62 



The first I wo or three years of his work would necessarily be 

 greatly in the way of experiment, as he would not be able to com- 

 mand large supplies of raw material ; and his factory would be more 

 op the lines of an experimental laboratory than a commercial under- 

 taking. It is possible even that his experiments and the result of 

 his work, if put cn the market, would be sufficient evidence to in- 

 duce members of the commercial public to start an independent fac- 

 tory, in which case the ends of Government would be met without 

 further trouble ; but if not, and the experiments warranted it, Gov- 

 ernment could start a real factory, to be ultimately offered to the 

 public as a going concern. This enterprise would not be very costly; 

 for the first three years, I think probably £1,000 a year would cover 

 everything. 



8. Fibre. — About the year 1890, when I was stationed at Tarn- 

 pin, I interested myself with the late Mr. M. W. Baird in inves- 

 tigating the matter of extracting the fibre from the banana (Pisang 

 Karoh), v\hich at that time covered many hundred acres of land at 

 the hill foots, which had been abandoned by tapioca planters. A 

 parcel of fibre was abstracted by the convicts under my orders, 

 weighing about half a hundredweight, this Mr. Baird sent home 

 to a firm on Mark Lane for valuation, with the result that it was 

 said to be worth only about two pounds per ton less than the best 

 Manila hemp on the market. Enquiries were made of a firm in 

 Coventry which supplied scutching machinery for the flax trade in 

 the north of Ireland, resulting in the information that a scutching 

 machine requiring two horse power to actuate it would cost about 

 £20. We found that power to work two such machines could be 

 procured from a Pelton wheel erected on a stream coming off the 

 Tampin hill. 



In 1 891 when I was at home on leave, Mr. Baird also being in 

 England, we carried our investigations further, by procuring some 

 old banana stems from Kew gardens and testing them in the Coven- 

 try machine, which with slight modifications did the work very well. 

 And Mr. Birch, then Resident of Sungei Ujong, promised to give 

 every facility to the undertaking. The above remarks are written 

 to show that a three years' experiment in producing fibre, not only 

 from the wild banana, but also from other fibre-producing plants, 

 would not be very expensive, and might lead to the establishment 

 of a very important industry. 



9. Cattle and Sheep, — I think that one of the most important 

 matters Government could take up, and one which would do more 

 good than most other ways of spending available balances, would 

 be the improving of the quality and the quantity of eattle in the 

 States; at the present time transport, whether by rail or by road, 

 is very expensive, and beef and mutton are both very dear. 



There are in all the States very large areas of useless lalang land, 

 than which there is no better grazing ground for cattle ; and 1 be- 

 lieve that when the herbage has been improved by eattle grazing it 

 would be equally good for sheep; during my ten years' residence at 

 Tampin, many acres of lalang near the village were 1 very greatly 



