356 



GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



VALKTTA, MALTA. 



and companies for the growing of tobacco of the 

 Sumatra variety, and to 30 others for coffee, 

 cocoanuts, ramie, and gutta-percha. The total 

 value of imports in 1897 was $1,887,498; of ex- 

 ports, $2,942,293. The revenue is derived from 

 opium, spirits, an export duty on birds' nests, 

 law-court fees, stamps, trading licenses, import 

 duties, and sales of land. Besides the cultivated 

 products, pearls, trepang, and other sea products 

 are exported, and forest and jungle products, such 

 as timber, sago, gums, pepper, gambier, and rat- 

 tan. Timber is exported to China. The exports 

 of leaf tobacco were $1,686,173 in 1897. The ton- 

 nage entered was 95,300; cleared, 94,168 tons, 

 mostly British. There is a military force of 350 

 men, composed of natives with British officers. 

 The revenue for 1897 was $436,062, besides $964 

 from land sales; expenditure, $341,124. 



Brunei, a protected country bordering on Brit- 

 ish Borneo, produces tobacco, etc., as far as cul- 

 tivation has been introduced. The area is about 

 15,000 square miles, with 45,000 inhabitants. 

 Sarawak, the other neighboring sultanate, has 

 an area of 50,000 square miles, with 500,000 in- 

 habitants, part Malays, part Dyaks, Kayans, and 

 Muruts, with Chinese immigrants as the trades- 

 men and merchants. Coal is mined, and was 

 exported in 1896 to the amount of $114,347. 

 Gold, silver, antimony, quicksilver, and diamonds 

 are found. Tobacco, sago, gambier, pepper, dried 

 fish, rattan, gutta-percha, India rubber, camphor, 

 beeswax, tea, coffee, and cutch are exported. The 

 Tambunans, who are the most numerous and 

 warlike tribe in the interior of North Borneo, 

 as the result of the influence of Mat Salleh, the 

 notorious rebel who submitted to the Govern- 

 ment in 1898, petitioned the British North Borneo 

 Company to annex their country, and according- 

 ly a resident European officer was appointed in 



1899 to take charge of the district, which has an 

 area of 500 square miles and 25,000 inhabitants. 



Ceylon formerly produced excellent coffee, but 

 now is one of the greatest tea-growing countries 

 iri the world. The planters are Englishmen, who 

 use the latest mechanical appliances in curing 

 and preparing tea for the European and Ameri- 

 can markets. The laborers on the plantations are 

 Tamils, imported on time contracts from south- 

 ern India. The total population in 1897 com- 

 prised 6,545 Europeans, 23,663 burghers or de- 

 scendants from European settlers, 2,174,200 Sin- 

 ghalese, 10,980 Malays, 800 Veddahs, 205,588 

 Moors or Mohammedans of aboriginal races, 960,- 

 745 Tamils, and 8,862 others. The birth rate is 

 36.9, the death rate 23.2 per thousand. The num- 

 ber of agricultural laborers arriving in 1897 was 

 153,075; departures, 109,213. The public revenue 

 for 1897 was 24,006,522 rupees; expenditure, 21,- 

 634,378 rupees. The revenue from customs was 

 5,973,785 rupees; from land sales, 498,970 rupees; 

 from spirits, 2,812.324 rupees; from stamps, 2,075,- 

 876 rupees; from Government timber and salt, 

 1,553,110 rupees; from harbor dues, 971,429 ru- 

 pees; from Government railroads, 7,318,683 ru- 

 pees. The expenditure on civil establishment, etc., 

 was 5,696,234 rupees; military contribution, in- 

 cluding the cost of the volunteer force, 1,824,602 

 rupees, of which 1,702,165 rupees were paid over 

 to the Imperial Government; pensions and retir- 

 ing allowances, 1,013,966 rupees; interest on debt, 

 2,860,295 rupees; public works, 2,872,921 rupees. 

 The public debt amounted to 3,494,905, not in- 

 cluding a rupee debt of 3,278,672 rupees, all of it 

 incurred for public works. The strength of the 

 British garrison in 1898 was 1,663; of the volun- 

 teer force, 1,074. The port of Colombo, which 

 has 127,836 inhabitants, is protected by modern 

 forts erected at the expense of the colony. Of 



