268 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap. 



wilful murder is always punished by death or long 

 imprisonment, not merely by imposition of a fine as 

 in former times. 



The development of commerce and industries 

 has, of course, given rise to legal questions for 

 which the Mohammedan law provides no answers ; 

 and to meet these necessities, laws modelled on 

 the Indian code and on English law have been 

 enacted. 



The presence of a large Chinese community 

 (now comprising some 50,000 persons) has always 

 been a source of legal and administrative difficulties. 

 These difficulties have been met in the past by 

 securing the presence of leading Chinese merchants 

 on the judicial bench, as assessors familiar with the 

 language, customs, and circumstances of their 

 countrymen, whenever the latter have been involved 

 in legal proceedings. In the present year a special 

 court for the trial of Chinese civil cases has been 

 instituted, consisting of seven of the leading Chinese 

 merchants, of whom all, save the president, who is 

 nominated by the Rajah, are elected by the Chinese 

 community. 



The government of the pagan population, com- 

 prising as it does so many tribes of diverse customs, 

 languages, and circumstances, has presented a more 

 varied and in many respects a more difficult problem. 

 But the same principles have been everywhere 

 applied in their case also. The backbone of the 

 administrative and judicial system has been consti- 

 tuted by the small staff of English officers carefully 

 chosen by the Rajah, and increased from time to 

 time as the extension of the boundaries of Sarawak 

 opened new fields for their activities. During 

 recent years this administrative staff has counted 

 some fifty to sixty English members. Of these 

 about a dozen are quartered in Kuching, namely, 

 the Resident of the first division, his assistant. 



