SINGAPORE
1219
progress since its inception. The Library contains about 39,000 volumes, chiefly of standard modern literature, and includes the valuable philological collection of the late Mr. Logan.
There are several good hotels, of which the Raffles and the Hotel de l'Europe are the best. The daily Press is represented by the Straits Times, Singapore Free Press, and Malaya Tribune, and the Government Gazette. There are also several Japanese, Chinese and Malay papers.
Singapore is a free port, there being no Customs Duties, but Excise Duties are levied on alcoholic liquors, opium, tobacco and petroleum. There are no Port, Harbour, Docks, Town or Light dues. The Harbour is practically landlocked by islands, and the rise and fall of ordinary spring tides is 9 feet. Although the majority of ocean- going steamers are berthed at the Harbour Board's wharves, many vessels discharge and load in the Inner and Outer Harbour, the Inner Harbour being protected from the north-east monsoon by a mole of granite rubble about a mile long. The Singapore Harbour Board premises, which were taken over from a public limited liability company by the Colonial Government in 1905, at a cost of £3,448,339, fixed by arbitration, begin about a mile to the westward of the town. Considerable improve- ments were completed in 1916, including a railway running from one end of the wharves to the other. The Singapore Harbour Board (constituted under an enactment by the Governor of the Straits Settlements entitled the Straits Settlements Ports Ordinance) now control all the wharves and dry docks in Singapore except the P. & O. Company's private wharf. The assets of the Board at June 30th, 1922, totalled $70,500,000, .e.,- £8,225,000 sterling (exchange being fixed by Government at 2s. 4d, per Straits Settle- ments Dollar). There are 10,027 lineal feet of wharves, including Empire Dock (24) acres) 3,522 feet, and the West and Main Wharves 4,412 feet, with, respectively, 30 and 33 feet and over depth of water at L.W.O.S.T. There is storage capacity for about 260,000 tons of cargo, and some 200,000 tons of coal, the stocks being chiefly Japanese, Australian, Indian and Welsh, but there is a variety of supplies from local sources such as Borneo, Sumatra, Labuan and Sarawak. The Board own steam tugs with complete fire and salvage plant, shear-legs with lifting capacity to 60 tons, cranes, railways (11 miles), launches, and over 100 lighters and other appliances for the expeditious handling of cargo. The Board have under consideration the supply to vessels of fuel oil through pipes to be placed on the main wharf, but meantime it is only obtainable from the large tank depots on adjacent islands. There are five dry docks, one of these ("The King's ") being divided by an intermediate caisson into two docks of 486 and 325 feet each, and its equipment includes a 30-ton electric travelling crane. The machines and tools in the Board's workshops have recently been extensively replaced with up-to-date appliances electrically driven and capable of effecting repairs to vessels of the largest class and their machinery. Castings and forgings of the largest size can be made on the Board's premises. The power of the electric plant totals 2,600 k.w., and it is at present being increased to 5,000 k.w. Almost all the machinery on the premises is electrically driven. The Crown Agents for the Colonies, London, are the Board's sole agents in England.
The following figures give an indication of the volume of the Harbour Board's operations:-
Nett
Coal
Year Vessels
ending
Berthed Registered
General Cargo
Genl.
Coal
Cargo Wharves
Docks
Tonnage
Inward
Outward
1923
30th June 2,297
Tonnage
Tons Tons
Tons Tons
$
5,630,825 376,575 | 732,773 326,297 | 483,113 |4,096,792 | 3,575,738
The total value of the foreign imports and exports of Singapore (merchandise only) for the years 1920, 1921 and 1922 (excluding Inter-Settlement trade) are given below:-
1920 $832,689,934
Imports Exports
1921 $454,761,723
1922 $437,688,109
682,692,299
389,530,198
391,906,849
Total......
$1,515,382,233 $844,291,921
$829,594,958