BRITISH BORNEO. 48 
task of carrying on the government of Labuan, a task which it 
could easily and economically undertake, having a sufficiently 
well organised staff ready to hand.* By the Royal Charter 
it is already provided that the appointment of the Company’s 
Governor in Borneo is subject to the sanction of Her Mayjesty’s 
Secretary of State, and the two Officers hitherto selected have 
been Colonial servants, whose service have been /ent by the 
Colonial Office to the Company. | 
The Census taken in 1881 gives the total population of La- 
buan as 5,995, but it has probably decreased considerably since 
that time. The number of Chinese supposed to be settled 
there is about 300 or 400—traders, shopkeepers, coolies and 
sago-washers; the preparation of sago flour from the raw sago, 
or /amuntah, brought in from the mainland by the natives, 
being the principal industry of the island and employing three 
or four factories, in which no machinery is used. All the 
traders are only agents of Singapore firms and are in a small 
way of business. There is no European firm, or shop, in the 
island. Coal of good quality for raising steam is plentiful, 
especially at the North end of the island, and very sanguine 
expectations of the successful working of these coal measures 
were for a long time entertained, but have hitherto not been 
realised. The Eastern Archipelago Company, with an ambi- 
tious title but too modest an exchequer, first attempted to 
open the mines soon after the British oecupation, but failed, 
and has been succeeded by three others, all I believe Scotch, 
the last one stopping operations in 1878. The cause of failure 
seems to have been the same in each case—insufficient capi- 
tal, local mismanagement, difficulty in obtaining labour. Ina 
country with a rainfall of perhaps over 120 inches a year, 
water was naturally another difficulty in the deep workings. 
but this might have been very easily overcome had the Com- 
panies been in a position to purchase sufficiently powerful 
pumping engines. 
There were three workable seams of coal, one of them, I 
think, twelve feet in thickness; the quality of the coal, though 
* My suggestion has taken shape more quickly than I expected, In 1889 
Labuan was put.under the administration of the Company. 
