STILL DEPRESSED

Hokitika Guardian, 12 April 1933, Page 7

STILL DEPRESSED

TIN AND RUBBER MARKETS

RESTRICTION OF n UTPUT

WELLINGTON, April 10.

In spite ot : an attempt to rest rim supp'litis, the tin market- is .still verj depressed, and on the average, o«l.> one in four of the dredges in th Malay States is working. This state n.ont was ..iade tir-Say by Mr F Knew-stubb, a New Zealand engines:: who liais been connected with tin min ing in the Malay States and the Straits Settlement for number of years an who i s at present on furlough. He arrived from Sydney to-day by tin Wanganella, and is proceeding to Por Chalmers, where his family reside.

Mr Kuewstub said that a few year ago tin was realising £4OO a ton, bn today the price bad fallen to £l5O Since 1939 a scheme had been ii

operation for the purpose of restricting the- out])lit, but so far is had not beei as successful as was anticipated. The idea was to reduce the existing stocks, which. had been estimtaed at

69,000 tons, to 20,000 tons, but s< far the restriction had not been effective. However, the tin mining companies had not suffered to the sair-" extent as the rubber companies many of which were in a desperate position. Rubber had brought as much as 4s per lb. a- few yeans ago-, but to-day it was selling at ns low os 2jd per Hi. Restriction of output had 'also been tried with the marketing of rubber, but the Dries level had not rallied to the I extent that wag generally anticipated, at present the rubber companies were experimenting with a composition which was considered to he suitable for street paving and a square in Singapore had recently been paved with a mixture which has applied in hot liquid form. It wa.s yet too early to gauge the success of the experiment. When asked to comment on, the suggestion that the New Zealand Government should buy dredges from Malay for gold mining -tnirposes, Mr Knewstubb said that there were plenty of cheap dredges available at present, but they would require extensive, alteration before they would be suitable foi gold mining. Some of them were callable of shifting 350,000 cubic yard; a month, and were capable of dredging 120 feet below the water" level. Economic conditions in the -, Malay States and the Straits Settlements were very had indeed. The prosperity o f both places depended on two industries} —-tin (and rubber—land no • recovery could be hoped for until t-her° was a general world recovery. At t\v present time the place wag “absolutely dead.”