GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



299 



Chinese. The ordinary revenue in 1899 was 2,- 

 865,759; expenditure, 3,031,131. The public debt 

 is 341,800, incurred for water-works, sanitation, 

 and fortifications. The number of vessels entered 

 during 1899 was 5,444, of 6,720,769 tons, exclusive 

 of 22,506 junks, of 1,849,435 tons. 



The Straits Settlements are a Crown colony, 

 and the Governor, Sir Frederick Cardew in 1901, is 

 also High Commissioner for the Federated Malay 

 States, in which Sir F. A. Swettenham is Resident- 

 General. The island of Singapore has an area of 

 206 square miles, besides which the colony in- 

 cludes Penang, Malacca, Province Wellesley, and 

 the Dindings on the coast of the Malay Penin- 

 sula. The Federated Malay States under British 

 protection are Perak, Selangor, Pahang, Sungei 

 Ujong, and Negri Sembilan. There were 149,697 

 Chinese and 18,981 Indian immigrants in 1899. 

 The population of Perak is 214,254; of Selangor, 

 81,592; of Sungei Ujong, 23,602; of Pahang, 57,- 

 462; of Negri Sembilan, 41,617. The revenue of 

 the colony in 1899 was $5,200,025; expenditure, 

 $5,061,013. Perak had a revenue of $6,580,306, 

 and the expenditure was $5,441,692; Selangor's 

 revenue was $6,692,330, and the expenditure $3,- 

 414,551; Negri Sembilan, including Sungei Ujong, 

 had $1,085,015 of revenue, and the expenditure 

 was $851,704; and the revenue in Pahang was 

 $375,350, and expenditure $1,814,030. Rice, tapi- 

 oca, sugar, and pepper are grown in Province 

 Wellesley and Malacca and in some of 'the native 

 states, which produce also Liberian coffee and 

 gambier. The export of tin in 1899 from Perak 

 was 18,960 tons; from Selangor, 15,185 tons; from 

 Negri Sembilan, 3,700 tons. Tin is mined also in 

 Pahang, where gold is obtained, and in Negri Sem- 

 bilan and Perak. The export of gold from Pa- 

 hang in 1899 was 18,295 ounces. Singapore is a 

 center of trade for the islands of Malaysia as well 

 as of the peninsula. The exports, besides tin, 

 sugar, coffee, and pepper, include nutmegs, mace, 

 sago, rice, tapioca, buffalo hides, rattan, gutta- 

 percha, tobacco, gambier, India-rubber, copra, 

 gums, and dyestuffs. The value of imports in 

 1899 was $283,939,452; of exports, $239,054,727. 

 The chief imports, which were largely reexported, 

 were rice of the value of $22,666,810; cotton cloth, 

 $13,052,117; opium, $12,142,831; fish, $6,864,684; 

 coal, $5,955,577; tobacco, $4,452,815; petroleum, 

 $2,393,442; tin, $55,225,453; spices, $13,657,479; 

 gambier, $5,542,938; gums, $16.149,762; sago and 

 tapioca, $6,754,749; rattan, $4,441,770; copra, 

 $6,904,420. The number of vessels entered during 

 1899 was 8,624, of 6,595,075 tons, not including 

 15,466 native vessels, of 598,195 tons; the number 

 cleared was 8,635, of 6,591,935 tons, besides 15,653 

 native vessels, of 609,705 tons. The Mexican sil- 

 ver dollar was declared the legal standard of value 

 for the colony by an order in Council issued on 

 Feb. 2, 1895. The British dollar and the Hong- 

 Kong dollar are legal tender. The commerce of 

 the native state of Perak in 1899 was $11,615,260 

 for imports and $25,707,051 for exports; of Selan- 

 gor, $18,008,485 for imports and $20,894,185 for 

 exports; of Negri Sembilan, $8,840,000 for both 

 imports and exports; of Pahang, $1,531,661 for 

 imports and $2,062,241 for exports. The immi- 

 gration of Chinese in 1900 was 200,947, and of 

 Indians 41,707, but the supply of labor is still 

 below the demand. With the increase of trade the 

 cost of living has risen enormously. Many 

 Chinamen have made fortunes out of tin. The 

 Government of the Straits Settlements revenue 

 has increased, the opium and other monopolies 

 having been let out at greatly increased rates. 

