(I<8 
V 
The Reason Why. 
With regard to the cause of the rise in raw rubber, there is no 
good reason to suppose that it is assignable to anything but the 
ordinary’ law of demand and supply. It has certainly been broadly 
hinted that rubber brokers, and one large house in particular, have 
manipulated the. market for their personal advantage; bpt really 
statements to this effect do not show any substantial foundation. 
Jr course, the brokers are alive to the situation, and have not o-one 
out of their way to make crooked paths straight for the manufacturer, 
i is, however, is not the same thing as saying that rubber has 
practically been cornered. We prefer to believe that the increased 
demand for motor tyres, heel pads, and other uses which come pro- 
mmently before the eye, as also the demand for rubber in modern 
shipbuilding which is little known to the public, are jointly the rea- 
son for the advance Unfortunately, although there is no scarcity 
of rubber in South America, its production, though on an increasing 
scale has not kept pace with the growing demand from Great Bri- 
tarn Amenca Germany, France, Russia and Italy, to say nothing 
ot other countries, such as Norway and Sweden, which have of late 
” anu ^ cturers - Tbe difficulty with regard to increas- 
ing the output from the Amazon basin is the comparative scarcity of 
acclimatised labour, and that the regular rubber gatherers are often 
seduced from their occupation by the offer of better terms on the 
defdf p aa tations. There are probably few vocations of a more 
deadly nature than that of rubber gathering in the Brazilian swamps 
and even in the case of the acclimatised, seringueros, the merchants 
who provide the outfit and expenses of the. binds of gatherers have 
t ° unt oa a h 'gh death-rate, and consequent loss of capital. So far 
State ' a”thorit“s P h th ® sIave - d "ving methods followed by the Congo 
cerneri lSr h “ ’f™ ? adc> S reatl y to the credit of all cofl- 
cerned ®- ubber may have become a necessity, but is not so indis 
pensable that he c.viiised nations who use it elk regard lith uncon- 
M™ rtf em P lo y nlent of methods of barbarism in its collection 
More than one effort has been made in the past by Europeans to 
have resulted °fr ing ° f Amaz .°" ian forests ' but thl failures which 
esulted, from causes which we cannot stop to specify, has led 
, J* f f^ ra f / eC u ° gn ! tl01 J of the fact that the resources of Brazil are 
est left m the hands of Brazilians. With regard to other countries 
hraT * An ^ erica there is no doubt that Peru will contribute more 
largely than is at present the case if certain developments necessita 
ting capital come to fruition. From Africa the suppTy has fluctuated 
tradlna^n ’ the ph t nt?menal nSe m the ex P orts from the Belgian 
trading companies being to some extent counterbalanced by the 
ecreased amounts yielded by some of the West Coast disfrirK 
owmg to the destructive methods of collection formerly pmct d by 
the natives. With respect to the supply of rubber from plantations 
although the amount has thus far not had any appreciable effect 
m a J e V f eat P r °gfess in what is a new and important branch of 
economtc botany has to be recorded. Especially is this the case 
with the Para rubber tree, which has been successfully acclimatised 
