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Appendix No. 9.
NETHERLANDS.
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534
Socrabaia.
Soerabaia has a population of 5,000 Europeans, 7,000 Chinese, and 110,000 Javanese and other natives. It is an important place of trade, but its chief military and naval importance consists in its being, with the exception of Tjilatjap, on the south coast, the only natural harbour of Java, all others being mere roadsteads; it is the only place where a defeated Dutch fleet could not only take refuge but refit, as Tjilatjap has at present no dock-yard.
Soerabaia and the subsidiary port of Grissee lie in the narrow portion of the channel which divides the mainland of Java from the Island of Madura, which will be more particularly described under the port. The character of the country in the neighbourhood is the same as most of the Java north coast, a recent alluvial deposit, brought down by the rivers, some of which is still covered at high water by the tide; inland, the country is intersected by numerous streams, which serve to irrigate the rice-fields, where the ground is redeemed from the marshes, the roads run on causeways, and the boat and irrigation channels can be utilized to inundate the country. Two of the most important rivers of Java, the Solo and Brantas, fall into the sea near Soerabaia; both are navigable by native boats many miles inland, although having shallow bars at their mouths; the Solo debouches at the northern end of the narrows of the Madura Strait; one branch of the Brantas, improved into a canal, runs through the town, another falls into the sea about half-a-mile to the east of it, at the southern end of the narrows, while a large branch, the Porrong, falls into the wider portion of the strait, several miles to the east of the town.
The main post-road, running always pretty close to the shore, passes through Sidajo, Grissee, and Soerabaia, and thence to Porrong, where it is about 10 miles from the sea, returning to the coast at Pasoeroean.
The railway runs from Soerabaia to Malang, its hill station, with a branch to Pasoeroean, but the main line of Java leaves this line at Sidhardjo, runs to Kertosomo, with a branch line to Kediri; the complete connection with Soerakarta and Samarang is being rapidly completed.
We have not, as yet, access to maps on the large scales of Batavia and Samarang, so that the details of the town and port cannot be so minutely described, but this is perhaps of minor importance, since, as will be seen, the whole arrangements of both port and defences are in a state of transition. The town resembles in general character and arrangements those we have already discussed; first comes, nearest the shore, the old commercial town, led up to by the usual embanked sea-canal, which divides the stone and regularly built portion from the Chinese and native town, the whole intersected by numerous boat channels and canals; and stretching far beyond the old demolished enceinte, come gardens and villas. Soerabaia, however, has this peculiarity, that the land in its immediate neighbour- hood does not rise to neighbouring hills.
The port of Soerabaia is formed by the shelter which the island of Madura gives to the northern coast of this portion of Java, there is no bay properly speaking, the inclosed waters may be said to commence between Panka and Wodon Points, which are some 15 miles apart; at a depth of some 7 or 8 miles this funnel-shaped bay narrows to a couple of miles between Menarie and Piering, thence the strait runs south and afterwards east, a total length of 17 miles or so, with a width, if we omit the portion only covered by the tide, of from 1 to 2 miles; about 2 miles beyond Soerabaia the strait rapidly widens out again into the main Strait of Madura, about 100 miles in length and 50 miles across, all sheltered water except from due east; in the narrow portion of the strait there is deep water, but the entrances at both ends are full of banks, the channels being rendered still more difficult by the tidal currents and the river streams.
The northern entrance, "Westgat," at the commencement of the century, admitted the largest ships of the line, and the channel then lay near the Java shore, but the erection of a fort to command the waterway aggravated the tendency of the River Solo and the strait tides to form eddies, and slack water and banks rapidly formed; it is calculated that the Solo carries down from 37,000 to 600,000 cubic metres of mud per diem, most of which is deposited in the strait; one of the banks was found to extend 12 feet per annum in 50 feet of water, thus the channel has been gradually driven across to the Madura shore-it is daily, hourly, altering, and becoming shallower, now probably not more than 16 feet at high water, and less than a cable's length in width, with a stream athwart the channel. The latest accessible Budget contains a long discussion of possible methods of preventing the entire extinction of the port, and a grant has been made for improvements, which will no doubt be added to annually; the general outline of the proposed remedies may be thus generally stated to divert the Solo River to the westward of the strait, either by cutting for it inland an entirely new channel or by placing embankments in the sea, by this means it is hoped to get rid of conflicting eddies and slack water deposit, so that the river mud will be carried well out to sea, and until the unimpeded tides will again scour out the narrow channel between Java and Madura ; these proposals have taken some definite shape it would be useless to discuss the details of the Westgat.
Önce over the Zeebank the channel deepens to 4, 5, 6, and even 10 fathoms, in front of Soerabaia, at Grissee, which is about 7 miles from the entrance to the narrows, there is a pier and some facilities for repairs. Grissee was formerly a great ship-building centre. This trade has, however, declined, and only small native yards exist, but it is still the great timber depôt of Java.
Going eastward, the first commercial feature is the improved channel of the Calimas branch of the Brantas, which has been straightened and embanked, and is the highway of intercourse between the roadstead and the town. It is 30 yards wide at the town. Ships drawing less than 12 feet of water can unload at the quays, but they have to be towed up as the current always runs down, the tides only causing a difference of level. The canal is passed by a drawbridge. Between the canal and the other branch is the artificial harbour. This has been gradually excavated and improved in a long course of years, but the depth of water at the entrance has been a constant source of trouble, only maintained by steam dredgers and constant exertions. The canal entrance is from 60 to 75 metres
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