Directory_and_Chronicle_1918 — Page 1478

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BRITISH NORTH BORNEO

On the East there are the Kinabatangan, Labuk, Sugut, Segama, and many others. The best harbours are those of Jesselton on the West Coast, Kudat on the North, and Sandakan on the East.

The climate is particularly pleasant for the tropics; the days are rarely very hot, while a blanket is often required at night; and very little inconvenience is experienced from insect pests, such as mosquitoes and the like. Hurricanes, earthquakes, and other natural disturbances are unknown. The seas are teeming with fish, and the export trade in dried and salted fish is increasing. Trade with Singapore, Hongkong and the Philippines is well established. A weekly steamship service is maintained between North Borneo ports and Singapore, by the Straits Steamship Company, and steamers run regularly to Hongkong and the Philippines. A local fortnightly service is maintained by the Sabah Steamship Company, and a monthly service by the Osaka Shosen Kaisha from Formosa, the ports of call being Amoy, Swatow, Hongkong, Manila, Sandakan, Batavia, Semarang, and Macassar. The majority of the trade supplies are obtained from and through Singapore, and with Hongkong a regular timber business has been established. Amongst the zoological productions of North Borneo are to be noted elephants, rhinoceros, deer of three kinds, wild cattle, pigs, bears and pythons. Of game birds there are a few-argus, fireback, and bulwer pheasants wild duck, many varieties of wild pigeon and doves, snipe, and quail.

Sandakan, the capital, has a magnificent harbour and is the chief place of trade. Jesselton, however, on the West Coast, is now rapidly developing, and, owing to its position, should become, in the near future, the chief port in the territory. It is also one of the termini of the State Railway. The imports include cloth, rice, hardware, manu- factured goods of all kinds, opium, Chinese tobacco, Chinese coarse crockery, matches, biscuits, oil, sugar, etc. The chief exports are rubber, tobacco, copra, timber, cutch and rattans, gutta-percha, birds'-nests, seed pearls, bêche de mer, sharks' fins, cam- phor, tortoise-shell, beeswax, and other natural products, which are brought in from the interior, the neighbouring Sulu Archipelago, etc.

Coal is being worked in the S.E. of the territory. The Cowie Harbour Coal Mines at Silimpopon have extracted over 450,000 tons of coal since 1907. The coal is trans- ported from the Colliery to the shipping port Sebattik by means of six lighters, which have been built in Borneo. The Collieries have recently undergone a change in the plans for development, and the demand for supplies of coal is at present in excess of the mines output. The output during 1916 amounted to 62,789 tons, and sales amounted to 63,485 tons. An ample reserve of stock is maintained at Sebattik, where coal is loaded by mechanical plant at a rate of about 750 tons daily, and about 2,000 tons are stocked at Sandakan, which port can now accommodate vessels drawing up to 24/25 ft. of water, the coal wharf having been extended. The British Borneo and Burmah Petroleum Syndicate have acquired, under lease, a large tract of land on the west coast in the Klias Peninsula, where they have located an oil-field. They have also sunk wells in the Island of Mangalum.

The revenue of the Territory in 1916 amounted to £276,472, and the expenditure to £136,671, this latter sum including £33,022 in respect of immigration expenditure, proportion of salaries, subsidies to steamers and other expenditure estimated as chargeable to capital. In 1915, the revenue was £260,061, and the expenditure £198,588, Tobacco planting has become a great and profitable industry, and the tobacco already raised obtains a ready sale at good prices. Cutch, which is extracted from mangrove bark, is being exported in rapidly increasing quantities. Rubber is the latest and most popular industry; and coconut cultivation is becoming one of the features of the country in which there are large areas still to be exploited. There are now thirty companies operating in British North Borneo, the majority being engaged in rubber growing, while others are engaged in coconut and tobacco cultivation. There are upwards of 29,000 acres under rubber. The rubber exported in 1916 was valued at £506,259, against £274,422 in 1915. The export of copra was valued at £18,455 in 1916 against £10,465 in 1915. The value of tobacco was £177,235 against £273,322 in 1915. The export of timber was valued at £90,410 against £97,004 in 1915. The population of the town of Sandakan, the capital of the territory, was 8,256 in 1911, of whom 66 were Europeans and 5,942 Chinese. There are several sections of railway, totalling 125 miles, now open. The longest line runs from Jesselton to Melalap, 100 miles. The railway is playing an important part in the development of the Country. The number of passengers carried in 1914 was 181,037 against 197,208 in 1915; and 18,143 tons of freight were carried in 1914 against 18,330 tons in 1915. The gross earnings amounted to £22,659 in 1916. A sum of £77,000 was spent in 1913 in improving and strengthening the line, and further sums of £59,000 in 1914 and £34,576 in 1915. Sandakan is distant about