Directory_and_Chronicle_1904 — Page 1517

STRAITS SETTLEMENTS

This Colony-now consisting of the island of Singapore, the province of Malacca,, the island of Penang, the Dindings further south, Province Wellesley on the mainland, and the Cocos or Keeling Islands, and Christmas Island, the latter two placed under the same Government in 1886 and 1889 respectively-was transferred from the control of the Indian Government to that of the Secretary of State for the Colonies by an Order in Council dated the 1st April, 1867. The seat of Government is the town of Singapore, on the island of the same name. The Government consists of a Governor aided by an Executive and Legislative Council, the latter body consisting of nine official members and seven unofficial members, of whom two are nominated by the Chambers of Commerce of Singapore and Penang. There are Municipal bodies in each Settlement, the members of which are partly elected by the ratepayers and partly appointed by the Governor.

Penang was the first British Settlement on the Malayan Peninsula, having been ceded to the British by the Rajah of Kedah in 1785, and it soon acquired a monopoly of the trade of the Peninsula. Malacca, which had been successively held by the Portuguese and the Dutch, finally passed into the hands of Great Britain by treaty with Holland in 1824, having heen previously held by Great Britain from 1795 to 1818. With the establishment of Penang in 1785 most of the trade which had formerly centred at Malacca was transferred to the former. In 1819 Singapore was taken possession of by Sir Stamford Raffles, by virtue of a treaty with the Johore Princes, and it soon took the lead of Penang as a commercial centre. In 1826 Singa- pore and Malacca were incorporated with Penang under one Government, Penang remaining the seat of Government until 1830, when the administration was transferred to Singapore.

The census of the Straits Settlements, taken in 1901, gave the population of Singapore as 228,555 (170,875 males and 57,680 females) against 184,554 in 1891. Penang and dependencies 248,207, against 235,618 in 1891. Malacca, 95,487 against 92,170 in 1891. Christmas Island 704. The Cocos Islands 645. The total increase in the Straits Settle- ments since 1891 is 59,907 or 11.69 per cent. The increase in males is 34,600 or 10 per cent. and in females 25,307 or 15 per cent. The resident population of Europeans and Americans increased by 669 or 20.5 per cent There was a decrease of 1,531 in the whole European and American population (including floating population and British military) mainly owing to there not being a British regiment stationed there when the census was taken.

The revenue of the Colony in 1902 amounted to $7,754,733, which was 8713,048 in excess of the revenue raised in 1901. The expenditure was $7,600,734. The Colony had a credit balance on January 1st, 1903, of $1,973,793. Government currency notes to the value of $13,393,440 were in circulation on the 31st December 1902, as com- pared with $9,476,000 at the end of the previous year, and with $6,205,000 for 1900. The coin reserve increased from $6,970,715, to $7,714,555, though, during the year, the legal proportion was reduced from two-thirds to one-half.

The trade returns of the Straits Settlements for 1902 show the imports of mer- chandise to have been $322,396,485, showing an increase of $29,586,318, as compared with the figures for the previous year. The exports in 1902, amounting to $285,953,815, showed an increase of $29,180,265. Together we have a total increase in dollars of just on 60,000,000, but when the figures are expressed in sterling value the trade in 1902 was more than £1,500,000 less than its corresponding value in 1971. During the past year the currency has been changed, the new dollar has been minted, and to use the words of Sir Frank Swettenham, the late Governor, "in course of time it will have a fixed sterling value." The shipping returns for 1992 showed a total tounage entered and cleared of 12,383,676, being 1,657 tons less than in the previous year. A railway from Singapore to Johore was opened last year and is paying well. Speaking generally, it may be said that there are many signs of the increasing prosperity of the Colony as a whole, intimately connected as it is with the welfare of the Federated Malay States. The towns of Singapore and George Town, Penang, continue