Directory_and_Chronicle_1927 — Page 1192

SINGAPORE

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Victoria Street,one more recently built in Tank Road, and other smaller churches in the outskirts. The Roman Catholic Church (St. Josepli's) consecrated on June 20th, 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. Those professing the Seventh Day Adventist Creed also have a small Church. The principal schools are those of the Raffles Institution, the Christian Brothers, and the Anglo-Chinese School. The Raffles Girls' School and the Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus 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.

good building in a central position. There are Recrea- tion, 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 about 39,000 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 Malaya Tribune, and the Government Gazette. There are also several Japanese Chinese and Malay papers.

Singapore is a free port, there being no Customs Duties, but Excise Duties are levied on alcoholic liquors, opium, tobacco and petroleum. There are no Port, Harbour, Docks, Town or Light dues. The Harbour is practically landlocked by islands, and the rise and fall of ordinary spring tides is 9 feet. Although the majority of ocean- going steamers are berthed at the Harbour Board's wharves, many vessels discharge and load in the Inner and Outer Harbour, the Inner Harbour being protected from the north-east monsoon by a mole of granite rubble about a mile long. The Singapore Harbour Board's premises, which were taken over from a public limited liability company by the Colonial Government in 1905, at a cost of £3,448,339, fixed by arbitration, begin about a mile to the westward of the town. The Singapore Harbour Board (constituted under an enactment by the Governor of the Straits Settlements entitled the Straits Settlements Ordinance No. 130 (Ports) now control all the wharves and dry docks in Singapore. The Board's assets and capital outlay at June 30th, 1925, totalled $70,300,000 i.e., £8,201,666 sterling (exchange being fixed by Government at 2s. 4d. per Straits Settlements Dollar). There are 10,608 lineal feet of wharves, includ- ing Empire Dock (24 acres) with 30 feet and over depth of water at L.W.O.S.T. There is storage capacity for about 150,000 tons of cargo, and some 150,000 tons of coal, the stocks being chiefly Natal, Japanese, Australian, Indian and Welsh, but there is a variety of supplies from local sources such as Borneo, Sumatra, Labuan and Sarawak. The Board own steam tugs with complete fire and salvage plant, shear-legs with lifting capacity to 60 tons, cranes, railways (11 miles), launches, and over 100 lighters and other appliances for the expeditious handling of cargo. Works are in progress for the construction of an installation for the bunkering with fuel oil of ships at the Main and West Wharves, but meantime it is only obtainable from the large tank depots on adjacent islands. There are five dry docks, one of these ("The King's being divided by an intermediate caisson into two docks of 486 and 325 feet each, and its equipment includes a 30-ton electric travelling crane. The machines and tools in the Board's workshops have recently been extensively replaced with up-to-date appliances electrically driven and capable of effecting repairs to vessels of the largest class and their machinery. Castings and forgings of the largest size can be made on the Board's premises. The power of the electric plant totals 5,000 k.w. Almost all the machinery on the premises is electrically driven. The Crown Agents for the Colonies, London, are the Board's sole agents in England.

The total value of the foreign imports and exports of Singapore (merchandise only) for the years 1923, 1924 and 1925 (excluding Inter-Settlement trade) are given below:-

Imports Exports

Total............

1923 $561,024,906

486,890,845

1925

$978,026,852

865,276,600

1924. $622,615,788

525,196,847

..$1,047,915,751 $1,147,812,635

$1,843,303,452