PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference -
TUTTICO. 882
2 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE | COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
4
400 feet of sea-frontage. The terms and conditions upon which this lease of land was granted to the Company will be found in Earl Granville's despatch No. 22 of the 2nd June, 1870.
10. For the Company now to propose, upon what grounds I cannot discover, that a nominal rental of 18. should be substituted for a real rental of 100%. argues a strange misconception or forgetfulness of the privileges conceded to them, and I must add, a great disregard of the just interests of this Colony.
11. The next point relates to the contribution paid by the Company to the Civil Hospital. Here also Mr. Lindsay is misinformed as to the main fact. No charge, so far as I am aware, has ever been made upon the Company on this account. The Civil Hospital is maintained partly by Government, partly by voluntary subscriptions. Nearly all the public officials, nearly all the residents, merchants, and tradesmen give a monthly contribution. The Company's servants were admitted into and treated in the hospital, and Mr. Lumsden, on the part of the Company, subscribed 50 dollars per month. Mr. Lindsay is in error in saying that I reduced this charge. Soon after my arrival the Colonial Surgeon told me that Mr. Gray, the new manager, wished to reduce the subscription to 30 or 35 dollars. I had nothing to urge against what seemed to me a very reasonable proposition. 1 said that the Government and the community were obliged to the Company for their liberal support of an institution so eminently deserving of support.
12. Mr. Lindsay and the Company are also misinformed as to the charge made upon them for road-making. Mr. Lindsay says that the Company's late manager engaged himself in making a road to the Governor's house, for which the Company have been charged and have paid 4411. 16s. 2d., or thereabouts. The road in question is the road from Coal Point leading to the town and harbour of Victoria, and has nothing to do with the Governor's house.
The facts of the case are these: In July 1869, Mr. Lumsden applied to Governor Hennessy for assistance in making the road in question, suitable for the trial of a "road steamer," by means of which it was proposed to convey coal from the mines to the harbour. Mr. Hennessy consented to do this with convict labour, at the expense of the Company, to which Mr. Lumsden agreed. I understand that the road from between the second and third mile-stones, from Victoria to the forth mile- stone, a distance of one mile and a half, was widened, several repairs made along the whole length of road, and a wooden bridge built over the Gangarra River, near Coal Point, and for this service the Company paid a sum of 6097. 18, 54d.
A trial of the road steamer was made, and the experiment signally failed, as indeed I cannot help thinking the manager ought to have foreseen. The Company had been at a great expense in sending out the engine and heavy trucks, and thus was sacrificed an outlay which should never have been incurred; but it is said that the fault of this speculation lies as much with the Directors as with the manager.
13. fully concur with Mr. Lindsay as to the mismanagement of the mines during Mr. Lumsden's time.
Had half the energies and means of the Company been then expended in deve- loping the permanent resources of the mines that were devoted to the immediate output of the poor supply to be gleaned from temporary workings, the Company might by this time have secured for themselves a most successful and prosperous enterprise.
14. The misfortune is theirs if the fault lay, as they appear to intimate, with their manager. If, on the other hand, from a desire to obtain immediate returns they themselves sacrificed their permanent for their temporary interests by directing or approving the course adopted by Mr. Lumsden, then they have only themselves to blame.
15. But whether the fault be that of the Directors or their Manager, the mis- fortune to the Colony is the same. It is increased by the inability of the Company to meet their obligations to the Crown. And when the Directors go further and claim that the Colony should provide the Company with convict labour, introduced and kept up at great cost to the Government at losing rates, and that they should hold valuable land and privileges at nominal 1s. rentals, the sense of the misfortune is not lessened by these attempts to advance the Company's interests at the expense of the Colony.
I have, &c.
(Signed) HENRY BULWER.
5
Inclosure 1 in No. 4.
RETURN of the Sums received by the Government of Labuan from the Oriental Coal Company (Limited) for Convict Labour from the 16th May, 1868, to the 26th July, 1872.
la 1868
"
1869
12
1870
1871
To 26th July, 1879
(Signed)
Nil.
£404 0 2
1,127 2 0
404 8 8
140 12 3
£2,076 3 1
B. A. CODY, Colonial Treasurer.
Inclosure 2 in No. 4.
MONEYS paid by the Oriental Coal Company (Limited) on account of Convict Labour in Labuan from February 1869 to July 1872.
Steamer" William Miller" Steamer "Vine"
Road steamers Ditto Dinto
North Road
Ditto Ditto
Coal Point
Ditto
Oriental Wharf Ditto
Railway
Sundries
Stacking coal
::
:
::
.
Labuan, December 1872.
:::
Ditto
Repairing, &c.
Ditto
16 00
$
C.
$
C.
Discharging and trimming Ditto and loading
1870
241 25
--
1869 1870
200 02
46 00
246 02
Drivers, Firemen, &c.
1870
Erecting Shed
1870
130 00
1871
6 60
186 50
1869
432 14
1870
2,200 42
Ditto
1871
295 07
2,927 63
Cutting coal
1870
520 70
Ditto
1871
417 60
938 30
Constructing
1870
681 46
Ditto
1871
129 04
1871
810 30
47
65
1869
1,307 08
Discharging and loading ships.
lighters, &c., and general
1870
1,590 25
1871
997 41
work
1872
674 95
1871
4,569 69
32
CO
$9.965
54
(Signed)
JOHN R. HOWARD,
No. 5.
Superintendent of Convicts.
Sir C. Murdoch to Mr. Herbert.-(Received March 4.)
Sir,
Emigration Board, March 3, 1873. 1 HAVE to acknowledge your letter of 1st instant, with the copy of a despatch from Governor Bulwer on the subject of the several questions still in discussion between the Oriental Company and Her Majesty's Government.
First, in regard to the amount charged against the Company for police, a reduction has already been sanctioned by the Earl of Kimberley, on Mr. Bulwer's recommendation, from 2301. to 871. 10s. I presume from the manner in which the Company allude to that reduction in their letter of 20th December last, that they are satisfied with it. Governor Bulwer now points out that his recommendation was based on the assumption that the Company contributed to the general expenses
• Vide Confidential Paper, January 14, 1873, page 54 (No. 48).