Price of Labour. 
“Java has the better of the Straits and Ceylon in regard to 
^ a> ° “From what I could see Java will be paying a 7 per cent dividend 
when the Straits are only covering expenses. This will be the result 
of the cheapness of Java’s local labour which draws on an average 2 
to fid. sterling daily and that after 2,000 acres have been opened in one 
district in one year, and consequently caused an advance m the late 
of wages. That wage, 30 Ceylon cents, as you will see, is rather less 
than the Ceylon wage, and placing the Straits pay at 3o dollar cents, 
or 58 Ceylon cents, you will see that Java stands first again. 
“What about consumption and the prospects in the future . 
“ About 70,000 tons is the present consumption, and the present 
price tends to increase the uses to which it is put. The area opened 
in cultivated rubber is, say, 400,000 acres allowing one ton for every ten 
acres, i.e., at the rate of 224 lbs., per acre per annum, we have only 
40,000 tons. When present opened land all gives 224 lbs., pel 
per annum— and this may never be obtained, for land lias been P^^d 
in the F M S., Java, Ceylon and India, which is unsuitable foi ruhbei 
—we have to displace 40,000 tons of wild rubber. Plantation rubber 
now commands 4d. per lb., more than wild rubber and as plantation 
gets cheaper the demand for wild rubber will not mciease, as the 
demand for inferior tea and coffee has not increased. The tendency 
k a 1 wavs to buy the purer article. If rubber falls to is. pei m. i 
expect it will be placed on board for one shilling when estotes are m 
full bearing. We have, therefore, a margin of 224 shillings pei acie. 
We can bring our rubber into bearing for £35 per acre even in the 
Straits so that at 2s. a lb., we should earn 30 per cent. Diseases may 
come on bark may renew more slowly : wild rubber may show large 
nrofits at Is 6cl. per lb., that is to say, 6d. per lb., below the puce we 
put on the cultivated article ; but still I cannot look on rubber as 
likelv to yield anything but a handsome profits to the man whose 
rubber cost him £35 per acre, for many years o come. 
“What did you think of the growth of rubbei m the S tL aits 
“ I only visited some estates near Rlang, l am sony to say , but 
I thought Straits rubber at four years equal to Ceylon i and I 
(at 51) and on account of the soil and being a . b ® 1 exceed the 
as you have no droughts, the Straits and Java yields should exceed the 
yield of Ceylon and South India. 
Quality of Java Rubber. 
“Can you say anything about the quality of rubber in Java . 
" At present there is no Para rubber being shaped from Java, but, 
looking at the soil, there is no reason to anticipa e P Y , 
we take into consideration the price bein 8 obtam 1 ed , f “,^ nI! 
which there is a good quality and quantity, ant rat g ■ 
much finer than the product I have seen in the 
will he anything wrong with the ?«bty rf th l‘ U ’ b duo t t how- 
acreage has been, and is being, opened in ■ 1 
ever, still in its infancy, and very little has been done legarding the 
