82 BRITISH BORNEO. 
quite a small rush to the country, as the Dutch Government, 
I hear, is not popular in Sumatra, and land available for to- 
bacco there is becoming scarcer.” 
My anticipations have been verified, and the rush is al-_ 
ready taking place. 
The localities at present in favour with tobacco planters- 
are Marudu Bay and Banguey Island in the North, Labuk 
Bay and Darvel Bay in the neighbourhood of the Silam Sta- 
tion, and the Kinabatangan River on the East 
The firstcomers obtained their land on very easy terms, 
some of them at 30 cents an acre, but the Court has now 
issued an order that in future no planting land is to be dis- 
posed of for a less sum than $1* per acre, free of quit-rent 
and on a lease for g99 years, with clauses providing that a 
certain proportion be brought under cultivation. 
At present no export duty is levied on tobacco shipped 
from North Borneo, and the Company has engaged that no 
such duty shall be imposed before the 1st January, 1892, after 
which date it will be optional with them to levy an export 
royalty at the rate of one dollar cent, ora halfpenny, per lb., 
which rate, they promise, shall not be exceeded during the 
succeeding twenty years. 
The tobacco cultivated in Sumatra and British North Bor- 
neo is used chiefly for wrappers for cigars, for which purpose 
avery fine, thin, elastic leaf is required and one that has a 
good colour and will burn well and evenly, with a fine white ash. 
This quality of leaf commands a much higher price than ordi- 
dary kinds, and, as stated, Count GELOES'’ trial crop, from the 
Ranan Estate in Marudu Bay, averaged 1.83 guilders, or about 
$1 (3/2) per Ib. It is said that 2 lbs. or 24 lbs. weight of 
Bornean tobacco will cover 1,000 cigars. 
Tobacco is not a new culture in Borneo, as some of the 
hill natives on the West Coast of North Borneo have grown 
it in a rough and ready way for years past, supplying the po- 
pulation of Brunai and surrounding districts with a sun-dried 
article, which used to be preferred to that produced in Java. 
The Malay name for tobacco is tamébako, a corruption of the 
* Raised in 1890 to $6 an acre, 
