The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1909-01-19
RUBBER MAN
FROM MALAY


ing the rubber plantations in the Straits
Settlements late last year he suggested
to Manager Wallace of the Tonjong
Olok Rubber Plantation Company, the
advisability of coming out to Hawan
and meeting the shareholders as this
plantation is owned in Honolulu. Mr..
Wallace reached here with Mr.. Water.
house on Christmas day and since his
advent in the Territory has inspected
rubber trees on Kauai.
Mr.. Wallace has been resident of
Malay Peninsula for about three years
the time being divided between Ton
.iong Olok and other rubber producing
plantations in the peninsula. Tonjong
| Olok has thousand acres of growing
trees the largest, two years and two
months old and the youngest four
months old. Five hundred acres are
yet to be planted but will be in 1910
and 1911, The question of labor in Ma
| lay seems not to have its complications
such as are found in Hawaii. In speak
ing of the rubber conditions generally
Mr.. Wallace remarked yesterday:
"Such agitation as i read of in the
papers here IS unknown to us. We have
Javanese and Chinese on our plantation,
about two hundred and fifty Javanese
and fifty Chinese. This number will
probably be doubled during the next
| few months. Ours are of the coolie
class and are obtained on the same plan
as l am told was in force here some
years ago. We make contracts with the
! Chinese to work three hundred days ana
with the Javanese for three years. They
weed the soil and dig bitches and at
| tend generally to the upkeep of the
! plantation. We use Chinese only in the
preliminary work before the trees come
T, into bearing but the Javanese settle
down and many of them, may say
practically all of them, will remain on
| the plantation for the balance of their
! lives.'
A map prepared by Malay surveyor,
who is paid eighteen dollars per month
for his services, shows the different
paintings on Tonjong Olok and the
localities to be planted as the plantation
develops. There will be something like
activity on the plantation in 1911 when
the first tapping, about fifty to one hun.
bred acres, and in 1912 when there will
be not less than five hundred acres of
trees tapped.
"The most successful planters in our
section are getting an average of two
pounds of rubber per tree from those
five years old, ~ said Mr.. Wallace,
"and this average increases always as
the tree grows older
Replying to the question as to pos.
sible overproduction in the Malay
States, he said the planters did not
encourage any such thought for the
reason that the rubber grown in the
Malay States is the best on the market.
"With rubber as low as fifty cents gold
per pound, said he, "the demand for
plantation rubber would still be large
as the manufacturers will not buy an
inferior article when they can get the
best at that price. Plantation Para
rubber, you will understand, is superior
to any wild rubber. Assume for argu.
ment that it should fall to fifty cents
gold the planter will still be able to
do business at profit as we can put
rubber on the market for considerably
less than twenty-five cents pound and
as time passes this will be lessened
through the tapping operation costing
less on the old trees as the flow o.
latex will be greater from each tree
tapped without adding to the cost of
collecting.
'Rubber investments in Singapore
are viewed in the same light as invest
ments in shares of your Oldest and best
paying sugar plantations are considered
here. l find here a condition directly
opposite to that which confronts the
men who live in the Malay States;
there is no experiment in rubber grow.
ing and the people seek such invest.
ments as the plantations offer. The PEG.
pie here seem to look at it as specula-J
tive investment. While but twenty Of
the sixty odd companies on the PENN.
sular paid dividends in 1907 they all
put the bulk of their profits into bring
ing their younger paintings into bear
ing
Yesterday afternoon Mr.. Wallace ac,
companied Albert and Fred. Waterhouse
to Maui where the expert intends in.
speeding the rubber trees in the Ma.
hiku rubber district. Manager Turner,
of the Pacific Development Company,
who was here last week, expressed the
wish that while in the Territory Mr..
Wallace would go to Hawaii and sec
the growth and condition of the rubber
trees in Puma. AS his time is limited
this may not be practicable.
---s.$-s-