NATIVE NAMES OF STREETS IN 

 SINGAPORE. 



CTING under the powers conferred by section 143 of 

 the Municipal Ordinance t 887, the Commissioners 

 have affixed at the corner of every street in the 

 town of Singapore a board on which is inscribed 

 . " the name by which such street shall be known/' 

 But, as most of the residents are aware, the names 

 given by the Municipality to the various streets are only used 

 by the European portion of the population, and the Chinese, 

 Tamils and Malays have names for the streets very different 

 from their Municipal titles. In the selection of names for the 

 streets, Chinese names were very properly selected for the 

 Chinese part of the town, and Malay names for many of the 

 streets in Kampong Glam, and one would naturally have sup= 

 posed that such names as " Hongkong Street'' and " Macao 

 Street " would have been adopted by the Chinese, and that 

 the Malays would have had no hesitation' in appropriating a 

 name like " Jalan Sultan." 



But, whatever the reason may be, the fact remains that the 

 Municipal names are ignored by the natives, with the excep= 

 tion of the police, who are, of course, compelled to learn them. 

 I think, therefore, it will be of interest to give a list of some 

 of the principal Chinese and Tamil names, as the names illus- 

 trate, to a certain extent, the characteristics of each nation. 

 For example, w hat can be more characteristic of the Singa- 

 pore Tamil than the names he has given to the Esplanade, to 

 Bain Court, and to Tank Road ? With regard to the Chinese 

 names, they may, I think, be divided into three classes, i.e., 

 purely Malay names pronounced in Chinese fashion, Malay 

 names translated into Chinese, and lastly descriptive names. 



