RUBBER PLANTATIONS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3995, 7 October 1930, Page 75

RUBBER PLANTATIONS.

EFFECT OF REDUCED PRICES.

AUCKLAND, September 29.

“ With the price of rubber anywhere between 9d and Is per lb, the New Zealand reparation estates in Samoa can show a profit, but the price is now about sd, and work on the rubber plantations has been suspended pending a recovery of the market,” said Mr J. L. Hughes, who arrived in Auckland on the Tofua yesterday after spending five years in Samoa in charge of work on the Government’s rubber estates. Mr Hughes, who had had 10 years’ experience on rubber plantations in British North Borneo and the Federated Maley States, went to Samoa to open up plantations which had been lying idle since the war. For five years without a break he has resided there, and now at the termination of his engagement he is about to return to England. Western Samoa Estates, Ltd., operating a lease from the New Zealand Government, were Mr Hughes’s employers when he went to Samoa, but at the end of six months the company went into liquidation. He then took charge of the Solana estate, the Aleisa estate, and the central group, bringing them back into production. These are reparation estates devoted to rubber production, and their total area is about 3000 acres. In the old days the Samoan estate could not produce rubber under 2s per lb, but since Mr Hughes went there the cost has been brought down to 7d per lb on the Aleisa estate, and more recently to 6|d in the central group. Rubber brought up to 2s (id a lb in the old days and when he went to Samoa five years ago the price was 2s. It had been falling steadily during the past 18 months, and now was not sufficient to meet the pro duction costs. During the last financial year the Aleisa estate produced 135,0001 b of dry rubber, and the central group 95,0001 b. Solaua had recently been leased to the Chinese.

Air Hughes said that quietness had prevailed in Samoa during the past year, and the natives seemed to be settling down. Economically, the conditions were not good now owing to the very low prices being obtained for rubber and copra. Cocoa was still at a profitable level, while bananas were regarded as the mainstay, and the natives were increasing their plantations of that crop as rapidly as possible.