344 



GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



rectors in London, of which Sir Rutherford Al- 

 cock is chairman. The area, which was 31,106 

 square miles in 1890. with a population of 175,- 

 000, is being extended by fresh annexations. 

 About a million acres have been granted by the 

 Government to the planters of tobacco, which is 

 grown of a quality equal to the best Sumatra 

 leaf, and for the cultivation of coffee, pepper, and 

 other tropical products. The revenue from opium 

 and spirits, customs, and other ordinary sources 

 was $251,602 in 1889, and from land sales $356.- 

 183. The expenditure was $290,189, about $100, 

 000 being for salaries of local officials. The 

 land sales amounted to nearly the same in 1890, 

 while the ordinary revenue was $358,461, and the 

 expenses were $82,950 greater. This was due 

 in part to the inclusion for the first time of the 

 receipts and expenses of Labuan. which were 

 4,272 and 3,828 respectively in 1889. The 

 statutes having been modified so as to allow the 

 proceeds of land sales to be treated as ordinary 

 receipts, the company showed a surplus of 19,- 

 238 for 1890. The total revenue was $599,239, 

 and the expenditure $464,143. The imports 

 in 1890 were $2,018,089 in value, and the exports 

 $902,290. The exports are chiefly jungle prod- 

 ucts, such as beeswax, birds'-nests, camphor, 

 gutta-percha, India-rubber, rattan, sago, pepper, 

 coffee, and tobacco. The estimated value of the 

 exportable tobacco from the crop of 1890 is $1,- 

 125,000. A company has undertaken to build a 

 railroad from the east to the west coast, and the 

 rivers already afford steam communication with 

 districts remote from the coasts. Experiments 

 have been made with Liberian coffee on the low 

 lands, and with Arabian coffee in the hills. 

 Chinamen cultivate pepper and gambier. The 

 population of Sandakan, the chief town, is half 

 composed of Chinese traders, and the best la- 

 borers on the tobacco plantations are Chinese. 

 An arrangement has been made with the Indian 

 Government for the importation of Indian coolies. 

 Brunei and Sarawak, territories on the north- 

 west coast bordering on British Borneo, were 

 placed under a British .protectorate in 1888. 

 Brunei, ruled over by a native Sultan, has an 

 area of about 3,000 square miles. Sarawak, with 

 an area of 45,000 square miles and a population 

 of 300,000 souls, was governed as an independ- 

 ent native state by Sir James Brooke, who be- 

 came Rajah of the country in 1840, and since 

 1868 by his nephew, the Rajah Sir Charles 

 Johnson Brooke. Coal is found in large quan- 

 tities, as in North Borneo, where a company 

 has opened some of the mines, and gold, silver, 

 and other metals exist in large quantities both 

 in North Borneo and Sarawak. The revenue in 

 1889 amounted to $400,900, the expenditure to 

 $353,260, the imports to $2,289,475, the exports' 

 to $2.430,540 The district of Limbang in Bru- 

 nei was annexed in 1889 by Rajah Brooke against 

 the protests of the Sultan, who appealed to the 

 British Government to secure him justice under 

 the terms of the treaty of protection, and who 

 rejected a money indemnity, saying that he 

 might \e robbed of his country and people, but 

 would no^ sell them. The products of the soil 

 are the same in Sarawak as in North Borneo, ex- 

 cept that tobacco has hitherto proved a failure. 

 The sago palm is cut and rafted down the rivers 

 and the pith is extracted and stamped into flour 



which is sent to Kuching, the capital, or to 

 Singapore to be cleaned, and thence to all parts 

 of the world. Antimony is mined extensively 

 at Busoh, in Upper Sarawak, and at Paku the 

 Chinese blast out gold quartz from the lime- 

 stone rock, crush it into powder without machin- 

 ery, and wash out the gold. The Chinese carry 

 on a considerable timber trade, and exchange 

 European goods with the Dyaks for jungle prod- 

 uce. Experimental plantations of pepper, tea, 

 and coffee promise well. 



The Crown colony of Hong- Kong is an island 

 having an area of 29 square miles, at the 

 mouth of the Canton river, which was taken 

 from China in 1841, and has been made the cen- 

 ter for British commerce with China and Japan,, 

 and a naval and military station of the first class. 

 The Governor in the beginning of 1891 was 

 Sir William Des Voeux, appointed in 1887, who^ 

 succeeded Sir William Robinson. The popu- 

 lation in 1881 was 152,412 natives and 7,990- 

 whites, including the military. The shipping en- 

 tered and cleared in 1890 amounted to 13,500,000' 

 tons in the harbor of Victoria, making it the most 

 important commercial port in the world after 

 London, Liverpool, and New York. The popu- 

 lation has increased to 220,000. Fortifications 

 have been built at King George's Sound and 

 Thursday Island, and in the middle of 1891 were 

 ready for the guns. The Legislative Council is 

 composed of six official and five non-official 

 members, of whom three, including one China- 

 man, are nominated by the Crown, and the other 

 two are chosen by the Chamber of Commerce 

 and by the local magistrates. The Council in 

 1891 agreed to an appropriation of 20,000 for 

 the maintenance of an extra regiment, but de- 

 murred when they learned that it was to be a. 

 regiment of native Indian, not of British troops, 

 and the non-official members declined to accede 

 to the appropriation demanded for increasing 1 

 the salaries of the public servants. The revenue 

 in 1889 from ordinary sources was $1,823,549,. 

 and from premiums from land $154,725, while 

 the expenditure for ordinary purposes was $1,- 

 459,167, and for extraordinary purposes, princi- 

 pally the new fortifications, $'374,551. The im- 

 ports and exports are not known from custom- 

 house reports, as Hong- Kong is a free port, 

 They are estimated to have averaged $20.000,000 

 and $10,000,000 respectively in recent years. 

 The trade in opium, sugar, flour, salt, chinaware, 

 oil, cotton, cotton cloths, ember, sandal-wood 

 and ivory carvings, betel, cattle, and vegetables 

 is centered in Hong-Kong, and the business 

 houses there are largely interested in the Chinese 

 tea and silk trades, though the goods are shipped 

 direct from Chinese ports. 



The Andaman Islands, in the Bay of Bengal, 

 inhabited by a curious race of small, degenerate 

 savages, are used as a penal colony by the Indian 

 Government, and in 1889 had a convict popula- 

 tion of 12,549. The Nicobar Islands, south of 

 the Andamans, were inhabited by 6,915 aborigi- 

 nes in 1881. The exportable products are cocoa- 

 nuts, tortoise shell, birds' nests, ambergris, and 

 trepang. The Laccadive Islands, off the Malabar 

 coast, had a population in 1881 of 14,473. The 

 chief article of export is coir or cocoa-nut fiber. 



Mauritius, an island in the Indian Ocean, 500 

 miles east of Madagascar, having an area of 705 



