PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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C.O. 882
3
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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Sir,
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Inclosure in No. 33.
Colonial Secretary's Office, Singapore, September 10, 1874. HIS Excellency the Governor has had before him for some time past the present organization of Public Departments, and the system of administration of Province Wellesley, and he has come, after very anxious consideration, to the conclusion that the time has arrived when a change is imperatively called for.
2. The extension of the province a few years ago by the new Treaty with Quedah, the increase in cultivation everywhere, and especially the acquisition of the new territory on the Krean, have combined to render this change of system a matter of immediate necessity. With an agricultural people the administration of the Executive Government only through the aid of the police is very inexpedient, and his Excellency would prefer to see the people of Province Wellesley left more to the management of their own Pangulus or Headmen, under the careful supervision of the immediate and resident executive authority, adopting that system which has for years worked so well in our vast Eastern Dominions, which the Governor has no doubt is the most suited to an Oriental agricultural community, and the most in accordance with their traditions and habits.
3. His Excellency has therefore decided on appointing an Assistant Agent of Government for the district of Province Wellesley, which will in future include the lately eeded south territory.
4. The inconvenience to the people of Province Wellesley of having bad for years to cross over to Penang in regard to all their land disputes, and to pay their revenue, has long called for some remedy, and the Governor has decided upon transferring the land office of Province Wellesley to the charge of the Assistant Agent of Government, together with all its books and records, which are, I believe, kept perfectly separate from those of Penang.
5. The Assistant Agent of Government will for the present require to travel a great deal, and provision will be made for the number of days to enable him to properly and regularly visit the whole district, and to make himself perfectly acquainted with the people in all the villages, with the lands, and with the cultivation, as well as with every subject of executive administration connected with the province.
6. The management of the schools, and of the Registration Department, as far as births and deaths, should also be given to the Assistant Agent of Government, but he will not have any direct control over the Medical Department, nor, moreover, the Police.
7. If he desires to recommend any change in the hospital systems, to ask for a road, or an improvement in any public work, or if he wants a survey to be made of lands applied for, he will forward the recommendation or application to you.
8. The Assistant Agent will have the collection of the land revenue and of many other items which can be more conveniently collected on the spot, and he must, there fore, be provided with a strong iron chest, of large size, which should be fixed in his office, and over which, of course, there will be a police guard. The contents of this chest should, for the present, be sent to Penang once a week, under escort, with an account in detail of each head of receipt.
9. The Assistant Agent should furnish to you monthly returns of collections of every description of revenue under the proper estimate headings. He should likewise keep a careful diary, which should be the journal of all his executive operations, and once a fort- night he should send you for transmission to Government a short memorandum of the state of the weather and crops, the public health, and any other items of interest which may happen to occur.
10. You will have to impress upon him the necessity of at once turning his attention, and very seriously, to the appointment of proper men as Pangulus. All these men should be vested with the powers of police-officers in the villages under them, and it would be very desirable if he could devise a scheme for sub-dividing the whole district into a few minor divisions, and could obtain a superior class of Headman, who would be over all the Pangulus of his division. The Assistant-Agent should submit the names of the men he recommends, and his reasons for doing so, to you, and you will forward them to this office with your report. On his Excellency approving, acts of appointment, under hia Excellency's hand and seal, will be sent, and a sword and badge of office for each. The head Pangulus of divisions should be allowed small flagstaffs, and hoist the blue flag of the Colony.
11. I have now given you all the general directions which the Governor thinks for enabling you at once to carry out this change in administration, and I am to necessary
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state that his Excellency feels sure that you will give it your hearty co-operation, and afford the Assistant-Agent of Government every assistance in your power in inaugurating it.
12. The Pangulus should be in some way remunerated, and after some experience in working this scheme, I am to request you will report how their position can be best im- proved; whether, by giving them a small monthly salary, or by a certain remission of taxes for which they are liable.
The question of how the Headmen of the divisions should be paid, and of what shall be their title, will be hereafter determined. The most feasible way will be probably to give them a commission, calculated on the revenue raised in their divisions.
13. In conclusion, I am to direct your attention at once to the inconvenient situation of Butterworth for the residence of the executive officers and for the Court, and to request you will take steps at once to ascertain if accommodation could not be found, and a Court-house and offices erected, at some more central situation for the whole district, and probably at a healthier site than Butterworth.
The Hon. the Lieutenant-Governor,
Penang.
I have, &c. (Signed) J. W. BIRCH,
No. 34.
Colonial Secretary, Straits Settlements.
Governor Sir A. Clarke, K.C.M.G., C.B., to the Earl of Carnarvon.—(Received June 7.) My Lord,
Government House, Singapore, April 26, 1875. IN reply to your Lordship's despatch of the 4th of March last, I have the honour to state, that the prisoners who had threatened to make disturbances at the mines at Salama, and who were there arrested by the police, were dispersed by the Sultan of Perak to their respective villages, where the Punghulus or Headmen are held responsible by his Highness for their future conduct and proceedings; and all are reported to have since behaved peacefully and quietly.
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2. It was found that there existed extreme difficulty in collecting over so large and scattered a territory as Perak, the requisite number of Chiefs to form the Council deemed essential to advise the Sultan on the selection of so important an office as that of the Com- missioner to act with Mr. Birch, in determining the boundaries of the territories ceded to Great Britain; but on my recent visit to Perak, I was assured that the Sultan bad named for the office the Laxamana, a Chief, second only to the Sultan; of great intelligence, and of considerable influence in Perak, and who has always been a firm friend to English con- nection.
3. The delay is not to be regretted, as it has enabled Mr. Birch, as well as the officers of the Survey Department, to learn something of the territories in question, which will facilitate the work of the Commission; whilst it has also afforded Mr. Birch time to arrange and settle matters of police, revenue, and general administration, not second in importance to the determination of these boundaries.
I have, &c. (Signed) A. CLARKE.
No. 35.
Governor Sir A. Clarke, K.C.M.G., C.B., to the Earl of Carnarvon.—(Received June 7.)
My Lord,
Government House, Singapore, April 26, 1875. I HAVE the honour to transmit herewith a Report from Her Britannic Majesty's Acting Resident of Perak, which furnishes a good deal of information about a country of which not much is known.
2. Mr. Birch appears already to have secured considerable ascendency over many of the leading Chiefs of Perak, and has been courteously received by all; but in a country which has been for so many years misgoverned by petty Rajas, progress must necessarily be slow, especially in the absence of a large and industrious Chinese population who are
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• No. 17.
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