The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1910-04-13
MUCH ATTENTION
GIVEN TO RUBBER
HEAVY SPECULATION IN CRUDE
RUBBER ON LONDON MARKET
CONTINUES UNABATED.

BOSTON, March 3O.-The continued
advance in crude rubber in London,
which is almost daily making a new
high record, calls attention to the
remarkable situation in this commo-
dity which is likely to be changed
only when the eastern rubber plan
i tations of Ceylon, Sumatra, Borneo
and British and Dutch tropical Asia
come into bearing.
The growing of Para rubber trees
| in a favorable climate with an I'M
limited supply of coolie labor has
proved a phenomenal success and the
fact that this rubber can be raised at
cost of from % to 80 cents a pound
compared with the market quotation
of S2,60@2.70 per pound is in itself
sufficient explanation of the wonder
full activity in London rubber stocks.
The story of the introduction of
Para rubber growing into the east is
one of absorbing interest. In 1876
H. H. Wickham of London was en-
trusted with the delicate task of OBJ
tanning from Brazil seeds of the Para
rubber tree. The species selected
was of the famous "up- river" variety.
So important was the mission that
Mr.. Wickham chartered an ocean
steamer, regardless of expense, in or
der to save the terminating power of
the seeds. Upon his arrival in Eng
land a special freight rushed the per-
ishable consignment to the Kew bo-
tanical gardens in London, and in the
hothouses were reared. rubber plants
from these same seeds. These plants
were later despatched to Ceylon and
the Straits settlements and formed
the basis of the present rubber pro-
duction in the east.
There are today distributed over
the Malay peninsula, Ceylon, Suma
ira, Java, India Borneo and New Gui
ana some 100000 acres of Para rub
Der trees, ranging in age from on,
month to q years.
AT the present time it is estimated
that $25O,OOO,OOO of capital, principal
> ly British, Dutch and Belgian, is in
. vested in the rubber plantations O
the esat. The output of "Planta
. ton Para" from the east was but 2,
600 tons, or say 8 per cent of tn
worlds production in 1908. Last yea
. however, it doubled to 1000 tons an
. the 1910 output is expected to reac
about 5000 tons, Or say slightly les
than 10 per cent of the worlds out
4 put. 1t is, of course, obvious that
. is a matter now of but two or thre
years before the plantation rubber c
. the east becomes great enough in ton
u mage to affect very materially tn
range of crude rubber prices through
out the world.
At the same time, the dividends ,
eight British companies operating /
the Malay Peninsula, based on tn
IS 1908 crops, were over so per cent an
If with the current range of prices, d
/ vidends for 1909 are expected
ct average well over 100 per cent.
> Individual companies have, for IL
past few months, been making prof
l. on actual sales in the London ma
as ket ranging from 500 to 1000 p,
cent.
1t is estimated that up to the clo'
80 of last summer we'll over 200 rubb
70 companies had been organized f.
% the purpose of cultivating Brazilii
20 rubber in the east, and many of the
90 are very likely to make good so +
DO as production is concerned.
90 The wild speculation in crude ruI
81 ber however, has proved too mu
20 of a temptation and it is estimat
81 that hardly half of the rubber COZ
53 panies promoted in the six mont
% from July Ito December 81, last YET
% will ever pay a dividend.