Directory_and_Chronicle_1916 — Page 1328

SINGAPORE

1223

cold clay, and below this a stratum of arenaceous clay. In many districts kaolin is found in large quantities and of excellent quality.

The town proper extends for about four miles along the south-eastern shore of the island, spreading inland for a distance varying from half to three-quarters of a mile, though the majority of the residences of the upper class Europeans lie much further back, within a circle with a radius of three and a half miles from the Cathedral, This portion of the Settlement is almost entirely level, the highest hill in the island, about seven miles from the town, only rising to a height of 500 feet. The country roads are well kept, and, thanks to the luxuriance of tropical vegetation, abound in shade. The town streets, on the other hand, though wide and well metalled, are, as regards architectural matters, drains, and gutters, not much credit to the Settle- ment. Government House, the Government Offices, Police Barracks, Magistrates' Courts, Post Office, Library and Museum, Town Hall and Victoria Theatre, the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, the Chartered Bank, and The Arcade are fine buildings, while the Settlement possesses a handsome Cricket Club which compares favourably with any in the East. A fine bronze statue of Sir Stamford Raffles stands on the Esplanade, facing the sea.

Singapore possesses a handsome though small Anglican cathedral called St. Andrew's Cathedral, built in 1861; it is in the Gothic style, with a tower and spire 204 feet high. There is a neat Presbyterian Church, St. Gregory's (Armenian) Church, in Hill Street, and several mission chapels. The Roman Catholics have a roomy Cathedral dedicated to the Good Shepherd, at the corner of Bras Basa Road and Victoria Street, the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul in Queen Street, the Church of St. Joseph in Victoria Street, one newly built in Tank Road, and other smaller churches in the outskirts. The New Roman Catholic Church (St. Joseph's) consecrated on June 20, 1912, by the Bishop of Macao, has been described as "the finest ecclesiastical edifice in the Far East." There is also a neat Jewish Synagogue in Waterloo Street and one in Tank Road. There is now also a small Church for those professing the Seventh Day Adventist Creed. The principal schools are those of the Raffles Institute, the Christian Brothers, and the Anglo-Chinese School. The Raffles Girls' School and the Convent also provide for the education of girls of the Protestant and Roman Catholic persuasions.

The Singapore Club has a good building in a central position. There are Recreation, Sporting, Rowing, Shooting, Cricket, Lawn Tennis, Art, and Reading Clubs, and the Celestial (Chinese) Reasoning Association. There is a Country Club with a well-built bungalow situated some three miles out of town, at which dances and amateur theatricals are frequently given. The best Club-house in the Settlement was that occupied before the war by the German community in the Tanglin district. The Raffles Library and Museum, moved in October, 1887, into the new building erected for them, are creditable and well-kept institutions, the Museum having made very fair progress since its inception. The Library contains over 6,000 volumes, chiefly of standard modern literature, and includes the valuable philological collection of the late Mr. Logan.

There are several good hotels, of which the Raffles and the Hotel de l'Europe are the best. The daily Press is represented by the Straits Times, Singapore Free Press, and Malay Tribune, and the Government Gazette. There are also two Chinese daily papers, one Malay paper, and one or two papers in Tamil.

Singapore is well off for Docks. The Tanjong Pagar Dock Board premises, which were taken over from a public limited liability company by the Colonial Government in 1906 at a cost of £3,448,339 fixed by arbitration, lie about a mile to the west- ward of the town, fine wharves affording berthage for a large number of vessels at one time, with sufficient water alongside for vessels of the deepest draught, and protected by a breakwater from the swell from the roads and from the strength of the tides. There are commodious godowns erected on the wharves for the storage of goods. Coal sheds, capable of storing 50,000 tons, adjoin_the_godowns, while hand-cars on rails essentially aid the labour of unloading vessels. The usual accompaniments are also to be found—two graving docks, the Victoria Dock, 450 feet long and 65 feet broad at entrance, and the Albert Dock, 485 feet long and 60 feet broad at entrance—a machine shop, boiler, and masting shears, etc. Considerable improve- ments are now under construction, including a railway running from one end of the wharves to the other. The New Harbour Dock Coispany's premises, situated about three miles further west, include two docks of 375 and 444 feet in length, respectively, with sheds, workshops, etc. These were purchased by the Tanjong Pagar Dock Com- pany in 1900, and were included in the sale to the Government in 1906, as also was the Patent Slip at Tanjong Rhoo, which is 429 feet long and 76 feet broad over piers.