BRITAIN CHECKS PRICE OF RUBBER.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 14190, 6 January 1917, Page 3

BRITAIN CHECKS PRICE OF RUBBER.

CQ^h A - R OFFICE CONTROLS IMPORTS OF CRUDE OUTPUT TO THE UNITED STATES. . Few who shake their heads' and benioan increasing cost of living know* or appreciate (says a Canadian paper) what Great Britain is doing in? the Way Of keeping down the price of ait least one staple article— -rubber. Few realise how completely the British ■ Government has tbe rubber market under its control and what that oontrol means to iteyand also to the neutral countries of the world.. Handicapped on e verv side, -baffled ly tins question and that problem, Great Bin tain , hae found a means of keeping her finger on the rubber* situation and a way to give Can/tda crude rubber at a price— not only low by comparison, but at half the price p&id for it at the outbreak of the war. The real phrpoi't 1 of this is not' apl predated until one stops to - consider. This is a rubber age. Without rubber' thousands of persons would be idle and millions would suffer inconvenience be* * yond comprehension for no synthetic substance to replace imbber has ever been discovered, in spite of repeated efforts along that line. Through her foresight Great Britain began m 1893 to finance and subsidise rubber plantations in Ceylon, Sumatra, Ja.va and the, Malay States. Previous to that time all rubber used came from South America and Africa and exclusively from the wild trees. To-day that supply constitutes but 23 per cent of the whole and Great; Britain dohtrols the market with the.rest. So closely does she guard this privilege that in order to cutoff the German supply she refused to admit rubber to the United States at the 'outbreak of the war, until finally ,an agreement" was reached with American rubber manuf ac- ! tnrers whereby, all. rubber, was shipped to the iytates through the British' oonsulaa' 1 office at New Yofk. Canada's rubber comes direct, but the Dpmiilioh can export none except through the British consul at New York. With this advantage and with the fact that.- England is iis.ng- thousands of tons of/ rubber no suppiy heV.army she has bebbvelentlv and patriotically deduced the price from 1.^5 dollars to 67 : cents a pbiirid, which is a considerable decrease ,-frbm tlie price in 1910, when it wae three dollars a pound. 7 The soaring price of leather is fast bringing boots and shoes to the point of luxuries, but Britain, has solved the question by providing rubbfethe only satisfactory substitute for many leather goods— at a price within reach of all. lo be sure chemicals and fabrics used in rubber manufacture liave increased and also the price of labor, but the decrease in the crude rubber price has kept rubber goods and particularly rubbers and overshoes at about normal. Here, it is pointed out, is an opportunity for the patriotio- man, The Mother Cmmtry is generously giving Canada rubber at a reduced price in return for -the fact that she must have leather. The approach of winter gives us an opportunity to use more rubber m footwear, buying at a low price and at the same time saving on the mere cost l v leather footgear. •