BRUNEI
D99
forth and laved ceremoniously on high days and holidays. Of the other indigenous races, the Dusuns, Dayaks and Muruts are all pagan animists.:
Language. The languages spoken in the Sate are on less diverse than the races. which compose its population. The language of the Bruneis and Kedayans' is Malay, but of separate and distinct forms, both differing considerably from the Malay spoken in the Peninsula. The other indigenous races, the Tutongs, Belaits, Dusuns, Muruts and Dayaks, all have separate languages of their own. For them, as for the alien races, Malay serves as the lingua franca.
Of the foreign languages spoken in the State Chinese is the most common, the relative extent to which the principal dialects are, spoken being, at the time of the 1931 census, Kheh 31 per cent, Hokkien 26 per cent and Cantonese 15 per cent. The Indian population speaks principally Tamil or Malayalam.
VITAL STATISTICS
The total population of the State at the census of 1931 was 30,135, distributed by race as follows:
Europeans Eurasians
Malaysians:
لو
Malays Kedayans
...
...
...
....
Tutongs
Dusuns
...
Dayaks
...
...
Belaits
...
Muruts
...
...
...
Other Malaysians
Chinese
Indians
Others
...
...
...
...
60
10
14,835
5,871
2,733
•
2,118
453
446
290
226
...
26,972
...
2,683
377
..
33
...
...
The estimated population at the end of 1938 calculated by the balancing equation method was 37,868.
COMMERCE
With the exception of exports of crude oil and natural gas which are effected by pipe-line straight to the refinery in Sarawak, practically the whole of the external trade of the State passes through, Singapore with transhipment at Labuan, and foreign trade in its commonly accepted sense may be said to be non-existent.
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The State is largely dependent upon imports for its requirements of foodstuffs. About two-thirds of the consumption of rice, which forms the staple food of the bulk' of the population, has to be imported, and the proportion of imports of most other foodstuffs, apart from fish and meat, is also high. It is perhaps not at once apparent why, in a State which is a very large producer of oil, petroleum should rank amongst the most important imports.. The reason is, of course, that no refining is done within the State, the whole of the production being exported to Sarawak for that purpose.
It may be remarked that crude oil by itself accounted for approximately 835 per cent of the total value of the export trade, followed, a long way behind, by plantation rubber with 95 per cent
The export of rubber is regulated. Basic quotas have been fixed by international agreement for each of the participating Governments and exports are restricted to a certain percentage of these quotas each quarter. The mean percentage of release over the year was 55 per cent.The Singapore price of standard sheet remained fairly steady between 22 and 23 cents per pound during the opening nonths of the year, but declined sharply at the end of March and touched the bottom price of 174 cents per pound at the beginning of April. Thereafter it rallied and rose with occasional lapses to the peak price of 29 cents per pound in October, after which it eased and closed in December round about 273 cents per pound. The average price over the year was about 233 cents per pound as compared with 32 cents per pound in 1937.
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