SLUMP IN RUBBER

Taranaki Daily News, 11 October 1928, Page 11

SLUMP IN RUBBER

RESTRICTIONS LIFT THIS MONTH. “The rubber market is in a very bad way at present, but it will recover later on,” said. Mr. C. Alma Baker, who returned to Auckland on Tuesday morning after a visit to his plantations in Malay. Mr. Alma Baker stated that at the end of this month the restrictions which were placed on rubber in 1922 will be removed. This will mean that 80,0<X) tons of rubber will suddenly be unloaded on to the market, in addition to the product which is produced as a matter of course. He is of opinion that the restrictions should never have been brought into force, and that they should have been removed long ago. “It was a very silly policy,” he said. Many of the planters refused to sell, but Mr. Alma Baker said that he had never adopted that course. Another factor which tended to slump the rubber market was that 280,000 tons of rubber were being reclaimed each year under a new process. This was not so good as the new product, but it was very much advertised in. the United States, where it was used extensively. Some of the advertisements in the United States bore the following remarks: “Buy reclaimed tyres. Cut out British monopoly.” This had the effect of making certain people use reclaimed rubber in preference to new, though the reclaimed product did not last very long.