which led to trade with China, and steamers of about 1.500 tons have been making monthly trips
Honghong since 1896, faking fall cargots of timber, and a third steamer bes lately been engaged in this trade. We bave also supplied the Manils Railway with several cargoes of sleepers, · At Sandakan there are two large saw-mil which supply sawn timber to the neight ouring Dutch islands, and I am glad to say that our American neighbonis in the Philippines are also good customers. At Kudat, also, there are very extensive saw-mills, which are furning out excellent pinks and railway sleepers,
The steamers engaged in the timber trade with China bring Chinese Japanese, and Filipinos, who desire to work or to settle in our territory. In December 300 Chinese arrived in North Borneo, and 450 more came in January. The Governor as adried the Court that, in 1909, (here will be a stream of Chinese immigration, which will, undoubtedly, increase at the years roll on.
You are probably aware that the Chinaman is faxed in Canada, and he is excluded from Australia and the United States. The only countries where he is freely admitted are Mexico, Malay Peninsula, and the islands in the Malay archipelago Chinese labour bas lately been so much referred to that 1 should like to mention that it is not easy to induce Chinese to leave ́ China.he Mandarins object to the taxpayer leaving China, the Christain missionary in China objects to losing his converts, and the Chinaman does not wish to leave China. The only practical inducement is cheap land, and the knowledge that he can work on his own account-both of which we are able to offer. I may mention that an able-bodied Chinaman contributes, indirectly, fully over 20 dols, annually” 10 the revenue, so that any reasonable expense incurred in bringing Chinese to North Borneo is a decidedly profitable investment. The cost of introducing Indian coolies is about 60 dols., and we find we can introduce Chinese settlers and coolies with less difficulty and less cost,
The prosperity of Kudat I attribute to the introduction of Chinese settlers in 1883, and to the low price charged, in the first instance, for land,
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The planting of coffee and cocoanuts near Kudat was largely due to the Chinese hand sawyers. Attracted at first by the fine timber near Kudat, they made vegetable gardens round their huts, and the richness of the soil led to their planting coffee and cocoanuts. The cultivation of coffee bas received a severe check by the low prices ruling for some years, but cocoanuts are sufficiently remunerative, and the Chinese have lately begun to make cocoanut oil both at Kudat and at Sandakan. Cocoanut cultivation is rapidly increasing in North Borneo, and is taken up by natives, Chinese, and Europeans. At Tawao, the cocoanut palms already extend three miles along the sea front, and promise to be exceedingly remunerative.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS. AND
At Sandakan, a company engaged in the extraction of a dye from the bark of the man- grove, which also yields tannin This promises to be a very large business in North Borneo, We have about 1,000 miles of ses frontage, and assuming that only 500 miles is edged with mangrove, there is room for twenty-five mills, allowing twenty miles of mangrove to each mill, which is sufficient to ensure a perennial supply of mangrove bark. I am told that the tanners in England could use 100,000 tons of mangrove extract annually, provided quantity and even quality are guaranteed.
Tobacco. — The annual exports of estate to bacco which is almost entirely used for covering cigars is about 20,UCD||bales, valued at £10 to 240 ** bele. The tobacco industry in North Borneo has been a prosperous one for some years, and we hope to see it greatly extended, The best result for the 1901 crops was obtained by the New Darvel Bay Tobacco Company, On an expenditure of about £36,000 they received in Amsterdam £72,000, or about double what the crop cost them to grow.
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Minerals — Gold enti col have long been known to exist in North Borneo, Attne time the alluvial ldfield sound fe vel Bay and on River ermed likely to be an ||1888 nearly 100 Chinese WEBD for gold on what is now the Darrel Bay Company's Tobacco State; but in
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thore cays we had no regular steamer to Darvel Bay, the miners had to pay heavy prices for provisions, and what I believe may yet be a profitable goldfield ceased to be worked. In Sarawak and in Dutch Borneo, the alluvial gold is worked by Chinese settlers. These people make a living by agriculture, and they have all the comforts afforded by the presence of their wives and families. I believe that, had our Chi- nese gold workers had similar facilities as those in South Borneo, we should, to-day, have had a large gold-working population in Darvel Bay,
Coal is being prospected for by a syndicate and their engineer, Mr. Phillips, has lately located, and traced for a mile, a three-foot seam in the vicinity of Cowie Harbour, on the east coast, and it is confidently anticipated that this term will shortly be worked. Coal alad exists at Naloyan, near the railway. In 1962, a very important mineral concession was granted to an influential syndicate on the understanding that a large sum of money is to be spent annually on prospecting. This syndicate bas lately sent out a rumber of experienced prospectors to ex: lore our territory, and offered a reward for finding minerals. A lore of manganese, yielding 56 per cent, of the pure ore, was lately found by Mr. John Carnarvon on the Borneo Coffee Company's estate in Marudu Bay. This valuable find together with the fact that both coal and iron ore are known to exist in Borneo in large quantities, points to the possibility of North Borneo becoming a steel-producing country, Copper and antimony are both believed to exist in North Borneo. Platinum is found in small quantities in conjunction with the alluvial gold in the Segams River. Mineral oil oozes out in various places, notably in the Sequati River, at the extreme north of the territory, and on the Klias peninsular. From this you may gather there are great possibilities for the prospector in North Borneo.
