D98
BRUNEI
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The supreme authority in the State is vested in the Sultan in Council, The Council at present consisted of nine members, including British. Resident, with His Highness the Sultan as President. The assent of the Council is required for the enactment of legislation, and all important questions of Policy affecting the adminis tration of the State are referred to it.:
The general functions of administration are discharged by the British Resident, whose advice must, by the Treaty of 1906, be asked and acted upon in all questions other than those affecting the Mohammedan religion. The Resident, who is an officer of the Malayan Civil Service, has his headquarters in Brunei Town, and communicates with the High Commissioner through the intermediary of the Secretary to the Higli Commissioner in Singapore. He is assisted in the administration by the Assistant, Resident, also an officer of the Malayan Civil Service, who is stationed at Kuala Belait.
The State is divided into four administrative districts, namely, Brunei and Muara, Temburong, Tutong and Belait, under the charge of Malay District Officers responsible to the Resident. In addition there are State' heads in charge of the Public Works, Medical, Agricultural, Forest, Police, Customs, Posts and Telegraphs and Education Departments in the State...
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For the purposes local government there are at Brunei, Tutong and Belait Sanitary Boards, composed of offical and unofficial members appointed by the Resident. This Boards are the authorities responsible for sanitation, conservancy, street lighting, rating and municipal matters generally within the areas for which they are appointed!
POPULATION
Race-Quite apart from the diversity of the alien non-Bornean peoples who have made their homes in the State, the indigenous Malaysian population itself presents a peculiar heterogeneity of race. Bruneis (as the Malays proper of the State are called), Kedayans, Tutongs, Dusuns, Belaits, Muruts and Dayaks are all represented. Parent- hetically it may be remarked that the practice of denominating communities by the name of the river which they inhabit has tended to obscure ethnological affinities, as also has the use of similar terms with connotations varying in different localities.
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The Bruneis and the Kedayans, to whom tradition ascribes a Javanese origin, are found principally in the Brunei, Muara and Temburong districts, and to lesser degree in the Tutong district. The Tutongs live along the comparatively populous lower reaches of the Tutong River, froin which they take their name. They are probably: of the saine stock as the Dusuns, who inhabit the hinterland between the upper waters. of the Tutong and the Belait Rivers. The Belaits, who are closely related to the Lemetings. of the Baram, are confined to the lower reaches of the river which gives. them their naine. The Muruts are said to have been much more numerous at one time than they are to day. Disease and the depredations of their neighbours in the past, however, have greatly reduced their numbers and there now remain only sparse com- munities in the Temburong district, The Dayaks, who are more or less recent immig- rants, are to be found in scattered settlements throughout the State close to the river banks in the more remote areas. There are also a few foreign Malaysians, such as Javanese and Banjarese.
The Bruneis are predominantly fishermen, and the Kedayans and Tutongs agricul- turists, as also are the Belaits, though in a lesser degree. Until quite recently the Dusuns, Dayaks and Muruts practised shifting cultivation only, but they are now being induced by means of judicious propagandă to adopt settled methods of cultiva tion.
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Of the alien races the Chinese are by far the most numerous. They are immig rants from the South China Provinces and are chiefly occupied as traders, shopkeepers, small farmers and labourers. Next in order of numbers are, the Indians of whom, however, there only a few hundred. They are practically all of South Indian stock, mostly Tamils and Malayalis, and chiefly employed as labourers on the oilfield.
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·Religion. The religion of the Bruneis and Kedayans is Mohammedanism of the Shafei sect. The Tutongs and Belaits also generally profess Mohammedanism, but it is often merely a thin veneer which overlays their essential paganisın. 'The same family may comprise both believers and unbelievers. Pagan customs still cling; there remains, for instance, at Kuala Balai a long-house, the natural habitat of the Belaits, in the rafters of which are kept about a hundred preserved heads, which are brought
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