 The revenue in 1900 was $5,386,927, and the ex- 

 penditure was $6,037,084, the excess being due to 



the Singapore and Kranji Railroad ;m<) l.ho Pe- 

 narig pier that the Government ir. l>m!<ii!i'j.. In 

 spite of the wealth existing them, Singaporels one 

 of the most backward cities in Asi;i,. f i h< <;<-r- 

 nians, who have increased their shipping in 1 1n- 

 East at a rapid rate, have profited by tin- ;. 

 of trade in the Malay peninsula, and havt: di- 

 verted a part of the trade of Singapore to Ma- 

 cassar. The total trade of the Straits Settlement ~ 

 in 1900 was valued at 28,250,000 for imports 

 and 24,250,000 for exports. The trade of UK; 

 Federated States reached nearly $100,000,000 in 

 silver, an increase of $10,000,000 over the pre- 

 vious year, and exports exceeded imports by $10,- 

 000,000. The revenue -of the 4 states exceeded 

 $15,500,000, the duty on tin yielding $7,000,000. 

 There are 250 miles of railroad, 1,400 miles of tele- 

 graph, and in Perak irrigation works are being 

 constructed at a cost of $1,000,000 to benefit 60,- 

 000 acres. The population of the Federated States 

 is 676,138, an increase of 258,371 in ten years. The 

 supply of alluvial tin will be exhausted some day, 

 and this consideration has prompted the Govern- 

 ment to make experiments in planting Arabian 

 coffee, Indian tea, cinchona, pepper, and South 

 American rubber. 



Mauritius has a Council of Government, com- 

 posed of 8 official, 9 nominated, and 10 elected 

 members. The Governor in 1901 was Sir Charles 

 Bruce. The area of the island is 705 square miles, 

 with a population estimated in 1899 at 379,659, 

 containing only a small proportion of white Cre- 

 oles, who are diminishing in number. Besides 

 Africans descended from former slaves or im- 

 ported since as laborers, and the various mixed 

 races, there w r ere 3,079 Chinese and 261,739 natives 

 of India, the majority of them Hindus, the rest 

 Mohammedans. Port Louis, the capital, contain- 

 ing 52,517 inhabitants, has become an Asiatic 

 town, and the sugar-plantations have been di- 

 vided into small properties and acquired by In- 

 dians. The revenue in 1899 was 9,066,313 rupees, 

 and expenditure 8,407,082 rupees. The debt of the 

 colony was 1,192,184 in 1899. The value of the 

 imports in 1899 was 19,096,212 rupees; exports, 

 24,745,029 rupees. The export of raw sugar was 

 23,044,657 rupees; of aloe fiber, 566,030 rupees; 

 of rum, 154,812 rupees; of vanilla, 133,946 rupees. 

 The number of vessels entered during 1899 was 

 272, of 337,369 tons; cleared, 275, of 339,187 tons. 



Many small groups and isolated islands in the 

 Pacific have at various periods been taken under 

 British protection. The Cook Islands have been 

 transferred to New Zealand. The Gilbert Islands, 

 the British Solomon Islands, Duff Islands, Santa 

 Cruz Islands, Starbuck Island, Maiden Island, 

 Jarvis Island, Fanning Island, Palmyra, Baker 

 Islands, Washington Island, the Ellice Islands, 

 the Plicrnix group, the Tokelau group, Dudoza 

 Island, the Suvaroff Islands, the Manihiki group, 

 and Dude Island are most of them coral atolls, 

 producing coconut-trees in abundance, and some 

 have valuable guano deposits. The recently an- 

 nexed Christmas Island, about 50 square miles 

 in extent, has rich deposits of phosphate which 

 are worked by an English company employing 13 

 whites and 720 Indian coolies. Pitcairn Island, 

 having an area of 2 square miles, is inhabited by 

 126 descendants of the mutineers of the Bounty, 

 who govern themselves by their own Parliament, 

 raise bananas, corn, arrowroot, fruits, coconuts, 

 and poultry and pigs to supply passing vessels, 

 but have little communication with the outside 

 world. 



St. Helena is a volcanic island in the south 

 Atlantic, once important as a port of call on the 

 Gape route to the East. Its area is 47 square 



