/ULY I, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



full 



No 



the 



if press of business prevents this, payment in 

 must be made at tlie latest within seven days, 

 credit will be given in any case. 



II. — Should, as may happen now and again, 

 purchaser not have taken delivery owing to the nou- 

 arrival ot the steamer, or should the tea, though de- 

 livered, not have been weighed; in any case, at the _ 



expiration ef four weeks after the entr^- of the tr(vus-|L become a monetary mctiiuna both 



action in the books, the tea shall be immediately • — 



weighed and payment made in full, whether the stamer 

 has arrived or not. No furl her credit will be givfu. 

 Tea that has already paid duty at the Custom House 

 does not come under this rule. 



III. — In weighing tfa, the exact wti.;ht must be 

 adhered to. A tare of 2 Ih. will be nllowed on every 

 large chest, and of lib. on eveiy 251b. cliest : Jib. 

 only will be allowed on small boxes. On 25 lb. boxes 

 of Oolong h lb. only ; on large boxes of Pekoe 1 lb. 

 All we require is fair dealing at the time of weighing. 



IV. — When the tea is weighed after purchase a 

 memorandum of the weight must be sent without 

 delay to the Chinese tea firm, who will forward it 

 to the seller for his information. Sliould any discrep- 

 ancy be reported by the tirm, it must not be shipped 

 till it has been reexamined. The tea must not first 

 be shipped under the pretext that otherwise it would 

 miss the steamer. 



V. — In all transactions these rules must be in every 

 respect strictly observed. Should any person infringe 

 them, our Guild will cease to send him musters, and 

 will refuse to deal with him. 



Translated by R. W. Hurst. 



NORTH BORNEO. 

 SiH Walter Medhuest's Paper bki'ore the 

 E. Colonial Institute. 

 North Borneo will rank as one of the dependencies of 

 the Crown, and the Royal Colonial Institute is therefore 

 to be commended for departing somewhat from its 

 " Colonial programme " i J order to enlighten the world 

 upon a territory which, from all aocouiit.>i, has a very 

 successful if not a most brilliaut future before it. f'"' 

 Walter H. Medhurst, who was deputed by the company 

 to proceed to Borneo in 1S82 for the purpose of organizing 

 a suitable system of Chinese immigration, was the rffader 

 of the paper, and he described in much detail the 

 success which has so far attended the efforts of the 

 enterprising gentlemen who have taken upon themselves 

 the arduous lask of building up a new State in the 

 Eastern Seas. It appears that the compa' y owns a coast 

 Hue (if not less than 600 miles, and that the total area of 

 the country ceded is computed roughly at 24,000 miles. 

 When we are told that the land is indented at various 

 points by bays and harbours, some of them scarcely to 

 bo equalled by any in the world ; that the soil, whilst 

 specially adapted for tobacco and pepper cultivatiou, is 

 pronounced as being most favourable for cultivatiou in 

 general ; that the climate, a tropical one, is at the same 

 time a grand one, the temperature being prntty even all 

 the year round ; that the timber is of the verj finest ; 

 that the supply of guano deposited by tlie bat.'S and the 

 birds Is enormous beyond calculation, and that the 

 flowers are pronounced by competent authorities to be as 

 numerous, delicate, and beautiful as the forests are grand 

 and imposing, the company may well be colii;ratuIated 

 upon obtaining such a valuable acquisition upon v(;ry 

 favourable terms, and we are sure that as soon as the 

 richness and fertility of the country becomes mnre 

 generally known, private enterprise will not be backward 

 in seconding the strenuous efforts which the company 

 are making towards preparing the country for coloniz- 

 ation. So SHCccssfid has the company been in Ibis 

 respect, that the inhabitants of other parts are Sfiid to 

 be clamouring to be jilaced under the company's rule. 