Religion and Education.-With regard to religion and education, the Roman Catholics were the first to send a priest to North Borneo. In 1881, the year of our charter, the present Fope, Leo XIII, requested the Rev. Father Jackson to report what could be done to introduce religion and civilisation among the natives of Borneo, and missions have since been established on three rivers on the west coast under priests, who impart knowledge to the natives in their own language. At San- dakan, on the east coast, large schools for boys and girls have been established under the charge of two priests and four nuns, where education is imparted in English.
The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel sent the Rev. W. H. Elton to North Borneo in 1888, who has established schools and churches in Sandakan, Kudat, and Labuan. At Kudat, the Rev. Mr. Richards holds a service in Chinese for the benefit of about 700 Chinese, who, before emigrating to Borneo, were con- verted to Christianity by the Geneva Mission of Hongkong.
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[May 18, 1909.
I say it is difficult to reali has taken place at Bandakan selected this site for the Governor, Mr. W. H. Treacher, he visited Sandakan Bay, in 1872, in Modeste, and as they returned the ocmmander fired two shells at a white in the jungle. In 1885, when we levelled the top of the clif, on which the Government office are built, we found a seven inch shell, ~That will give you some idea of the change effected since 1881. We have replaced the jungle by a town. The revenue of Sandakan, in 1881, wan 20,000 dols, and last year's estimato was 387,000 dols, or eighteen times increase.
The site for the town of Kudat | was selected on account of its excellent harbour. - Like. Sandakan it was uninhabited, and the land covered with jungle. The timber was valuable, and shortly after my arrival at Kudat in 1888,- where I took charge of the public works department, I obtained permission from the Governor, Mr. Treacher, to spend a hundred pounds on an experimental shipment of timber to Hongkong, which, I am glad to say, helped to pave the way to our present timber trade. It will interest you to hear that one tree measured before it was ent into convenient lengths about one hundred and eighty feet from the ground to the topmost branch w
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The population of Kudat (about 1,500 souls) is included by the last census in Marudu Bay, where the population is 16.316. The revenue of the Kudat distriot in 1881 was 14,000 dols., and last year's estimate was :154,000 dols,
There are five large tobacco estates near Kudat besides coffee and cocoanut plantations.
Kudat was cut out of the jungle by Mr. Alfred Everett. While so employed. it was arranged that a steamer should call periodically with food supplies. Some hitch occurred, and on one occasion Mr. Everett and all his coolies were without food, and were actually leaving the new township, when they saw a steamer approaching. I have known Eandakan in former days almost at. famine prices, and, looking back, I think a great deal of credit is due to the administration in North Borneo that so many stations should have been opened with so few exciting incidents on our records.
The importance attached to Jesseiton by the Court of Directors may be gathered from the suggestion, already made, to remove the administration from Sandakan to Jesselton. I first landed at Jesselton in the beginning of the year 1900 to lay cut the new town. At that time there was only one native hut on the plain, which was then used as a grazing ground. A great change has since been made. This is entirely due to the railway, which now runs from the wharf at Jesselton through a fairly populous district for 57 miles to Beaufort, thence to Rayoh 21 miles, and is being continued to Fort Birch, in the interior, another 12 miles, or say 90 miles without a break, to which must be added the connecting line, 20 miles, from Beaufort to Port Weston, in Brunei Bay, which has been working for two years,
The harbour of Gaya, in which Jesselton is situated, bas long been looked up on as an impor- tant one by His Majesty's Government. It has been recommended by those best qualified to give an opinion as a naval station and as a base to command the China seas, and it would be a convenient port of refuge in war time for English shipping.
The railway is now an additional reason, as it could bring down large supplies of cattle food from the fertile districts of the Padas from the villages along the railway.
Sandakan is the capital of British North Borneo. When Mr. Pryer, the first resident, went to Sandakan Bay in 1878, the town con- si ted of seventeen shops and some native bats, and was situated in an obscure corner fifteen miles up the Bay. A few months later it was burnt down, and Mr. Pryer selected the present site, near the entrance of the Bay. It is some- what difficult to realise the change that has taken place. In 1882 there was a small land boom at Sandakan and on the east coast, which continued into 1883. Chinese were coming in hundreds every month. Shops sprang up rapidly, and, when I arrived on the scene in 1883, I found an extraordinary collection of The revenue of Jesselton is rapidly increas houses, and a very busy town.
ing. This is to be expected from the opening In 1885, a fire was caused by a Chinaman-up of the country by the railway, which is giving. roasting a pig, and the whole of the Chinese a great impetus to trade and agriculture. quarter was destroyed. The town was rapidly Hitherto the shopkeepers in the villages along rebuilt on an approved plan. The houses you the line of railway obtained their supplies from see are chiefly of wood with iron roofs, and Labuan by small trading vessels. They now many of them built over the water; but reclama- find they can get supplies direct from Singa- tion is going on; the ground is being raised, pore to the railway terminus at Jesselton with- and brick houses are being built.
out the expensive transhipment at Labuan, or the dangerous transport in small craft from Labuan, which was formerly necessary. -- To the Administration, this concentration of trade at one port, which is entirely due to
In 1888 we had a bigger land boom, brought about by tobacco planters. The land office seld over half a million acres, and the cash received by the land office in three years-1888, 1889, and 1900,―amounted to £117,000 sterling, or say, £39,000 a year. I am glad to mention these two land booms, because it affords an idea of smuggling. what is possible in the future, ...
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is of the very greatest importance, as it facili- tates the collection of Customs and prevents
pha!, **, At the back of Jesselton, and within say, three
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