SELANGOR
683
The population of Selangor in 1884, when the first census was taken, was 46,568; in April, 1891, the total population of the State amounted to 81,592 persons, but at the last Census, taken on March 1st 1901, the returns gave a total of 168,789, of whom 108,768, were Chinese, 33,997 Malays, 16,748 natives of India, 4,166 Japanese, 1,063 Europeans, 1,875 aboriginese and the remainder Arabs, Singhalese, Boyanese, Siamese, &c.
The principal industry of the State, and from which it derives the largest portion of its revenue, is alluvial tin mining, on which a duty is charged.
In addition to its mineral resources the State, however, possesses large tracts of land well adapted for agricultural purposes, and the recent removal of restrictions on the free importation of Indian coolies into the Protected Native States renders it possible for European planters to obtain cheap labour and to open estates on a large scale. Small plantations of coffee, cocoa, and pepper have already been successfully commenced, and rice, sugar, and other products of the Peninsula under native cultivation are doing well in various parts of the State, and to encourage pioneer planters, large grants of land have recently been made, on special terms, for the planting of sago, pepper, and gambier.
The principal exports are tin, hides, garmwood, tapioca, canes, rattans, and gutta percha. The principal imports are opium, salt, salt-fish, rice, oil, tobacco, and tea. The only import duties are on opium and spirituous liquors, while export duties are payable only on minerals, agricultural products, ivory, fish, horns and hides, jungle produce and guttapercha. The export duty on tin in 1903 amounted to $3,364,300, which is the highest revenue ever yet attained. The duty on the gross value of the tin was roughly 14 per cent.
There is frequent and regular communication, by means of coasting steamers, between the Straits Settlements and Selangor, and from Kwala Lumpor a system of cart and bridle roads extends to the boundaries of Perak, Negri Sembilan, and Pahang. A line of metre gauge railway, connecting Kwala Lumpor with Klang (a distance of 21 miles 14 chains) was formally opened by Sir F. Weld, then Governor of the Straits Settlements, on the 15th Sept., 1886, and an extension, Kwala Lumpur to Kuala Kubu, was opened on the 6th October, 1894. A further extension, Kuala Kubu to Tanjong Malim, on the Perak frontier (14 miles 45 chains), was completed and opened on November, 1st, 1900.
A line from Kuala Lumpur to Kajang (17 miles 24 chains), was opened to traffic in August, 1897, and the continuation of this line (28 miles 75 chains), to Seremban, the Capital of the Negri Sembilan, was completed in February, 1903.
The total length of railway open for traffic in 1904 was 136 miles 42 chains. On 1st January, 1899, the extension from Klang to Port Swettenham (5 miles 40 chains) was opened for passenger traffic. Port Swettenham is the terminus of the railway, on Klang Straits, and wharves have been constructed there, capable of accommodating ocean-going steamers.
Telegraph lines connecting the State with the Perak and the Negri Sembilan and Malacca systems have been laid, and Postal Telegraph Offices are established at Kuala Lumpur, Klang, Kuala Kubu, Serendah, Kuala Selangor, Sabak Bernam, Rawang, Jugra, Kajang, Sepang and Sungei Besi and at all Railway Telegraph Offices. At the request of the Pahang Covernment, the Selangor line has been extended also to Raub and Kuala Lipis,
The revenue of the State in 1903 was $7,267,258. In ten years the revenue has more than doubled.
DIRECTORY
GOVERNMENT
Sultan-His Highness ALLH EL DIN SULEIMAN SHAH
British Resident-H. CONWAY BELFIELD
H. H. The Sultan, president
The British Resident
COUNCIL OF State
The Secretary to Resident, Kwala Lumpur
Raja Muda
Chan Sow Lin, Kwala Lumpur
Raja Hassan, Klang
Raja Haji Bôt, Kwala Lumpur G. Cumming, Kwala Lumpur Saiyid Mashhor
The REMINGTON TYPEWRITER makes light work of much labor.
Original from
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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