SELANGOR
This protected native State, containing an area of 3,156 square miles, lies on the western coast of the Malay Peninsula, and is bounded by the protected native States of Perak on the north and Negri Sembilan on the south, extending inland to the mountains in the centre of the peninsula, which divide it from Pahang and Negri Sembilan.
The Government consists of the Sultan, advised by the British Resident, and assisted by the State Council. The State is divided into the following six districts:- 1. Kuala Lumpur, the central district, where the Residency and principal Government Offices are situated, and which also contains the richest tin mines that have yet been developed. 2. Klang, in which Port Swettenham, the principal port, is situated at the mouth of the Klang River and in which the Sultan resides. 3.-Kuala Langat, an agricultural district. 4.-Kuala Selangor, containing the most important fisheries in the State. 5.-Ulu Langat, an inland mining district on the borders of Negri Sembilan. 6.-Ulu Selangor, a district adjoining Perak, containing much valuable mining land, as yet comparatively undeveloped.
Each district is under the charge of a European District Officer, from whom the Native Penghulus (in charge of the mukims into which each district is sub-divided) received instructions. The Police Force consists of 26 gazetted superior officers, 964 subordinate police officers and men, and 65 detectives.
The population of Selangor in 1884, when the first census was taken, was 46,568; but at the last census, in 1921, the returns gave a total of 398,434, of whom 170,725 were Chinese, 89,676 Malays, 132,114 natives of India, 2,475 Europeans, 1,561 Eurasians and 1,883 others.
The principal industries of the State, and those from which it derives the largest portion of its revenue, are alluvial tin mining and rubber cultivation.
In addition to its rich mineral resources, the State possesses large tracts of land well adapted for agricultural purposes, and the removal of restrictions on the free importation of Indian labourers into the Protected Native States rendered it possible for European planters to obtain cheap labour and to open estates on a large scale. Small plantations of coffee, coconuts and pepper have been successfully con- ducted; rice and other products of the Peninsula under native cultivation are doing well in various parts of the State; and, to encourage pioneer planters, grants of land have in recent years been made, on special terms, for the planting of cane sugar, African oil palm and nipah palm. But the principal agricultural product here, as in the other Malay States, is rubber. There were 702,868 acres alienated for agricultural purposes at the and of the year 1927, comprising 475,924 acres under rubber, 96,370 acres under coconuts, 20,791 acres under rice, 12,378 acres under African oil palm and 21,809 acres under cultivation by native small-holders. The value of rubber exported in 1927 was $68,151,117.
The principal exports are tin, rubber, tapioca, canes, copra and spices. The principal imports are machinery, cotton piece goods, rice, oil, tobacco and tea. The only import duties are on opium, spirituous liquors, matches, petroleum, motor spirit, tobacco and alum, while export duties are payable only on minerals, agricultural products, ivory, fish, horns and hides, a few kinds of jungle produce and guttapercha. The export duty on tin has amounted in recent years to over four million dollars a year, the duty on the gross value of the tin being, roughly, 13 per cent. There were 55,279 acres alienated for mining at the end of 1927, mostly for tin. Tin and tin ore exported amounted to 14,337 tons against 13,285 in 1926. The value was $34,784,786, as compared with $32,377,109 in 1926. The Malayan Collieries, Ltd., turned out 445,944 tons of coal against 478,235 tons in 1926. The quality of the coal is reported to be excellent. A branch railway has been constructed to the mine.
There is frequent and regular communication, by means of coasting steamers, between the Straits Settlements and Selangor. From Kuala Lumpur the chief town on the mainland of the Peninsula, a system of cart and bridle roads extends to the boundaries of Perak, Negri Sembilan and Pahang. Branch lines of railway now extend