72 
in Ceylon and the Straits Settlements, and which, no doubt, will find 
its way into West Africa. It is not so many years ago that the re- 
sults already obtained were held to be impossible of achievement, 
but the cries of the pessimists have been falsilied in the event. 
♦ 
Comparison of Values. 
There are yet one or two technical points as to the comparative 
value of the rubber produced in Brazil and Ceylon to be settled, but, 
in this general survey we did not stop to inquire into them. Suffice 
it to say that fine Para rubber is now being grown in Ceylon',* and 
finds a ready market at prices quite equal to what is ruling for the 
forest product. Although such forestry operations are of necessity 
stow in their growth, and the capital expenditure unremunerative 
for a number of years, it may be taken that plantation rubber is 
now an accomplished fact, and that from this source in many parts 
of the world the supply of natural rubber will be augmented to an 
increasing extent in the future. The rubber manufacturers say that 
in order to ensure them busy and progressive times, Para rubber 
should be in the neighbourhood of 3s. per lb.; quite recently it has 
touched 5-s\ 5^., and it must be confessed that the price which would 
be welcomed by manufacturers and customers alike seems, at the 
present time, very remote, and the user of rubber goods must per- 
force accept the situation with what degree of equanimity he can 
command. Perhaps the chief element which tends to threaten his 
quiescence of mind is a suspicion that, although rubber manufac- 
turers are apt to act promptly in raising prices when necessity com- 
pels, they exhibit a somewhat sluggish movement with regard to a 
reduction when the price of the raw material falls. Now, with res- 
pect to the prices of the various qualities of rubber on the market, 
the ordinary man cannot be expected ta be informed, but as all 
other rubbers follow the price of Para more or less' closely and as 
Para is quoted in the market reports of most of the daily papers, 
there is nothing to prevent the engineer who is* a buyer of rubber 
goods from forming his own- opinion, to some extent at least, as to 
when the time has arrived for the removal of the import. Of course, 
he can keep on at old prices now if he wants to, but, as we have 
already indicated, we think this would be a wrong policy, as he 
would assuredly get an inferior article, although the reduction 
might not be apparent to the senses. 
( Extract from the “ Straits Times of the 17 th February , 190$.) 
PAHA BEATEN BY CEYLON. 
Victoire acquise aux anglais ! Thus commences an article by 
Mr. ClBOT in the Journal d’ Agriculture Tropicale. Mr. Paul 
Cibot who has travelled to Venezuela to study Para rubber has 
also been lately in the Malay Peninsula where he expressed his 
