Directory_and_Chronicle_1925 — Page 1339

Directories & Chronicles 香港指南 All

1248

SINGAPORE

quantity falls. The mean temperature of Singapore is 81°.24, the lowest being 79°.55 and the highest 82°.31, so that the range is not more than 2°.76. It would

It would appear from this that the temperature of the island is by 9°.90 lower than that of many other localities in the same latitude. Comparing the temperature now stated with that which was ascertained 20 years earlier, and in the infancy of the Settlement, it would appear that it had increased by 2°.48—a fact ascribed, no doubt, to the increase of buildings, and to the country having been cleared of forest for three miles inland from the town, the site of the observations. The general character of the climate as to temperature is that the heat is great and continuous, but never excessive, and that there is little distinction of seasons, summer and winter differing from each other only by one or two degrees of the thermometer. Thunder-showers are of frequent occurrence, but the thunder is by no means as severe as I have experienced it in Java, and seldom destructive to life or property.

For some years there was a great development of pineapple cultivation in Singapore. Extensive areas of waste ground covered with secondary jungle were cleared and planted with pineapple for tinning; the whole of this business appears to be in the hands of Chinese. Considerable interest has also been shown in the cultivation of rubber, oil-grasses, lemon-grass and citronella, as well as indigo, vegetables, pepper and ground nuts. Coconut cultivation increased rapidly for a time but more recently there has been a strong tendency to substitute rubber for coconut, which has been officially declared to be "not an advisable policy.'

Singapore offers but few points of salient interest to visitors, the Botanical Gardens at Tanglin, the Waterworks in Thomson Road, and the Raffles Library and Museum being its only show places. A considerable mileage of electric tramway is now in operation. A railway across the island was sanctioned by a vote of the Legislative Council in 1899, and was opened for traffic on 1st January, 1903. An extension to the Tanjong Pagar Docks and neighbourhood was sanctioned and now runs as far as Pasir Panjang. This line of 14 miles was the first section of a projected Malay Peninsula and India Railway, passing through and opening up the countries of Johore, Malacca, the Native Malay States, soine Siamese territory and Burma, on to Calcutta. The Railway now runs direct from Singapore to Penang; it has been extended on the West Coast through Kedah and Perlis and is now connected with the Siamese railway system. The journey, at present, from Singapore to Bangkok can be made in three days, and from Penang in two days. The railway has also been constructed from a junction at Gemas, near the northern boundary of Johore, through the eastern State of Pahang, and will eventually be extended through Kelantan to form another link with the Siamese railway system on the East Coast. The Singapore Railway was purchased in 1913 for £482,533 by the Federated Malay States Government from the Colonial Government in order to unify the British Malayan railway system under one management. A causeway across the Straits of Johore, carrying a double line of rails and a 26 ft. roadway, connects the Island with the mainland. The first train crossed over it on October 1st, 1923. The length of the causeway is 3,465 ft. There is a lock-170 ft. long and 32 ft. broad, widening inside the gates to 45 ft.-for small craft at the Johore end; otherwise, the causeway cuts off the site of the proposed naval base from sea communication from the West. The distance from Singapore to Calcutta by sea is just over 2,000 miles.

Directory_and_Chronicle_1925 — Page 1339

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