RUBBER AND THE MODERNISATION OF THE PAKU IBAN IN ...

was given a concession to plant rubber in Lundu Hill 9 , as the soil there was
more suitable (The SG, Vol L, 1920, No. 802: 217) 10 . In the same year, a
rubber plantation was established in Paok, Bau 11 .
Rubber “is a vital British product” to be exported to the United States, which
needed 100,000 tons of rubber a year (The SG, Vol. XLVI, No. 702: 1916:
158). In Sarawak, the government encouraged the establishment of large-scale
rubber plantation. By the 1920s, there were few rubber estates in Sarawak
such as: (a) the Sarawak Rubber Estates Limited, which had 2,526 acres of
mature rubber trees on a capital of £120,000, and produced about 1 million
lbs of rubber in 1924; (b) the Dahan Rubber Estates, which started operation in
1924 with capital of £50,000 and 1159 acres; (c) the Lawas (Sarawak) Rubber
Estates, which had 1,023 acres with capital of £40,000, and up to May, 1923 it
had harvested 22,700 lbs of rubber, and (d) the Sungai Tengah Estate (see The
SG, 1923, Vol. LIII, No. 839 & The SG, 1925, Vol. LV, No. 861). Estate
rubber tappers in Sarawak were mainly Javanese who had been imported from
Java.
In Sarawak, individuals who wanted to grow any crop could apply for land
from the Agriculture Department Office. The popularity of rubber could be
seen from the number of applications for land to grow the crop. In May, 1916,
for example, 267 applications were entered at the Agriculture Department
Office, and of this figure, 247 were for the permission to plant rubber, 6 for
pepper, 1 for gambier, and 13 for coconut. The total number of application for
land from January to May 1916 was 2,014, and most of this was for the
permission to grow rubber (The SG, 1916, Vol. XLVI, No. 699: 125).
The vast majority of the rubber gardens in Sarawak are owned by small
holders. In 1955, for example, 250,000 acres of rubber in Sarawak belonged to
small holders. To help the development of rubber small holding, the
government set up a „Rubber Fund Scholarship‟ to train Sarawakians to
become Small Holders‟ Advisors. “Qualified boys of good character” were
sent to the Agriculture School in Malaya for two-year course and followed by
a short intensive refresher course at the Rubber Research Institute there.
9
Lundu town is about 80 kilometers from Kuching.
10
The SG means the Sarawak Gazette.
11
Bau is about 30 kilometers from Kuching.
4