292 
economical and expeditious, and at the same time it will com- 
mand as good or a better price than cr£pe or sheet, then there 
can be little reason against making the change. 
Market Prices. 
The market prices of Malayan plantation Para showed a 
considerable decrease on the previous year, during which prices 
owing to shortage of stocks, stimulus to rubber manufacture and 
and other reasons, had reached the maximum of 6s. iod., while at 
the same time Brazalian Para had also reached the highest price 
touched, 5s. The close agreement in the fluctuations in the 
market prices of the two varieties of rubber, wild and cultivated, 
is interesting, showing that the demand for rubber as a w hole and 
not for any special quality of rubber is the dominating factor. 
During 1906 the prices of best cultivated Para, which in 
January stood at 6s, ifd. after a gradual rise of 1 \d. up to the 
end of March, began to recede in an evenly descending scale, 
until in December the price stood at 5s. 5 \d. recovering a little 
before the end of the year and at the time of writing being 5s. 9 d. 
The prices of Brazalian Para took practically the same course, 
beginning at 5s.5<T and receding to ss.id., being as a rule about 10 
per cent, to 12 per cent, below the cultivated article. 
» 
The fact that the Brazilian Para contains about 20 per cent, 
of water bring the price of the caoutchouc sold in Brazilian 
blocks to 10 per cent, more than that fetched by the caoutchouc 
in the pure cultivated biscuit or crepe rubber. 
_ The factors w'hich affect the price of rubber, and which must 
be considered in trying *to foresee the future market price of this 
product, are many and various. How much the demand for 
rubber will increase is not easy to foretell, but rubber at the 
present high prices continue to find fresh markets and new uses 
and there seems no reason, except the perhaps natural one that 
such a satisfactory state of things is too good to last, w'hich can 
be given for prophesying any considerable drop in price. 
Alienation of Land for Planting. 
The duty of deciding whether land is of first or second class 
value, w r hich falls to the Director of Agriculture, has occupied a 
great deal of time which would have otherwise been employed 
on scientific or other departmental work. More than 25,000 
acres of jungle were examined and reported on, the knowledge 
thus gained of the land available and suitable for rubber and 
other products is most valuable, and leads me to the conclusion 
that there are very large areas of land quite as suitable 
