Miscellaneous Economic Products. 
135 
collection is prohibited in certain regions when it is consider! tw 
still further provided for by restricting the period of collection and trading of rubber fromThe^i JthFeb ^ "T Ih rQCUpen[XOn - The conse rvation of rubber-yielding plants is 
trading rubber in any of the districts open to the public must provide!^ 3 ‘ St ° ^ ^ P — desirous of collecting or 
indicated thereon. Each kilo of rubber, obtained by virtue of this license is suhiert tn e 8 ^ *’ W \‘f h ’ S Un ‘ transferable > and on, y available for a year in the district 
charged on such rubber. A license-holder is compiled Z keep a SaTy ^ cite Uo^f^Z Z d ^ T *“ ° f 8 ^ ™ "" «*"" * *0 
received during each month, to the Commandant of the district in which he is conducting his operations ” ’ ^ ^ * m ° nth,y slatemenl showing the total amount 
practised, and^ndeavoure ar^being'"^^^ to'stop^taiT^ ^ IO ' 5 ° >S ’ l ° ‘ 4 ° S ‘> ** "n of root-rubber from the same species is said to have been 
thorn-v^fc ifght Ltst ;TlS M °" ^ ** *» 
plant is practically ubiquitous in these Territories. The writer has ob r c T °" ^ l ° ^ 0n this l )oillt Mr ’ Johnson states This 
however profoundly altered by the different climatic and other conditions obtained in these various' dfclrfcts 1 In The 5 dry arcasVll Cl f Vtttl ° nS “ P t0 4000 feet Its habit is 
straggly, and at times almost shrubby habit ; the leaves, flowers and fruit which it produces in these regions being much smaller than those'of'nh ,7 “ ““T. • a , 1 ° W fT'"* 
and in regions where the rainfall is more abundant. In the latter districts I andnlnhh k'irlii 1 1 8 .* . ‘ t10 of plants growing at higher elevations 
,. r rr i. the 1"?;;^::^ .tr 
whereas those of plants growing in the low country rare y exceed a diameter of 6 inches ” Ti wn „i,i u 1 . . y diameter ot 10 to 12 inches, 
sr r “ “5 di r ; oft '" * is ■» -5 « - -* * ;£-"X :r 
he tramed collector, connect, ng ,t nth the ground. In other cases, as at Palana, Lourenso Marques, it is a most abundant shrubby straggler, and . ill Zno s era to In To 
be an econonuc success dreqtnres as support trees of cons, durable heigh,, thus showing long bare ■‘ropes," which can be tapped fora considerable di Z T Tl * 
method of lash, ng off a piece of bark of any « , and to any depth, doc, no, commend itself to the economist as the best method of taking full advantage of wha, stems am 
handled , . still, as this work is done by some of the lowest types of humanity, advanced methods must enter slowly. Throughout my tour I did not find a case of destructive 
tapping, though probably in many cases more latex would have been obtained by different treatment. That, however, is the natives look-out , he obtains a recognised nr 
,t is for him ,0 devise means of mereasing the yield in a given time and thereby raising his pay. And, so far as present tapping is concerned, an enormous quantity of rubber is 
not being touched. In every district there is scope for development in the rubber production ; and i, appears to me that the Government should encoutJ in every wl sue 
as easy licenses, tapping concessions, &c„ &c„ the collection of latex, and then charge a royalty (or export duty) of say sixpence per pound on it at the port of firsf sZ’ment 
If development syndicates or companies were encouraged instead of the Banyan trader, I think the Government revenue would be enormously increased in this Inner - bat 
even ,n Banyan hands „ is surprising that more is not done than is now. The underlying difficulty is that men go to Johannesburg for work Iron, the most remote parts of the 
Province, and on return bring with them, what to them and their relations, is such a store of cash, that the need to work locally does not exisl, and the return for local work 
appears insignificant compared with the Transvaal wage. This affects local labour of every kind; even me.nlie and peanut production and export has decreased since the 
Transvaal labour market opened, and to my mind the Transvaal labour demand, despite its cash return, is a curse rather than a benefit to this Province 
In the districts where hut-tax or poll-tax is sometimes difficult to collect, 1 think payment in rubber should be accepted instead of cash indeed I would favour 
Government purchase of rubber at every Commandant’s or Administratador’s station or sub-station, at a tariff rate, however low, thereby avoiding the trickery and demoralisation 
which, 1 fear, too often accompanies the Banyan. 
The fear sometimes expressed (often by interested parties) that Landolphia rubber is being destructively worked and rapidly exhausted in this Province, was not borne 
out by anything I saw, and on this subject Mr. Johnson remarks “The difficulties attending the supervision of the collection of wild rubber from vines scattered about in the 
dense forest or amongst thorn bushes can only be fully appreciated by those personally acquainted with the conditions under which these plants grow. The native collector is as 
much an adept in evading the thorns as the eyes of his overseer, and he passes with facility through the mass of dense, tangled, thorn-laden vegetation which is quite impenetrable 
by a white man. When we consider that the collection of rubber in Manica and Sofala has been in progress for nearly 30 years, and the exports of rubber to-day are 
considerably greater than those of 14 years ago (the earliest date from which records are available), we are compelled to doubt whether the extermination of the sources of wild 
rubber is as imminent as the promoters of plantation rubber companies would have us believe.” 
The usual method of collection of Landolphia rubber is to slash off part of the bark, allow the latex to partly coagulate on the surface, and then draw it off in threads 
by rolling these on to a grass or twig core, so as to form a ball 2 inches diameter or thereby. The latex is thick and coagulates quickly on exposure, but if it is flowing so freely 
