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Eastern. No. 134.

LIFE IN MALAYA.

NOTES BASED ON INFORMATion suppliED BY OFFICERS OF THE MALAYAN GOVERNMENT SERVICES.

The life in Malaya is undoubtedly an enjoyable one.

It is an expensive country, but Europeans live comfortably. The servants are Chinese, and there is some difficulty in obtaining good ones. Every household has a minimum of three servants a cook, a table boy, and a sweeper known as a "tukang-ayer." To these are often added a gardener and a syce for horse or motor car. If there are children an amah is a necessity, and many of the ladies employ an ainah as serving woman and lady's maid. Wages are rising in Malaya as they are everywhere else. A cook can be got for $20 to $25 a month, a boy for $20, and a tukang-ayer for $18. A gardener requires $18 or more, and a syce $35. A good amah cannot be got for less than $30. As a rule servants pro- vide their own food, but most amaha (Chinese) and ayahs (Indian or Malay) have to be provided with some food. A bachelor can often arrange to live with one or two other men, when they share the wages of the cook and tukang-ayer, but each one has his own boy who looks after his bedroom and clothes and waits at table. It is sometimes possible for bachelors to get the cook to contract to feed them at so much a day. It should be possible for three men living together to manage on $240 & head (including rent and drinks) a month. In the Unfederated States free quarters are generally provided. In the Colony often, and in the Federated Malay States generally, it is possible to obtain quarters from Government at a moderate rent. Stress should be laid on the fact that for a married couple expenses are practically doubled. A wife cannot economise as she can in England, and a married couple have of necessity to give and receive more hospitality than bachelors. In the big towns, such as Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, it is often very difficult to obtain housing accommodation, especially for married couples. The hotels take permanent residents, but they seldom have vacancies, and in Singapore they now charge $250 a month for board and lodging (a few years ago it was $80 a month). People in Malaya live well, and food is plentiful. Meat, game, fresh butter, cheese, &c., can be obtained from the Cold Storage Com- pany. Cold storage is sent the whole length of the Peninsula by train

Comparatively little tinned food is used, except fruit and vegetables.

There is no difficulty in obtaining exercise in Malaya. Cricket, football, golf and tennis are played in all big stations, polo in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, and in the very smallest place it is generally possible to get tennis and sometimes golf. Nearly every place has its social club open to men and ladies at which people meet before dinner for billiards, bridge, &c. Subscrip- tions to clubs are $2 or $3 a month, and there is generally a small entrance fee. Dinner parties and dances are of frequent occurrence. Places such as Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh.

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