COLONIAL GOVERNMENT IN BORNEO 

 By James M. Hubbard 



It is now more than sixty years since there landed in Borneo a 

 young missionary — not of the Gospel, but of good government. While 

 voA'aging in the Indian Archipelago in 1830 he was deeply impressed 

 with the fact that these islands of unequaled beauty and natural re- 

 sources were peoi)led with savages continually at war with each other 

 and carrying on pirac}^ on a vast scale. He determined to rescue 

 some of them, if possible, from their barl)arism by teaching them to 

 respect and appreciate the value of law and order. And now, nine 

 years after, lie had come in a yacht, with a crew of twenty men, to 

 carry out liis Quixotic pur])ose. The time was apparently ino})por- 

 tune, as a rebellion of the Dyaks was in progress, but he offered his 

 aid to the Suhan, and as a reward for his services was made Rajah 

 of Sarawak. His first task after establishing his power was to reform 

 the metliodsof government, to pre})are a code of laws, and to develop 

 commerce as the most effectual means of putting down piracy. He 

 endeavored to make his native subjects understand that tlie main 

 object of his government was not the commercial exploitation of the 

 country or the amassing of colossal revenues, l)ut the preservation 

 and well-being of the people themselves; that their ruler would be a 

 terror only to the disturbers of the general peace and to the enemies 

 of the commonweal. 



How has this strange experiment in ruling men of a low type of 

 civilization succeeded ? In attempting to answer this question I will 

 not review the history of Sarawak since 1842, but simpl}^ describe the 

 work of one of Sir James Brooke's successors.* 



Charles Hose entered the Sarawak civil service in 1884 as extra 

 officer in the Baram district, which had very recently been ceded to 

 Brooke l)y the Sultan of Brunei. In 1890 he was made Resident, a 

 post which he now holds. The district is about 10,000 square miles 

 in extent, with a population proba1)ly not far from 100,000, and the 

 governing staff consists of the Resident and an assistant magistrate — 

 the only white men in the district — and about 20 or 30 Dyak " fort- 

 men " or police. His principal executive duty is to put down murder, 



* .^^y inforrnutioii is .lerive.l from ii piiiicr rciid licfur.' tlio IJoyal <;i.<(({ni|iliicMl Socinty Inst 

 >fiir<-li ami |iiililiihfi| in the OconrnpUicul Joitrnal, iiml tlio ri'inarkM iiiaclo upon It hy Professor 

 Haililon, till- hearl of tlio Caml)ri>li;e Antliroixjiogical l''x|)'Mlitiiiii whli'li vl-it<i| Municd in is'is. 



