REMINISCENCES OF THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS. 
BY JUDGE HEWICK. 
Tas “Untima THULE” oF A PLANTER’S HOPES. 
When I was asked by the energetic President of the Royal Agricultural and 
Commercial Society to reaa a Paper on the Straits Settlements and the Malay 
States as I knew them, I experienced a doubt as to whether such a subject 
would appeal to the members. I also doubted my ability, even if the subject 
was of interest, to place sufficient material before you to constitute a paper. 
Looking back to the happy years I spent in what is known as the Far East, 
recollections crowded themselves in my memory, and though many years have 
passed, the life of that period was so ineflaceably impressed that no length of 
time will ever dim the interest I then took and still take in the land of the 
Malay. 
To you my only apology for venturing on such a subject is because of recent 
years the word “Penang” has become very familiar in this colony. It means, 
as it appears to me, almost the ultima thule of a planter’s hopes. When a man 
who is absent is inquired for, more often than not, one is told “ Oh he has got 
a grand appointment in Penang.” The words as uttered might mean ‘ Lucky 
fellow, he has gone to a place where there is a prospect for the future as well as 
reward in the present.”’ Be that as it may the Malay Peninsula has become 
a household world and a terra incognita is unknown no more. 
Penang is taken to represent the whole of the Malay States, erroneously of 
course, for Prince of Wales Island, as it is otherwise called, is only one of the 
Straits Settlements and not the principal one which is Singapore. But owing 
to its northerly position and its proximity to Perak from whence all roads 
diverge, it has increased in importance now that rubber-growing has assumed 
such large proportions. 
SIMILARITIES. 
When I first arrived in the colony of British Guiana 28 years ago, it struck 
me that the three counties of Demerara, Berbice and Essequebo were very like 
the three Settlements of Singapore, Malacca and Penang in many ways, more 
especially in their histories with reference to their past and present prosperity. 
Asin the Straits Malacca was the first, so here was Berbice. Bach in its turn 
was supplanted by a newer and more vigorous competitor, due in a great 
measure to position. As Demerara wrested from Berbice its place as the seat of 
Government so Singapore supplanted Malacca and Penang. Malacca has only 
its past glories to its credit including the work of St. Francis Xavier. Penang is 
steadily gaining much of the ground it has lost at the present day and Berbice, 
although it remains very much im statuo quo, is also progressing again. The 
resemblance at the time I speak of was very striking. Naturally this appealed 
to me and caused me to dive into old records, to listen to old-time stories and to 
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