Rubber From Banyan Trees
South Pacific Base, June 1.
WITH the encouragement of their chiefs, the native tribes of New Caledonia, whom the US Army are changing into industrious citizens, are collecting rubber from banyan trees, to help the United Nations’ war effort. The Army is collecting and paying for it at the rate of 50 francs a kilogramme (a kilogramme is 2.2 lb.).
The rubber is of excellent quality, according to an analysis made in Washington, and among other things it is suitable for using in certain types of bombs. The Army is also making use of the rubber for local purposes in New Caledonia. The supply, of course, is limited. Thirty years ago banyan rubber was produced here commercially for the French market.
The trees are usually situated in isolated groves in the native bush, generally far apart from one another, towards or up in the mountains, and they are known
in some cases only to the older natives, whose bush knowledge is greater than that of the young kanaka of to-day . All over these giant, many-rooted trees incisions are made, and the milk is bled into tins, which the natives attach to the boughs and trunks From these tins it is poured into buckets. Then it is painted in layers on hot, galvanised iron sheets, where it coagulates; after which it is easily rolled into a ball. . .
These natives used to be great cricket players usually throwing the ball instead of bowling it. The balls they use were made of this banyan rubber, and would often bounce to enormous distances. When Sir Leslie Moorshead was a manager of the Orient Line (he is now a famous Australian general) he visited Noumea to arrange for tourist cruises. These banyan rubber-ball cricket matches used to fascinate him, and he could be dragged away from them only with difficulty,