Directory_and_Chronicle_1908 — Page 1407

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SELANGOR

This protected native state, containing an area of about 3,200 square miles, lies on the western coast of the Malay Peninsula, and is bounded by the protected native states of Perak on the north and Negri Sembilan on the south, extending inland to the mountains in the centre of the peninsula, which divide it from Pahang and Jelebu.

The Government consists of the Sultan, advised by the British Resident, and assisted by the State Council. The State is divided into the following six districts:- 1. Kwala Lumpur, the central district where the Residency and principal Government Offices are situated, and which also contains the richest tin mines that have yet been developed. 2.--Klang, the principal port, situated about 14 miles from the mouth of the Klang River. 3.-Kuala Langat, an agricultural district, in which the Sultan resides. 4.-Kuala Selangor, containing the most important fisheries in the State, 5.-Ulu Langat, an inland mining district on the borders of Negri Sembilan. 6.-Ulu Selangor, a district adjoining Perak, containing much valuable mining land, as yet comparatively undeveloped.

Each district is under the charge of a European District Officer. from whom the Native Penghulus (in charge of the mukims into which each district is subdivided) receive instructions. The Police Force consists of a deputy Commissioner, assistant deputy Commissioner, seven European inspectors, and 568" native non-commissioned officers and men.

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, 4,16€ Japanese, 1,063 Europeans, 1,875 aboriginese and the remainder Arabs, Singhalese, Boyanese, Siamese, etc.

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 removal of restrictions on the free importation of Indian coolies into the Protected Native States rendered 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 in recent years been made, on special terms, for the planting of sagö, 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 has in recent years amounted to between three and four million dollars a year, the duty on the gross value of the tin being roughly 14 per cent.

There is frequent and regular communication, by means of coasting steamers, between the Straits Settlements and Selangor, and from Kwala Lumpur à system of cart and bridle roads extends to the boundaries of Perak, Negri Sembilan, and Pahang. A line of metre gauge railway, connecting Kwala Lumpur 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, andan 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, thẹ capital of the Negri Sembilan, was completed in February, 1903. The total length of railway open for traffic is about 150 miles. On 1st January, 1899 the extension from Klang to Port Swettenham (5 miles 40 chains) was opened

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