ROMANCE OF THE RUBBER TREE.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 March 1932, Page 16 (Supplement)

ROMANCE OF THE RUBBER TREE.

It is generally known that rubber is obtained from most tropical and subtropical countries, the East producing large quantities. The average person, however, does not know that at one time the tree which yields the fine Para rubber grew only in Brazil, and was kept strictly within the border: of that country by a jealous government. Only by the efforts of a’botanist, Mr. H. A. Wickham, did the rubber tree find an outlet and spread to other countries. Believing that the rubber tree would grow well in other parts of the world, Mr. Wickham laid his idea' before Sir Joseph Hooker, who, was then in charge of the Botanical Gardens at _Kew, and together they decided that India and the Malay States were most suitable for making an experiment in growing the Hevea tree—the tree from which the Para rubber is obtained, accordingly Mr. Wickham ' collected thousands of seeds in Brazil, and was about co bring them to England when the Brazilian authorities intervened, and would not let him take them aboard an outgoing boat. Fortunately the English botanist found a newly built ship w thout a

earo-o, and, acting without authority, he pledged the credit of the Indian Government, and hired the ship. He placed tee seeds aboard, and managed to get the ship cleared before the Brazilian authorities heard a whisper about it. ' The seeds were carefully tended during the voyage, and were specially treated in the propagating houses at Kew, in England, and in a very few weeks more than 7000 Hevea plants had been grown. The young plants were shipped to India, Ceylon and Singapore, and. to-day thousands of splendid trees have sprung from them. The whole rubber industry of the East, then, owes a great debt to Mr. H.A. Wickham, who sq daringly smuggled the seeds of the. Para rubber tree from Brazil. ' .