Directory_and_Chronicle_1928 — Page 1078

SINGAPORE

1049

According as the monsoon blows, you will have the squalls coming from that. direction. But the most severe and numerous are from the west, called 'Sumatras,' and these occur most frequently between 1 and 5 o'clock in the morning. The north-east monsoon blows from November to March; after which the wind veers round to the south-east and gradually sets in the south-west, at which point it continues to September. The north-east blows more steadily than the south-west monsoon. The temperature is by one or two degrees cooler in the first than in the last. The average fall of rain is found, from the observation of a series of years, to be 92.697 inches; and the average number of days in the year in which rain falls is found to be 180, tlius dividing the year almost equally between wet and dry; the rain is not continuous, but is pretty equally distributed through the year, January being the month in which the greatest 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 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 frequentoccurrence, but the thunder is by no means as severe as I have experienced it in Java, and seldom destructive to life or property.'

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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. Railless cars are now in operation on most of the principal routes. 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, some 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.