1 Szrr., 1898.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 215 
Mr. Christie was very enthusiastic over an important discovery that has 
recently been made in connection with rubber, and of which he gave me full 
particulars. It appears that some few months ago a traveller, in a region not 
very remote from the Suez Canal, came across a weedy grass with an extra- 
ordinary root—a root that grew yards and yards under ground a few inches 
below the surface. On examination he was agreeably surprised to find that 
the plant produced rubber, and subsequent investigation proved that the plant 
was of extraordinarily rapid growth. The rubber obtained proved to be of the 
very finest quality, and at the present state of the market would realise a 
heavy price. The plant was extremely hardy, and was admirably adapted for 
growing in Northern Queensland. That the plant is of recent discovery could 
be judg:'d from the fact that there was not even a specimen of it at Kew 
Gardens. A name has not yet been bestowed upon it, but Mr. Christie, junr., 
is about shortly to start for the district where itis growing, and on his return 
I shall be able to supply much fuller details. So faras I understand at present 
the rubber is obtained from the rhizome, and it is of such remarkably quick 
growth that a full crop can be obtained from the plant at the end of the 
first year. This circumstance renders it particularly valuable to colonists in 
Mr. Christie's opinion. This “ grass” grows about 25 feet high, and does not 
require much attention. It can be grown in an inferior soil to that required 
for the ordinary varieties, and one very important feature, from the cultivator’s 
point of view, is that it is very easy of treatment for the extraction of the 
uice. 
: In connection with this subject, Mr. Christie informed me that a new 
process for separating and purifying the rubber has just been found out, and 
it is so simple that one wonders that it was never thought of before. The 
whole theory of the new system is centrifugal force, and I am told that an 
ordinary cream separator will serve admirably for the purpose, and the great 
consideration is that the operation is completed in a few minutes, and every 
particle of dirt is removed, whereas the old process takes days. This new 
system results in an increased value of the material to the extent of 25 per 
cent.—in other words, the rubber which at one time realised only about 2s. 3d. 
per lb. now fetches 2s. 11d. Messrs. Christie hope to have several specimens 
of the new plant I have referred to at their premises before long. 
I hear that Mr. J. Hamilton, the postmaster at Cairns, has just arrived in 
London, and is busying himself in making inquiries in Mincing-lane circles 
about coffee, indiarubber, &c. 
In regard to coffee, Mr. Christie is not very: hopeful of a good market. 
Coffee, it appears, is very low in price at the present time. The market is 
flooded with Brazilian coffee, and scarcely anything else is sold. 
Things are likely to improve very much, however, in about three years’ 
time, the assumption being that, as prices are so low now, the Brazilian growers, 
who are chiefly working with borrowed capital, are bound to go bankrupt, and 
their misfortune will be the Queenslander’s opportunity. The Brazilian 
growers are not making any profit out of their present sales, and cannot go on 
long in these cireumstances. Queenslanders should bide their time for a while, 
and be prepared with a good article when the demand comes. 
In connection with the export of tinned tomatoes, Mr. Christie was not at 
all enthusiastic. He showed me a tin about the size of an ordinary tea-cup 
containing a good quality of tinned tomatoes, which, he said, was selling for 
1d., and he did not think that atthe price it could possibly pay the exporter; 
the tin, label, etc., must cost almost 1d. 
On the subject of vanilla Mr. Christie was more encouraging, and said it 
was a very good commodity for Queenslanders to “go in’’ for. It paid well, 
and it was one of those substances that never seemed to glut the market. No 
two places had a big crop at the same time, with the result that shipments 
were never too heavy, and prices remained firm. Mr. Christie told me that he 
had only just recently sold a large quantity of vanilla at from 18s. to 22s. 6d. 
per lb., the last-named price being an advance of quite 1s. 6d. on the average 
