As regards the prospects ahead of us, our standard' production hag been increased to 492,740 Ib, against 463,840 Ib, with which we started last year; our export allow: tance, assuming 100 per cent. of standard production from Fet ruary 1, works out at 402,635 Ib, against last. year's total of 276,429 Th, our forward sales consist. of 120,000 1b. at un average price of 983" cents per. Ib, which" should cover our Estate cost, leaving 341,075 Ib, or nearly 74" per cent, of the crop to be sold ay occasion offers, Whatever ffuetuations. may cour' in market values. the rorult can hardly fail to be satistuctory of shareholders.
T'now come to the very import: ant question of developing the new industry referred to in my speech last year as the "Wilkinson Process" which at that time was still At a very elementary stage, The process was pretty fully d seribed in an article which appeared in the engineering supplement to the "London & China Express" of October 1, recently reproduced in the financial columns of the "North-Chima Daily News," which I dure-say a good many of you read.
By this process an entirely new mater a non-oxidizable rubber composition, is evolved which pos ness qualities hitherto unknown; it is unaffected by climatic. chan; impervious to the action of salt water and has a resistance abrasive action, the limit of which bhoy not yet been ascertained, but it is known to be many times greater than manganese steel as proved by its adoption for the lining of sluice boxes in the mining industry. The inventor, Mr. Wilkinson, who has been with the Ayer Tawah Company nearly five years, has been in London for some months demonstrating his invention a large number" of influential Persons in commercial circles, as well as to" the authorities the Admiralty and War Office, all of whom have expressed them: selves as favourably impressed and greatly interested, An unique feature of the process is that the various articles: for the manufacture of which it is suitable are produced direct from Intex. and without vulcanization; consequently all the natural. properties of rubber, as it comes from the tree, are preserved unimpaired, The invention is protected by patent in Great Britain, Straits Settlements, Federated Malay States, Johor Kedah, Kelantan, Sarawak, British North Borneo, India, Liberia and Italy. Negotiations regarding protection in other countries are in progress, Matters have now. teached a stage where your directors feel Justified "in raising money for Meveloping and exploiting th vention on commercial lines and on a world wide basis through a network of agencies. 'The most suit: able method. of attaining the end view. his occupied - the' very: caréful_ attention' of your directors for some' time past} daring which they: have beh lin' clove and' eon without permission.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.