34 ADDRESS BY MR. KRTJYT ON 



"ity there was no system, what there is now, has grown of expe- 

 '' rience in attempting the untried. A British Officer acting under 

 " the instructions of a distant Grovernor is sent to advise a Malay 

 *' Ruler and his Chiefs. The Officer is told he is responsible for 

 " everything, but he is not to interfere in details. His advice must 

 " be followed, but he must not attempt to enforce it, and so on. 

 "He must keep the peace, see that justice is administered, res- 

 "pect vested interests, do his best for the State, and obey in- 

 '• structions he receives from Singapore, and with all this he is at 

 " peril to remember that he is only the adviser of the Malay 

 " E^uler. Out of this difficult position has grown the present 

 ''administration." The Residents supported by the confidence of 

 the Grovernor, have made use of their power with great tact. They 

 took measures to further and extend trade, cultivation and indus- 

 try, and to develop the resources of the country, to maintain order 

 and justice, to facilitate communication by roads, railways and 

 telegraph, and to improve the education and instruction, and thus 

 the material and moral condition of the people. 



Sixteen years ago there was almost no roads : one had to travel 

 on foot or by elephant, armed, and generally accompanied by an 

 armed escort, and to take shelter in the best native house one 

 could find. The whole population went about armed. Now there 

 are everywhere to be found in all the States broad, hard, carriage 

 roads, railways, and free Grovernment buildings, schools, hospitals 

 and police stations, and these like all other works of evident 

 utility are being continually extended. The population has in- 

 creased, and security reigns everywhere. Slavery and bondage 

 have completely disappeared, while it was calculated that even in 

 1882, one-sixteenth of the population was still in slavery Armed 

 Natives are now never seen. 



The development of the Protected and Native States was natu- 

 rally accompanied by increased prosperity and progress in Penang 

 and Singapore This was enhanced by the contemporaneous suc- 

 cess of the Deli tobacco cultivation, the improvement in the tin- 

 mining industry and land cultivation on the example of its neigh- 

 bours, in Kedah and other small Northern States tributary to 

 Siam. and the late opening for trade, industry and cultivation of a 

 greater part of British and Dutch Borneo, of Palembang, Indragi- 

 ri, the lihio Islands, Singkep, etc. 



What Singapore now is many of us know from our own observa- 

 tion. Always extending and beautifying itself, with its splendid 



