Directory_and_Chronicle_1900 — Page 1090

008

BRITISH NORTH BORNEO

BRITISH NORTH BORNEO

This territory, formerly known as Sabah, situated at the northern end of the island of Borneo, has a coast line of about 500 miles. The population is supposed to number about 120,000, which includes about 10,000 Chinese. The chief geographical feature in the territory is the mountain of Kina Balu, about 13,698 feet high. The principal river on the West coast is the Padas; on the East there are the Kinabatangan, Labuk, Sibuku, Sugut, Segama, and many others. The best harbours are those of Gaya on the West coast, Kudat on the North, and Sandakan on the East.

The climate is particularly pleasant for the tropics; the days are rarely very hot, while a blanket is often required at night; and very little inconvenience is experienced from insect pests, such as mosquitoes and the like. Hurricanes, earthquakes, and other natural disturbances are unknown. The seas are teeming with fish, and the prospects of an export trade in dried and salted fish are encouraging. Trade with Hongkong, especially in timber, is well established, and steamers for Hongkong and Singapore, whence the majority of the trade supplies are obtained, are frequent. Amongst the zoological productions of North Borneo are to be noted elephants, rhinoceros, deer of three kinds, wild cattle, pigs, bears, &c. There are pythons of 20 feet and upwards in length; but other snakes, particularly poisonous varieties, are very rare. Of game birds there are a few-argus, fire back, and Bulwer pheasants, three sorts of partridges, many pigeons and doves, snipe, and quail.

Sandakan has a magnificent harbour and is the chief place of trade. The imports include cloth, rice, hardware, manufactured goods of all kinds, opium, Chinese tobacco, Chinese coarse crockery, matches, biscuits, oil, sugar, &c. The chief exports are tobacco, timber, cutch and rattans, gutta-percha, india-rubber, birdsnests, seed pearls, trepang, sharkstins, camphor, cutch, tortoiseshell, dried cuttle fish, beeswax, and other natural products, which are brought in from the interior, the neighbouring Sulu Archipelago, &c. The imports for the whole colony for 1898 amounted to $2,419,097, as compared with $1,887,498 in 1897 and $1,882,189 in 1896; and the exports to $2,881,851, as com- pared with $2,942,293 in 1897 and $2,120,234 in 1896. The revenue in 1898 (exclusive of $2,214, land sales) was $503,307, and in 1897 8436,063, and the ordinary expenditure was $387,261 and in 1897 $341,125, extraordinary expenditure on capital account in 1898 be- ing $324,533. Tobacco-planting promises to become a great and profitable industry, and the tobacco already raised obtains a ready sale at very high prices. Coffee-planting is being taken up, and gambier, cotton, Manila hemp, and sugar are receiving attention from Europeans, as well as from natives and Chinese. Cutch is extracted from mangrove bark and is being exported in increasing quantities. The population of the town of Sandakan, the capital of the territory, was 7,132 in 1891, of whom 131 were Europeans and 3,627 Chinese. On the west coast a short line of railway is being constructed, running inland from Brunei Bay to open up the interior of the country, and it is intended ultimately to carry it across the island to St. Lucia Bay. Sandakan becaine connected telegraphically with Labuan on the 7th May, 1897, and was thus placed in communication with Europe, etc.

The territory of British North Borneo was acquired from the Sultans of Brunei and Sulu by cession for a small annual payment in 1879-80, and the British North Borneo Company was incorporated by Royal Charter on the 1st November, 1881. The area of the territory is 31,106 square miles, and the population is estimated at about 150,000, of whom about 200 are European. In May, 1888, a British Protectorate was established. The following officers have administered the Government of the Territory since its acquisition by the Company:--1881-1887, W. H. Treacher; 1887-1888, W. M. Crocker (acting); 1888-1891, C. V. Creagh, C.M.G.; 1891-1892, L. P. Beaufort (acting); 1892, C. V. Creagh, C.M.G: 1895, L. P. Beaufort; 1900, Mr. Hugh Clifford.

LABUAN

This, the smallest British Colony in Asia, was ceded to Great Britain by the Sultan of Brunei in 1846, and taken possession of in 1848. It is situated on the north-west coast of Borneo in latitude 5 deg. 16 min. N., and longitude 115 deg. 15 min. E. It has an area of 30 square miles, and is about six miles from the Borneo coast. Although Labuan possesses a fine port, has extensive coal deposits, and by situation seemed likely to become a depôt for the trade of the north coast of Borneo, it has only partially

Page 1090Page 1091