Directory_and_Chronicle_1917 — Page 1448

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 Palang 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. Kuala 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, in which Port Swettenham, the principal port, is situated at 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.-Uhe 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 sub-divided) receive instructions. The Police Force consists of one Deputy Commissioner, two Assistant Commissioners (one Probationer), three Chief Inspectors, 13 inspectors, and 893 native non-commissioned officers and nien.

The population of Selangor in 1884, when the first census was taken, was 46,568; but at the last census, in 1911, the returns gave a total of 294,035, of whom 150,908 were Chinese, 64,952 Malays, 74,067 natives of India, 1,348 Europeans, 1,739 aborigines.

The principal industries of the State, and from which it derives the largest portion of its revenue, are alluvial tin mining and rubber cultivation.

In addition to its rich mineral resources, the State possesses large tracts of land well adapted for agricultural purposes, and the removal of restrictions on the free importation of Indian labourers 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, coconuts and pepper have been successfully con- ducted, and rice, 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 sago, pepper, and gambier. But the principal agricultural product here, as in the other Malay States, is rubber. There were 519,669 acres alienated for agricultural purposes at the end of the year, comprising 255,326 acres under rubber, coconuts 36,764 acres, coffee 8,854, and rice 8,727. Three hundred and twenty-four estates produced 19,120 tons of rubber in 1 15; the export in 1914 was 14,015 tons.

The principal exports are tin, rubber, hides, tapioca, canes, rattans, coffee, copra, spices and guttapercha. The principal imports are machinery, cotton piece goods, rice, oil, tobacco and tea. The only import duties are on opium and spirituous liquors, and tobacco and cigars, 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 re- cent years amounted to about three million dollars a year, the duty on the gross value of the tin being, roughly, 14 per cent. There were 68,161 acres alienated for mining at the end of 1915, mostly for tin. Tin and tin ore exported amounted to 234,155 piculs against 253,735 in 1914. The value was $18,334,368 as compared with $18,578,839 in 1914. Of wolfram 3,122 piculs were exported. The Malayan Collieries, Ltd., is now at work at Rantau Panjang, and at the end of the year was turning out 130 tons of coal a day. The quality of the coal is reported to be satisfactory. A branch railway has been constructed to the mine.

There is frequent and regular communication, by means of coasting steamers, between the Straits Settlements and Selangor, and from Kuala Lumpur a system of cart and bridle roads extends to the boundaries of Perak, Negri Sembilan and Pahang. A metre gauge railway line, connecting Kuala 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, and an extension, Kuala Lumpur to Kuala Kubu, was opened on the 6th October, 1894. Branches now extend in all directions, and the main