PUBLIC
RECORD
OFFICE
Reference :--
PELIC.O. 882
4PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO
*This dif ference is accounted for by dif- ferences in classifica- tion.
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Other small items of revenues, fines and fees, passes for processions, sale of postage stamps, collections for telegrams, &c., are collected by various officers and paid into the treasury weekly. All expenditure on public accounts is defrayed by the treasurer on the order of the Assistant Resident or Resident. Durian Sabatang, which district includes Kinta, is under the supervision of the Superintendent of Lower Perak (Mr. Innes, acting), who collects the revenue of his district, keeping accounts similar to those in the Larut treasury, defrays current expenses in accordance with sanctioned estimates, and holds any surplus by the credit of the Government.
The Resident, Mr. Low, lives at Kwala Kangsa, and takes this district under his personal charge. Accounts of revenue are kept here as elsewhere, and copies of abstracts forwarded to the general treasury. The Krian district is under a Collector and Magistrate, Mr. Dennison, who collects the revenue and makes the necessary disburse- ments, supplying the treasurer with abstracts of his accounts.
The transactions of the districts are entered in the treasurer's books, and where the revenues of any particular district are not sufficient to cover the expenses, the necessary funds are supplied by the treasurer.
The treasurer has a general account with the Chartered Mercantile Bank, Penang, into which he pays the surplus revenue, and against which he draws as need arises.
I have thought it better to make the above brief statements of the financial arrange. ments in Perak, before entering into the details of figures.
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I will endeavour to give a general idea of the revenue and expenditure of the several districts of Perak in 1877, and of the State as a whole.
5. To begin with Larut, and dealing first with the revenue.
About seven sixteenths of the whole revenue of the State for 1877 was derived from the tin duty in Larut, viz., $138,919, the only other considerable item of export being gutta, the duty on which realized $3,599. The total exports in Larut amounted to 8144,169. The imports, of which there is only one considerable item, opium, amounted to 834,572, opium furnishing $30,762 of the total.
The farms, including gambling, pawnbroking, South Larut farms, road and toddy farms, gave a revenue of $27,559, whilst the Larut internal revenue, including harbour dues, fines and fees, house tax, carriage tax, land permits, &c., made up the balance of 817,041. The whole revenues of the Larut district for 1877 were $223,342.
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6. The total revenue collected in the Durian Sabatang or Lower Perak district in 1877 I amounted, according to the return furnished to Singapore, to #61,549, but as far as have been able to ascertain from the accounts from Durian Sabatang, the amount appears to be $62,917, as shown in the table attached. This revenue is derived from exports, principally tin and gutta, imports as in Larut, farms, fines and fees of court, and other items of internal revenue.
7. According to the returns to which I have referred, a sum of $1,824 appears to have been collected in the Kwala Kangsa district during 1877, made up for the most part of an excise farm and fines and fees of court, but after a careful examination of cash and other books, I make the amount of real revenue collected during 1877 $2,006, Vide table attached.
8. The revenues of the Krian district realized $26,110, mainly derived from land rents. It was only in the middle of 1877 that a Collector was established in Krian; before his arrival no land rents had been collected, and the small sums collected in the district had little more than paid the expenses of a clerk and a few police.
Tables are attached showing, as far as I have been able to do so, the abstract collections of each of these districts for the year.
The total revenues collected throughout Perak during the year 1877 amounted to $314,378, against an estimate of $275,000, in which, however, there is no sum entered as the probable revenue of the Krian district.
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On this head, then, it is only necessary for me to say that the expenditure of—
Larut district amounted in 1877 to
Kwala Kangsa to
Durian Sabatang to
219,544 81
17,290 63
49,514 93
And Krian
6,361 27
Total expenditure of the State
292,711 64
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I checked the expenditure by the vouchers and receipts. In a few instances there are vouchers for all payments, signed by a responsible officer; where there were no vouchers, or they have been paid without the signature of the chief officer of a district, I inquired into the cause and brought the matter to the notice of the Resident.
Generally speaking, I can report that since Mr. Low came into the country he has not only himself carefully watched and checked the expenditure, but he has repeatedly impressed upon all his officers the necessity for strict economy.
The present state of the finances of this country sufficiently prove the care exercised, and without this care, I feel sure the result would have been a very different one.
Before leaving the financial question I desire to state that the system of account keeping, collecting revenues, and defraying expenses in-1877, of which I have so far spoken, has been greatly improved upon in 1878, and further necessary changes will be introduced this year, but on all these points 1877 is very far in advance of the preceding years, and the order and system which now obtain throughout the districts of this large State are surprising, and the matter is one on which Mr. Low may be sincerely con- gratulated.
I was not able, nor was it my intention, to go into the accounts of 1878, and it is therefore quite possible that some of the changes I have recommended may have been already adopted, but I sometimes glanced at the accounts of the year just closed, and tried to avoid raising questions already satisfactorily dealt with by the Resident.
GENERAL REMARKS.
I attach a plan of Larut, showing the Irluk Kertang Kamunting road with the begin- Larut ning of the branch to Kwala Kangsa, the mines, Government buildings, &c., &c., which (General). was prepared for me in the Public Works Office in Larut.
The main road (as far as Larut district is concerned) is about 12 miles long, and with Bonds. the exception of the second mile, or mile and a half, that is from the old gaol towards Taiping, it is in a much better state than I have ever seen it before. The bridges, too, are much improved, but two or three of them are of an excessive and apparently unnecessary width.
From Irluk Kertang to the Residency at Kwala Kangsa, following the Sempang branch, is 234 miles, but a little more than a mile beyond Sempang there is three quarters of a mile of this road which is bad beyond description, quite impassable for any kind of vehicle.
There are bad places elsewhere on this road, but nothing that a bullock cart might not struggle through, whilst in the greater part of its length it is in fair order and pleasant to ride over.
Both the main and branch roads are singularly level except where the former passes the Roman Catholic chapel, and where the latter leads through the pass to Gunong Pondok.
The Resident is quite alive to the urgent need for repairing both roads, especially the Kwala Kangsa branch, and I believe purposes to place in the 1879 estimates a sum necessary for the work.
Several bridges in the branch road have fallen into disrepair, and a considerable sum Telegraph. must be spent if it is intended to maintain the telegraph line between Simpang and Kwala Kangen.
The telegraph posts first put up seem to have been green wood cut out of the jungle, and the consequence is they have rotted at the foot, and continually fall down.
be necessary to renew thein along the whole line.
It will
A large new mining district, Asam Kumbong, has been opened since I last visited Mines. Larut, and is shown on the plan. I say opened, but that is hardly the case: it has been greatly developed.
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Fewer mines, however, are working at Jupai, whilst Kamunting appears to remain much as before, both as regards the number of mines working, and the number of shops in the village.
Of Government buildings, the gaol, hospital, police quarters, store, and Public Works Government Office, with several officers' quarters, are new to me.
The Public Works officers' quarters and store are combined in one building, which seems sufficient for present purposes, but I should fancy that later it may be found necessary to build a new Public Works Office, giving more room for drawing tables, plans, &c.
buildings.
The police quarters consist of two similar buildings, one for Seikhs, and one for Police. Malays, capable of holding about 50 men each, with kitchens behind them. They seem
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