1286
STRAITS SETTLEMENTS SINGAPORE
which finds its way to the Smelting Works in the Colony, have largely contributed to the wealth of the population. Many have made fortunes out of tin and have invested a large proportion of their gains in the Colony. The planting of Para rubber continues to increase.
In the fiscal annals of the Colony a new departure was marked in 1906 by the introduction of a Bill sanctioning the raising of loans aggregating £8,123,039, for paying the shareholders of the Tangong Pagar Docks, which the Government have expropriated, and for carrying out some big improvement schemes. A loan of £5,000,000 was raised in 1907, and of this £3,610,300 have been converted into inscribed 3 per cent. stock.
There has been a constant stream of emigration into the Settlements from China and Southern India for many years past In 1902, 1903, and 1904, the emigrants from China numbered over 200,000 per annum, but in 1905, the figure fell to 173,131; and in 1906 the number was 176,587. In 1907, however, the number rose to 227,342, an increase of 31 per cent. over the figures for 1903, when the previous highest total was reached. The increase was attributed to very bad harvests in Southern China. There was a big decline in the immigration returns for 1908, the total being only 153,000. This heavy decrease was ascribed to good harvests in Southern China, but it was due also in some measure to quarantine restrictions imposed during the year. Free immigrants, i.e., coolies who obtain free passages in China in consideration of entering into con- tracts for service on arrival in the colony, represented in 1906 12 per cent. of the total adult male immigrants, the highest percentage since the year 1900. The immigrants from Southern India in 1908 numbered 154,512, a decrease of ten per cent. on the figures for 1907.
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. 43 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 Penang and Malacca.
All the
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. 84) 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, 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. A substance somewhat resembling soapstone, with red, white, or greenish streaks, is sometimes found amongst the clays, being rather greasy to the touch, and occasionally of a