386 
Singapore , 4th October , /903 
The Hon’ble R. N. Bland, 
Acting Resident Councillor , 
Malacca. 
Rubber. 
SrR. — VVc beg to confirm our respects of the 27th ultimo and 
now advise that we have received advice from our London friends 
of the sales of the following parcels 
lbs. s. cl. 
6j No. 1 F'ine Clean Biscuits at 5/8 p. lb. 
5I.X0.2' ,, „ at 5/7 „ 
6] No. 3 Good clean Biscuits A/C Forest Dept, 
slightly darker at 5/6 ,, Malacca. 
No. 4 Good Ball 1 inferior 
dark and sandy at 3/9 ,, 
\\ r e expect to receive account sales shortly and will forward them 
with a remittance in due course? 
We have, etc., 
Paterson Simons & Co. 
RUBBER PROSPECTS. 
No Reason Yet To Be Discouraged. 
The recent success of the rubber planters of Ceylon in marketing 
the product of their cultivated Hevea trees, at the the highest prices 
on record for crude rubber of any kind, seems to have had a dis- 
quieting effect upon some of the planters of Castilloa in Mexico. 
At least they are wondering whether they have not made a mistake 
in planting Castilloa, when perhaps by cultivating another species 
the same investment and the same amount of labour might bring 
larger returns until the favourable results in the Far East were re- 
ported, the rubber planters in Mexico were not only satisfied with 
their progress and prospects, but they were enthusiastic. It remains 
to be seen whether they should become any less so. 
In the first place, it is not certain that the Hevea species, the 
rubber of Para, are as well adopted to Mexico as to Ceylon and 
the Malay States. They may yet prove to be but that is another 
matter. But Mexico is the home of Castilloa , the source of the 
first rubber of which any written record exists. And it yields a 
good rubber, a material for which the industry affords a certain and 
permanent demand, 1 he product of Castilloa , as now market, is 
worth less commercially than Hevea rubber. So is silver worth less 
by weight than gold, but this fact neither discourages silver mining 
nor limits the use of the cheaper metal in the arts. The question 
is not whether the rubber grown in Ceylon will sell for more than 
the Mexican product, but whether the Mexican plantations now 
under way will yield fair returns on the capital invested, 1 