 This shows that the natives are beginning to ajipreciate 

 fully the advantages attending a life of peace and 

 eeciirity at home, combined with a lucrative trf.de abroad, 



7 



as compared with the fitful and hazardous existence they 

 once led as pira tes and head-hunters, with the war cry 

 of tribal dispute perpetually ringing in their ears. As 

 another and satisfactory evidence of the hold upon the 

 confidence of their own people, as well as the neigh- 

 bouring tribes which the company have succeeded in 

 .securing, it may be mentioned that they havo 

 iutroduced a one cent copper coinage, which has 



North Borneo and 

 beyond its limits. They have, moreover, establi.shed 

 a paper currency of SI, $0, and $25 notes, which pass 

 current even as far as .Sarawak, Singapore, and Uongkong; 

 and they have set up their own postage-stamps, and opened 

 a money-order conmiunication with Great Britain and for- 

 eign countries. Sir M'alter Medhurst certainly said enough 

 to convince anyone that all that British North Borneo 

 needs is capital, enterprize, and judicious working to bo 

 developed successfully. The principal centre ot trade at 

 the present time is Sandukan, which, lying in a posititm 

 relatively to the ruute of steamers runningbetween Australia 

 and China, must have a commanding commercial influ- 

 ence, whenever North Borneo becomes sufficiently devel- 

 oped to take a place amongst the pri>ducing districts of the 

 world. The site of the settlement comprizes a frontage of 

 about 5,000 feet, with water deep enough to admit of large 

 vessels being laid alongside its future wharves, which are 

 at this moment represented by one well-built wooden pier, 

 4.50 feet in length, and enabling vessels drawing 20 feet ot 

 water to go alongside. Although private enterprize docs 

 not appear to have effected much as yet, still it is gratify- 

 ing to observe that over 260,000 acres had been taken up 

 to the end of 1883, in the East Coast Residency, and 1,000 

 acres in the West Coast Residency. Of the first-named 

 quantity, 100,000 acres were applied for by the Australian 

 Borneo Company, and there is every reason to believe that 

 other companies will follow suit in the same direction, as 

 soon as the promising results of the efforts of that associ- 

 ation become generally known. It is certainly not a little 

 singular that, although the existence of a pearl oyster of 

 the same variety as that fished up with such good results 

 off Thursday Island, has been conclusively proved, the op- 

 portunity, for some unexplained reason, has not yet been 

 taken advantage of . The introduction of Chinese is looked 

 upon as absolutely necessary for the development of the 

 country. It has been suggested that an offer of free pass- 

 ages to Borneo, say for twelve months, would have the 

 effect of bringing into the country hundreds of Chinese of 

 all classes, the poorer ones of whom, already accustomed to 

 jungle life in the Straits, would find the means of living in 

 various ways, as collectors *'f jungle produce, charcoal 

 burners, gambiir and pepper p'ii.uters, gardeners, plank 

 sawyers, &c. ; but Sir Walter is of opinion that a still stronger 

 inceutive to respectable Chinese settlers would be an offer 

 of plots of land free for a certain term of years, in self- 

 selected localities, subject to subsequent assessment of 

 value whenever the productiveness of the soil has been 

 sufficiently established. In the, discussion which followed 

 the reading of the Paper, Mr. A. Delit, the originator 

 of the Biilisb Norlh Borneo Company, gave some rather 

 later stati-stics regarding the progress of the country than 

 those submittal by Sir V.'a'ler. Mr. Deul; admitted that 

 murh had b. On danc, but he confessed that he aulicip< 

 atcd the advancement Woid<l have been in a much greater 

 ratio. The revenue flsial of l.'*84 slioivcd an Increase of 

 60 per cent, nver that of 1883, but the land sales exhibited 

 a d, cease of ad per cint., so that there wa.^* a surplus of 

 21 percent., which, con.iidcriiig the state of trade all over 

 the world, was not wholly unsatisfactory. He Wi.'ihrd to 

 correct an Imp essinn that the company received its pow- 

 ers from Her Mnjesly's Ooverument. They derived all 

 their powers from the Sultans of Brunei and Sulu Sea, the 

 ISnglish Government merely allowing them to incorporalc 

 themselves as a comp.anv, Oeneral Lowry pointed out tbiit 

 the country, being halfway between China and Australia, 

 it must be' mn>fc valuable from a strategic point of_ view, 

 and he hoped the time was not far distant when its im- 

 portance as a coaling stntiim would be recignized by the 

 Kiiglish Government. Mr. Myhurg, Q. C, one of tho 

 directors of the company, thanked Sir Walter ibr his 

 Paper, and for introducing Chinese immigration into 

 Borneo. The Obintee would uuver have t'oue back to thvir 



