RAILWAYS AND RUBBER.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 22, 9 January 1912, Page 6

RAILWAYS AND RUBBER.

Many people think that the days of pioneer work are over, hut those who read Mr. R. Johnson’s account, in the “Railway’ Magilzine,” of the making of the Madiera-Mainoro railway in Brazil, will sec plainly that they are not. The line will be about three hundred miles in length, and its terminus appears to be not very far from the Bolivian frontier. Thus it is in the heart of the great continent. The reason for building a railway in such desperately difficult and unhealthy country is, of course, the rubber industry. it is to carry away tho product of a vast belt of rubber-pro-ducing land. Moreover, the rubber is the variety’ known as Para, that is, the best rubber. Taking the price of rubber at its lowest, 3s a pound, the average output of the Amazon Valley is about £12,000,000 a year; but the price is often as much as 7s a pound, instead of 3s. Several previous attempts appear to have been made to construct the Madeira-Mamore railway, but all failed from want of capital. In order to build the line, seventeen camps have been established, one about two hundred miles away’ in the jungle, near the Bolivian frontier. The writer says: The contractors employ about 500 skilled and 3000 unskilled workers, and the lowest wage is 2ls a day, with board, for a white man, and 7s 3d per day, with board, for a labourer. The-monthly pay roll averages about 300,000 dollars gold. Speaking literally, the climate is deadly. A man may be’ healthy and strong today, and* yet buried to-morrow. Deaths average from three to six per day from disease alone, and many more are killed (and probably eaten) by savages when wandering to far into the forest. It is estimated that the railway will cost move money per mile than any in existence, and will certainly’ involve tho sacrifice of more human lives than any other work, not even excepting the early stages of the Panama Canal, which might bo regarded as a “convalescent home” compared to this undertaking.