The Hawaiian gazette., 1904-12-23
As TO RUBBER.

Hawaii is beginning to take so much
interest in india rubber, especially in
view of the advance in prices and the
growing demand for the product that
the figures prepared by the Depart
ment of Commerce and Labor regard
ing the quantity and value of rubber
imported into the United States dur
ing the current year and for several
years past, will anticipate a common
local inquiry. These figures show that
in both quantity and value the imports
of the year about to end will probably
exceed those of any earlier year. Inc
largest importation in any complete
fiscal year is 55,25O,00O pounds in the
fiscal year 1901, and the highest value
in any earlier year is $91,7O7,6S0 in 1899
In the calendar year about to end, how
ever. the indications are that the guam
rity imported will reach 6O,OOO,OOO
pounds and the value more than S4O,-
coo, 600 In the ten months ending with
October the quantity of crude rubber
imported is practically 5O0OO,OOO pounds,
or. to be exact, 49,95l,326 pounds, and
the value was s34.315,lSO.
In the latest month for which figures
are available, october, the quantity i'm
ported was 5,397,9S1 pounds, and the
value 81, 450 $40; so that If the figures
of October are an index to the pros
pective figures for November and De-
cember, 1t seems likely that the total
quantity of india rubber imported dur
ing the calendar year will reach 6O,OOO-
coo pounds, and the value exceed SiO-
600. 900.
In addition to this, sundry substitutes
for crude rubber are, in very recent
years, being brought in in large guam
titles. "Gutta joolatong," or East In
dian gum" a product of Borneo which
is used in conjunction with india rub
Der in certain lines of manufacture, has
| in recent years been imported in rapid
" increasing quantities. The rapid in
| crease in its use is indicated by the
| fact that the quantity imported into
the country had been so small that the
Bureau of Statistics made no separate
record of it prior to 1899, when only
| 5000, 600 pounds were recorded as nav
ing been imported. In 1900 the quanti-
ty was S,7O1, 1853 pounds; in 1903, 1884,
SIT pounds, and in the ten months of
the present calendar year for which
figures are available the quantity i'm
ported was IL 265,S0l pounds.
Under modern methods much of the
india rubber used in shoes, garments.
and otherwise may now be recovered
and by certain processes made fit FOR
further use, and the extent to viii n
this Is now being done is indicated by
the fact that the importations of "old
and scrap rubber fit only for remanu-
facture," which amounted in 1894 to
less than 100000 pounds, were in the
fiscal year 1904 over 10000, 900 pounds.
While Brazil furnishes a much larger
share of the rubber imported into the
United States than does any other
country, the share that country con-
tributes of the grand total of our i'm
ports of that article is probably not
so large as generally supposed. The
| figures of the Bureau of Statistics show
that of the 40, 95l 1926 pounds of crude
| india rubber imported into the United
states during the ten months ending
with October, 1904, 2S,2S2,456 pounds
came from Brazil, while Africa, Central
| America, certain other of the South
American countries, and the East Indies
| supplied the remainder. Practically all
of the rubber which originated in Afri-
ca came by way of Europe, being ac-
| credited to various European countries,
though of course in no case produced
| in those countries
The reports of the Bureau of Statis-
| ties credit the United Kingdom with
over 100000 pounds and other Euro
| pean countries with over 100000
pounds, none of which of course was
produced in those countries, since in
/ dia rubber is solely a tropical product.
Most of the 100000 pounds credited
| to Europe comes from the African colo
MES of certain European countries,
though in some cases from colonies in
the East Indies.
The rapid growth in the importation
and use of india rubber in the United
| States is shown by the following table,
which gives the quantity and value of
rubber imported at five-year intervals
from 1874 to 1904:
IMPORTS OF INDIA RUBBER AND
GUTTA- PERCHA, CRUDE, INTO
THE UNITED STATES AT QUIN-
QUENNIAL PERIODS, 1874 TO
1904.