402 
Market Pbices. 
The market price of rubber during 1908 showed an 
extraordinary variation, dropping in the beginning of the 
year to the lowest price previously paid for good plantation 
Para viz., 3s, per lb. From that point the price steadily 
recovered, until before the end of the year it had reached 
5s, 9d. per lb., an increase of almost 100 per cent, in nine 
months. This recovery showed that the drop in the price 
of rubber, as was stated in my last year’s report, was not 
due to any alteration in the ordinary “supply and de- 
mand,” but was an effect of the financial depression which 
existed at that time, chiefly in America, and which lead to a 
cessation of purchases by manufacturers of rubber in that 
country. 
• 
The average price per lb. of rubber sold from the 
Malay Peninsula during 1908 was about 4s. 3d ., while the 
cost of production was between Is. ynd Is. 6d ., so that the 
industry in passing through the worst year it has experienc- 
ed, was at the same time exceedingly fortunate in a very 
large margin of profit. 
Rubber Tapping. 
The Rubber Curing house was completed during the 
year, and machinery for curing rubber, consisting of an oil 
engine, a roller and a hydraulic press, have been obtained. 
1 here are 900 trees of over nine years old, on which a 
series of experiments will be made and all data recorded. 
Many problems of great economic importance await solu- 
tion.^ The climate of Malaya differs so greatly from that 
of Ceylon and other rubber growing countries that the 
results of experiments carried on there cannot with safety 
be used as.giving reliable information for treatment of trees 
in this country. 
The whole question of tapping requires careful in- 
vestigation. The results given by thin paring of cuts at an 
angle to the axis of the tree are so good that planters are 
apt to consider the matter solved, but it is not improbable 
that punctures instead of cuts may vet be found to give as 
good or better yields and involve less skilled labour. All 
the “prickers” which have up to the present been exploited 
are instruments not for making a puncture but a short deep 
out, and consequently damaging relatively more cells of 
uie tree than a cylindrical or sharply conical pricker. 
There is a large field for ingenuity and careful experiment; 
and the next few years should produce an instrument which 
will be a marked improvement on the present weapons. 
