referred  to  above  has  been  granted 
by  the  Stock  Exchrnge  committee,  and  the  special 
settlement  fixed  for  Nov.  18th.] — JL  and  C.  Mail, 
November  13. 
« 
THE  CEYLON  HILLS  TEA  ESTATES 
COMPANY,  LD. 
The  lirsb  general  or  statutory  meeting  of  the 
Ceylon  Hills  Tea  Estates  Company,  Ld.,  was  held 
at  the  offices  of  Me.ssrs.  Bosanquet  & Co.,  Chat- 
ham Street,  in  the  afternoon  of  Tuesday  1st  Dec. 
Mr.  J.  H.  Kenton  presided.  The  Directors  present 
were  Messrs.  E.  Lieschingand  \V.  \V.  Kenny,  and 
the  following  shareholders  were  present  or  repre- 
sented by  returns  : — Mes.srs.  Delmege,  Reid  «&  Co., 
Mr.  Harry  Creasy,  Mr.  A.  M.  Caldecott-Smith, 
Mrs.  Caldecott-Smith,  Mr.  K.  A.  Bosanquet,  Mr. 
G.  E.  Traill,  Mr.  W.  li.  Alexander,  Mr.  James 
Alexander,  Miss  C.  M.  E.  Alexander,  Miss  K.  A. 
Alexander,  Mr.  W.  Dougall  Stuart,  Rev.  C. 
Bosanquet,  Mr.  F.  A.  Bosanquet,  Q.C.,  Mr.  E.  F. 
Bosanquet,  Mrs.  R.  A.  Bosanquet,  Mr.  R.  W. 
Wickham,  Mr.  N.  C.  Davidson, 
Mr.  H.  Creasy  proposed  that  the  retiring 
Directors  (Me.ssrs.  J.  H.  Renton,  F.  Liesching, 
and  W.  W.  Kenny)  be  re  elected. 
Mr.  Caldecott-Smith  seconded. — Carried. 
The  Chairman  laid  a short  account  of  the 
position  and  prospects  of  the  company  before  the 
meeting ; and  re-election  of  Directors  being  the 
only  business  the  proceedings  ended. 
THE  FERNLANDS  TEA  COMPANY, 
LIMITED. 
This  Company  is  being  registered  by  Messrs 
de  Saram  with  a capital  of  R275.000  with  the 
object  primarily  of  acquiring  the  Fernlands  and 
Eton  Estates  at  Pundaluoya  for  £16,000  sterling. 
The  signatories  to  the  memorandum  published  in 
tonight’s  Gazette  are  : — Isabella  Frances  Green, 
Edward  Ernest  Green,  Helen  Mary  Green,  Geo. 
H.  Green,  Arthur  P.  Green,  Staniforth  Green, 
H.  L.  Egan. 
♦ 
INDIA-RUBBER. 
India-Rubber  is  in  a fair  way  to  become  one  of  the 
prime  necessities  of  civilis.ation.  Numberless  human 
beings,  in  the  class  which  could  not  afford  wet- 
nurses,  owe  their  lives  10  the  feeding-bottle.  Every- 
body knows  that  in  the  last  five  years  the  use  of 
pneumatic  tyres  for  cycles  and  solid  rubber  tyres 
for  horse-vehicles  has  enormously  increased  our  con- 
sumption of  this  article ; but,  quite  apart  from  that 
more  obvious  fact,  india-rubber  is  daily  being  in- 
troduced more  and  more  into  all  sorts  of  machinery. 
Highly  competent  judges  say  that  if  the  output 
could  be  doubled  within  a .year,  so  many  new 
applications  of  the  material  would  instantly  arise, 
that  the  pi  ice  would  not  fall  appreciably.  As 
a matter  of  fact,  the  export  of  Para  rubber 
has  increased  within  the  last  twenty-five  years 
from  .5,600  t'uis  to  20,000  tons;  and  the  price 
fetched  by  the  best  quality  has  risen  from  2s.  to 
3s.  a pound.  It  is  the  one  jungle  product  which 
society  finds  indispensable.  Hundreds  of  men  have 
racked  their  brains  to  produce  a substitute,  but  none 
has  in  the  least  degree  succeeded  ; and  ouch  attempts 
must  be  permanently  discouraged  by  the  knowledge 
that  india-rubber  exists  in  limitless  profusion  upon 
known  spots  of  the  world’s  surface  which  may  at  any 
time  be  made  accessible.  In  any  of  the  swampy  equa- 
torial regions,  where  vegetation  grows  rank  and 
sappy,  so  that  a knife  will  slash  through  branches 
as  if  they  were  made  of  cheese,  there  is  pretty  certain 
to  occur  some  one  or  two  of  the  score  of  trees 
which  produce  rubber.  hVh  le  forests  of  [them  are 
known  to  cxiit  in  Centril  Africa,  only  waiting 
to  he  tapped.  But  the  regions  which'  produce 
them  are  precisely  the  regions  most  deadly 
to  the  white  man;  and  when  the  rubber 
is  made  it  has  to  come  to  the  coast  on  the 
heads  of  negroes,  and  vyill  not  pay  the  cost  of  trans- 
port. When  an  accessible  forest  is  discovered  it 
pays  like  a goldmine.  A tree  was  discovered  near 
Lagos  which  was  believed  to  produce  rubber  ; speci- 
mens of  bark  and  foliage  went  home  to  Kew  and 
the  authorities  pronounced  it  the  right  thing.  In 
1895  the  export  began,  and  amounted  in  the  year 
to  2,263  tons,  with  a value  of  £270,000  in  round 
figures. 
India-rubber  would  seem  to  be  the  one  certain 
source  of  wealth  now  locked  up  in  Central  Africa 
and  perhaps  the  most  valuable  thing  that  the  region 
produces  or  can  produce.  Ivory  is  only  a fancy 
article,  and  palm-oil  has  many  substitutes.  Gold 
no  doubt  exists  there,  but  in  the  first  place  it  is 
doubtful  whether  the  pure  negro  can  be  made  'into  a 
miner;  and  in  the  second,  gold  is  to  be  got  in  regions 
where  white  men  can  live.  It  seems,  therefore,  as  if  the 
special  function  of  the  tropics  just  now  was  to  pro- 
duce India-rubber,  which  is  wanted  everywhere  and 
cannot  be  grown  elsewhere.  No  cultivation  is  needed  • 
Nature  requires  of  man  very  little  skill,  scarcely 
any  exertion,  and  only  a reasonable  avoidance  of 
waste.  Yet  this  is  asking  more  than  the  African 
negro  is  at  present  able  to  give.  The  great  rubber- 
producing  region  of  the  world  is  the  basin  of  the 
Amazon,  which  yields  about  two-thirds  of  the 
entire  annual  output.  The  quality  of  this  rubber  is 
immensely  superior  to  all  others;  the  best  Para  will 
fetch  in  England  as  much  as  3s.  6d.  a pound ; the 
worst  African  goes  for  under  a shilling.  Brazil  has, 
of  course,  an  immense  advantage  in  its  great  watoV’ 
