Lord Emmett, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for the Colonies, presided on
Tuesday at a dinner at the Imperial Institute given by the Government to the delegates and representatives of the International Congress of Tropical Agriculture. In the course of his address the President of the Congress, Professor Wyndham R. Dunstan, mentioned that the artificial production of rubber by chemical means bad now been satisfactorily accomplished, but stated that some time must elapse before we could be certain that these methods could be successful on a large scale. The moral of synthetic indigo was obvious. Natural indigo was killed because little or nothing was done to improve and cheapen its production. The improvement of plantation rubber and the cheapening of its cost were therefore the main problems for the rubber-grower. Meantime we may say that the cheapening of rubber is a matter of vital importance to a great many industries. There are thousands of things, from roofs to lawn tennis courts, where rubber could be used with advantage if only it were a cheaper material.
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