16 TIN MINING IN PERAK. 
only the export from Lower Perak, and the separate districts from which 
the tin came are not given. There does not appear to be any record of 
the tin raised in Kuala Kangsar and Selama prior to the year 1880. The 
next table gives the yearly export of tin from the whole State, as far as 
the imperfect records will admit, from the year 1874 to 1892. 
The total for these 19 years comes to 2,671,105 Perak pikuls, or 
2,857,330 Chinese pikuls, and at an average price of $30 per pikul this 
would represent $85,719,919. Expressed in English weights, the export 
comes to 170,083 tons,* and, taking the average price of the metal at 
£80, this gives £13,600,640 sterling as the value of the tin raised during 
the 19 years that the State of Perak has been under British protection. 
The revenue of the State for these years amounts to $24,166,037 ; 
and directly and indirectly certainly nearly nine-tenths of it has been 
derived from the tin mining industry. The trade returns give the value 
of produce exported in the year 1892 as $10,726,650, of which the single 
item, tin, amounts to $9,432,551, leaving only $1,294,898 as the value 
of all the other kinds of produce put together. The statistics of previous 
years tell the same tale, and show the utter insignificance, from a revenue 
point of view, of the other industries of the State.t It is doubtful 
whether the money derived from the tin mines can be rightly considered 
as revenue. It would perhaps be more correct to view it as the realisation 
of the property of the State, and place it to the capital account, as a 
commercial firm does when selling its real property. 
A study of the records of alluvial mining in California, New Zealand, 
and the Australian Colonies is most instructive. The history of alluvial 
mining in every part of the world has been practically the same, and 
what has already happened in the districts of Larut, Kuala Kangsar and 
Selama, proves that this country is no exception to the general rule. 
The districts which are still rising are Kinta and Batang Padang. In 
Kinta the great rise in the last few years has been due to the shallow- 
ness of the ground, and to the speed with which it can be worked over, 
with little or no capital; but this necessarily implies its rapid exhaustion. 
When Kinta will attain its maximum output would be difficult to predict. 
It may be this present year, or the next, or the one after that; but it 
would not perhaps be rash to say that before*five years are past the 
wane will have set in. 
* It is somewhat difficult to realise what 170,083 tons of metal really represents. Asa 
help, it may be mentioned that if the tin were cast into a solid cubical block, or ingot, it 
would measure 94 feet each way. If cast into pikul slabs, and the slabs were placed side by 
side, they would extend 2703 miles. If spread out into a plate one inch in thickness, it 
would cover an area of 230 acres. If drawn out into a rod of one inch in diameter, it would 
be 29,075 miles in length, or more than sufficient, by 4200 miles, to girdle the earth at the 
equator; and if employed for making tin plate (such as is used for biscuit boxes, tinned 
provisions, etc.), it would suffice for the manufacture of no less than 234,875 acres or 367 
square miles of that material. 
+ The following are the export returns for the past five years, taken from the Annual 
Reports. 
Estimated value of tin. All other produce. 
1888 ae ... $9,055,686.88 nae sais $942,539.24 
1889 os .» —8,204,482.62 a: = 842,576.38 
1890 ane ... 7,605,668.59 Se ey: 842,500.43 
1891 ee . —8,028,741.57 foc aa 1,107,534.87 
1892 che we 9,482,551.74 va ate 1,294,898,52 
