Industry

Synthetic

Rubber

Menace to Big Papuan Industry

RUBBER planters throughout the world have a deadly opponent creeping upon them —namely, syn thetic rubber, known under the following names: Thiokol, Neoprene, German Buna, Goodrich Ameripol, Firestone De fense Rubber, Goodyear Chemigum, and Standard Oil’s latest offspring, Butyl rubber.

War conditions have gradually brought about serious shortages of plantation rubber, and many countries are now producing enormous quantities of syn thetic rubber, the leaders being Ger many and Russia.

Large-scale plants now are being erected in the United States. One near ing completion is to cost 2,000,000 dollars.

Chemists are working feverishly to im prove the quality of their synthetics, and pilot plants are operating prior to erec tion of factories.

All synthetic rubbers are costly, when compared with plantation rubber, but the time must come when, with mass production, costs will be rapidly reduced below the production cost of estate rubber.

Each synthetic invented seems to fulfil some valuable requirement that estate rubber cannot do. For instance, Thiokol is outstanding in its resistance to oils and solvents, but lacks the strength, toughness and elasticity of estate rubber, and also is affected by temperature. Neo prene resists oils and is tough, but does not appear to be satisfactory for the manufacture of tyres. Buna has been improved; and now Chemigum has been produced by Goodyears. Chemigum is very like plantation rubber, is oil and water resistant, and gives better wear and abrasion qualities than natural rubber.

Rubber planters are beginning to won der what the British and Dutch Gov ernments propose to do about this menace to their rubber plantation indus

try, which represents hundreds of mil lions of capital, and the lives and em ployment of millions .of working in the industry.

A suggestion has been put forward, by the Planters’ Association of "Papua, fhat the Commonwealth Government be asked to protect the Papuan rubber industry! by the introduction of a special tariff against synthetic -.rubber. It seems a wise suggestion, in view of>The increased planting of rubber in Papua and New 1 Guinea during the last few years.

On June 30. 1940, there were 14,494 acres under rubber in Papua, and the

export of rubber in that year was 1,345 tons, worth - £152-,487.-Tho export in 1935-36 was 1,096 tons, worth £89,467.

This table shows how the balance of Papua’s chief exports has altered:—

A.G.L.

Rev. and Mrs. A. R. Tippett are new Methodist missionaries at the Nadroga station, Fiji.

1935-6. 1939-40. £ £ Copra . . . . 100,681 45,568 Gold . . . . 81,034 135,879 Rubber . . .. . . . . 89,467 152,487