The Hawaiian gazette., 1910-01-04
RUBBER BOOM
INVESTORS JOY
Products of Properly Managed
Plantations Are in Greater De-
mand Than Ever Before.

LONDON.-How the rubber trade is
flourishing and how good are the pros
poets, a Herald correspondent has just
learned in the course of inquiries in
the city. 1t appears certain that tn,
products of properly managed rubber
plantations are at the moment in
greater demand than ever before.
This, of course, means good profits for
the majority of investors in rubber
producing companies, but, on the other
hand, the boom has resulic cd in the APP
pearance of companies whose planta-
tions and trees have only a chimerical
existence on paper.
Mr.. Reimers, of the firm of Messrs.
Heilbut, Symons & Co., one of the larg
est rubber concerns in London, wei
coined the Herald correspondent by
opening the conversation with a re-
mark that he read the Herald every
day and couldn t do without it, aud
said:
81 think the increase OF companies
owning rubber plantations is only
equal to the demand, and the increase
is really significant of the growth of
the industry. Instead of being bought
was the case few years ago, rubber
is now a subject for inter national com
merce, and you may be sure that all
the new rubber being grown will find
a good market. The more rubber that
is produced the more will be used, and
if only enough is produced to effect a
lowering of prices it will be used for
purposes hitherto almost unheard of.
T,l. a H. - III a. 4
pavements. At present it is only used
in rare instances, and it is liable, if
used outdoors, to be affected by the
weather. But with fall in price it
is certain that inventors would at once
begin to consider means of rendering
rubber fit for such purposes.
"That brings one to the question of
artificial rubber. Now, rubber can be
manufactured, but in every case so far
the manufactured article is far more
costly than the zeal rubber.
"Even the rubber from plantations
does not compare with Para rubber;
and it is the latter which is always
used for finer work-the inner tubes of
tires and the like. The natural rubber
from the East Indies is the next best,
but there is not enough of either va
riety to be obtained. And, of course,
there are thousands of acres of virgin
rubber as yet untouched in South
America.
"But the plantation must be relied
ON for a great part of the world s
rubber supply, and, if ,all the planta-
tions yield as they should do, there
should be some fifty thousand tons of
plantation rubber on the market in
1915, as compared to the some four
thousand produced this year. You may
Judge from these figures that the rub
Der industry is promising one.
Some further reasons for the increase
in the number of rubber producing and
handling firms were given by repre-
sentative of the Irwell and Eastern
Company.
you may get some idea of the in
creasing demand for rubber for all pur-
poses from the great rise in the price
of virgin rubber he said. ga little
less than two years ago it was, rough
ly speaking, three shillings pound
Last week the same quality rubber
fetched nine shillings a pound.
"At the present moment / think that
the price of rubber is far higher than
it ought to be. That is owing to a
shortage which, despite the new plan
tations which are being opened up, ex-
lists in the market at the present time.
1t has been said that there is an at
tempt to corner the market by Amer
lean spectators with view to the
profitable fiotation of new companies.
cit must not be forgotten that all
these new companies are dealing in new
rubber-that is, rubber grown ON trees
raised from seed. And the difference
between that and what is known as
virgin rubber is very considerable
one. The new rubber, which comes
mostly from the Malay States and the
East, is good enough in it's way, but it
is not to be compared to the virgin
rubber from the forests of South Amer
lea. The former, as we say in the
trade, has no CUTS in it, In fact,
forced rubber may be likened to forced
fruit"