‘BRITISH BORNEO. 109 
while the expenditure will probably not be more and may be 
less than that of 1887.* 
The expenses of the London office average, I believe, 
about £3,000 a year. 
As Sir RUTHERFORD ALCOCK, their able and conscienti- 
ous Chairman, explained to the shareholders at a recent meet- 
ing, ‘with reference to the important question of expendi- 
ture, the position of the Company wasthat of a man com- 
ing into possession of a large estate which had been long 
neglected, and which was little better than a wilderness. If 
any rent roll was to be derived from such a property there 
must be, in the first place, a large outlay in many ways before 
the land could be made profitable, or indeed tenantable. That 
was what the Company had had to do and what they had 
been doing; and that had been the history of all our Colo- 
nies.’ 1 trust that the few observations I have offered will 
have shewn my readers that, though British North Borneo 
might be described as a wilderness so far as regards the 
absence of development when the Company took possession 
of it, such a description is by no means applicable to it when 
regard is had to its great and undoubted natural resources. 
British North Borneo not being a Crown Colony, it has to 
provide itself for the maintenance of order, both ashore and 
afloat, without assistance from the Imperial Army or Navy, 
except such temporary assistance as has been on two occa- 
sions accorded by Her Majesty’s vessels, under circumstances 
which have been detailed. There are no Imperial Troops 
stationed either in Labuan or in any portion of Borneo, and 
the Company has organized an armed Police Force to act 
both in a military and in a civil capacity. 
The numbers of their Force do not much exceed two hun- 
dred of all ranks, and are composed principally of Sikhs from 
the Punjaub and a few Dyaks from Sarawak—an excellent 
mixture for fighting purposes, the Dyaks being sufficiently 
* Revenue in 1888, $148,286, with addition of Land Sales, $246,457, a total 
of $394,743. f ; \ 
Expenditure in 1888, including Padas war expenses, $210,985, and expendi- 
ture on Capital Account, $25,283—total $236, 268, 
