STRAITS SETTLEMENTS
This Colony-now consisting of the island of Singapore, the province of Malacca, the island of Penang, the Dindings further south, Province Wellesley on the mainland, and the Cocos or Keeling Islands, and Christmas Island, recently placed under the same Government-was transferred from the control of the Indian Government to that of the Secretary of State for the Colonies by an Order in Council dated the 1st April, 1867. The revenue of the Colony for 1894 was $3,904,774, and the expenditure $3,714,620. The total value of the imports in 1894 was $224,151,292 (including $41,465,263 in treasure) as compared with $169,616,048 (including $17,170,811 treasure) in the previous year, and of the exports $186,786,064 (including $28,039,515 treasure) as compared with $154,154,982 (including $19,618,050 treasure) in 1893. About two-thirds of the trade belongs to Singapore. The population according to the census of 1891 was 506,984 as compared with 423,384 in 1881.
SINGAPORE
The town of Singapore, situated on the southern shore of an island of the same name, in lat. 1 deg. 16 min. N. and long. 103 deg. 53 min. E., is the seat of government of the Straits Settlements.
The Island of Singapore is about 26 miles long by 14 wide, containing an area of 206, or, with the adjacent islets, 223 square miles, and is separated by a narrow strait about three-quarters of a mile wide from the territory of Johore, which occupies the southern extremity of the Malay Peninsula. Originally taken possession of in 1819 by Sir Stamford Raffles, it was, until 1823, subordinate to our then settlement in Sumatra. In that year it became an appanage of the Indian Government, in which condition it remained until 1867, when it was placed under the Colonial Office in conjunction with the other Settlements above mentioned.
The plain upon which the town and suburbs stand is chiefly composed of deep beds of white, bluish, or reddish sand, averaging 90 to 95 per cent. of silica. The rest is aluminous. Recent shells and sea-mud found in this sand show it to have been formed by a retreating sea. The general composition of the island, which consists of low hills and ridges, with narrow and swampy flats intervening, is sandstone, with the exception of Bukit Timah, which is of granite formation, containing about 18 per cent. of quartz. Colonel Low (J. I. A., vol. i. p. 81) specifies eight varieties. The soil overlying the granite is rather meagre (the stone being neither very porphyritic nor micaceous and not very liable to disintegration), but it of course contains a vast quantity of vegetable mould. The sandstone is of various colours, the darker variety rapidly decomposing in situ in yellow clay, though applicable to building when fresh from the quarry. All the sandstones are heavily impregnated with iron, and an ironstone, known as laterite, is, to the casual observer, the prevailing mineral of the island. This occurs sometimes in veins, but more frequently in large beds on the sides of hills, and is extensively quarried for road-making purposes. It is supposed to contain manganese, and is found from the size of coarse sand to that of masses 15 or 20 feet in diameter. It is of dark clove-brown colour externally; internally it is cellular, and varies in density, being often, when freshly dug, soft enough to be cut with a knife, or hard enough to resist the pick. It is not magnetic in the mass, but when pulverized is found to contain grains of magnetic iron. It hardens considerably on exposure to the air. The commer- cial value is 25 cents per cart-load. A substance somewhat resembling soapstone, with red, white, or greenish streaks, is sometimes found amongst the clays, being rather