477 
Gentlemen : Befor proceeding to the business of the 
meeting for which we h met here to-day I suppose it is 
my duty to say a fe^. > r ords. I shall firstly refer to His 
Excellency the Gove 'or’s speech of yesterday which is 
probably being rear B over the world to-day. We, the 
rubber planters of 1 Malay Peninsula, should feel very 
gratified at such -irg'o proportion of the speech being 
devoted to rubbr if airs. His Excellency has seen fit to 
speak a little simistically about .rubber. What he 
wanted to say ally was “Don’t get swollen heads.” 
Gentlemen, an ^st the older members of the community 
I do not thir Bis is likely to happen. Most of us have 
seen very b times when we could barely scrape a living, 
and even tb reatest prosperity cannot efface the old scars. 
In His Ex: nicy’s speech he talked to us about these awful 
pests wh; threaten the rubber industry, and laid it down 
that it w Be duty of the planters to protect their interests 
by eng mycologists, chemists, etc., and while I think' 
the pi s are fully alive to the fact that it is their duty 
to co nite, His Excellency seems to have lost sight of 
the x that we in the F. M. S. pay an ad valorem duty of 
2i r efore our rubber leaves the ports, and it does not need 
a oulating boy to tell us that the revenue thus derived 
d shortly reach many millions of dollars. Therefore 
Government of the F. M, S. to-day is one of the biggest 
lVestors in rubber. Naturally His Excellency cannot be 
^o well up in planting matters as we are ourselves, and I 
should like to take him on a tour round the country to-day 
to show him what a very large amount of money is being 
expended by the planters in preventative measures to cope 
with the various pests which are a certainty in all agri- 
culture. It would seem to me that it is the duty of the 
Government to found a proper agricultural department 
with a properly equipped staff, and from what I hear in my 
travels round the country the bulk of the planting com- 
munity would be ready and willing to contribute towards 
the expenses. I would refer His Excellency to what is being 
done in other countries, especially Java and Sumatra. I 
cannot leave this subject without referring to the very 
excellent work done by two gentlemen, Messrs. Gallagher 
and Pratt, and I feel sure you will all be with me when I 
place on record a hearty vote of thanks to them for their 
efforts. But of course it is impossible for them to cope 
with the enormous amount of work involved. 
Gentlemen, there is one more subject I must touch on 
to-day. That is the labour question which to us is of more 
