378 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Nov., 1897. 
adaptable to the purpose of growing cacao-trees and coffee-plants. There are 
also large plantations of thick gum-trees, which produce the chewing gum so 
popular in America. The share capital is £406,000, divided into 400,000 
ordinary shares of £1, and 6,000 deferred shares of £1 each. ‘The latter will 
not be entitled to participate in the profits of any year until 15 per cent. for 
that year has been paid on the ordinary shares, when they will be entitled to 
one-half of the remaining profits distributed as dividends. There is also an 
issue of £200,000 7 per cent. first-mortgage debentures of £50 each, redeem- 
able after five years by annual drawings at £60 each, at the option of the 
directors. A working capital of £50,000 is provided for, and the vendors take 
£556,000 for the properties, payable as to £150,000 in cash, and as to the 
balance in cash or shares, or partly in both, at the direction of the directors. 
_ Turning to the details given in the prospectus we find it stated :—The 
consumption of India-rubber by six countries now exceeds 100,000,000 Ib. per 
annum, worth about £10,000,000, and during the last few years the demand 
for it has increased enormously and is still increasing, whilst hitherto practically 
no steps have been taken to meet this growing demand, or to provide for the 
world’s future requirements. Up to the present time, nearly all India-rubber 
has been obtained from wild trees, but it is admitted, by those most competent 
to give an opinion, that such a source is barely adequate to mect the present 
demand, and that the supply of the future will have to come largely from trees 
properly planted and cultivated. This view is corroborated by the following 
extract from a recent report to the Foreign Office :—“ Judicious tapping,” with 
due regard to the life of the tree and its future usefulness, is the exception ; 
rubber-bearing trees are ruthlessly sacrificed by irresponsible seekers after 
wealth, and dead trunks are becoming a too familiar feature in the landscape 
of the productive districts. Sooner or later, a purely destructive policy of this 
kind must exhaust the richest country. y 
Subsidy to Plant Rubber-trees.—A subsidy has been granted to the owners of 
the “Llano de Juarez” by the Mexican Government, providing for a Treasury 
payment of three cents for every India-rubber tree planted, which attains a 
certain growth, up to a limit of 15,000,000 trees—equal to about £3,000 per 
million trees, the trees to be planted at the rate of 1,050,000 per annum. The 
first year’s yield in 1905, from the million trees to be planted this year, should 
be £250,000, rising in 1908 to £500,000. The first year’s yield in 1906, of the 
million trees to be planted next year, should be £250,000, rising in 1909 to 
£500,000, and so on. Under the concession granting the subsidy, the Govern- 
ment has the right of pre-emption at the end of ninety-nine years of the lands 
planted (with the buildings and utensils) at a valuation less an amount equal 
to double the amount paid by way of subsidy under the concession. If, from 
any unforeseen causes, the estimates of revenue contained in the prospectus, 
and upon which the directors are proceeding, should not be realised in their 
entirety, there is an ample margin shown in the estimates to provide for every 
contingency, after payment of handsome and yearly increasing dividends, 
Demand.—India-rubber has become absolutely indispensable to the cycle 
tyre, electrical motor cars, cab,and innumerable other manufacturing industries. 
Tt isa matter of common knowledge that the consumption of India-rubber in the 
manufacture of cycle tyres alone has grown by leaps and bounds. In 1886 there 
were 68 cycle factories in England—there are now more than ten times 
that number. In France, America, Germany, Australia, and other countries 
there has also been a great development of the cycle trade. In 1896 no less 
than 262 undertakings, dealing with the cycle and motor industries, were 
registered in London alone, with a total capital of £19,898,464. The 
increasing demand for India-rubber has caused manufacturers to awaken to the 
problem of a threatened exhaustion of supplies; it is therefore beyond question 
that this company will supply a want distinctly felt by all manufacturers using 
India-rubber, and that it ice every reasonable prospect of richly rewarding its 
shareholders. 
