403 
had  no  money  to  start  a cleaning  and  sorting  factory,  it  occui'red 
to  me  that  this  work  might  well  be  done  at  the  Lunatic  Asylum  or 
gaol,  so  that  the  Malays  could  collect  and  deliver  the  raw  material 
to  one  of  these  es^blishments  which  could  prepare  it  for  the  mar- 
ket at  home.  Accordingly  a quantity  was  obtained  and  an  appa- 
ratus of  a simple  nature  designed  for  the  vcork,  but  on  the  material 
and  apparatus  being  sent  to  the  lunatic  asylum,  it  was  pronounced 
that  the  work  was  too  difficult  for  the  lunatics,  while  the  Superin- 
tendent of  the  (3aol  on  the  other  hand  decided  it  was  too  easy  for 
the  prisoners.  Eventually  the  Malav  lost  money  in  advances  to 
people  to  collect  the  fibre  for  him,  and  as  he  had  no  friends  to  clean  * 
the  fibre  himself  and  ship  it  to  Liverpool,  the  business  dropped, 
nor  could  I induce  any  other  Malays  to  take  it  up.  So  that  the 
Kabong  fibre  has  not  yet  found  its  way  into  the  hands  of  the 
brush-makers,  as  I had  hoped  it  would.  In  a case  like  this  in  which 
there  was  a regular  demand  in  England,  and  a plentiful  supply  of 
the  product  in  the  Straits  Settlements  had  it  been  possible  for  the 
Government  to  act  as  an  intermediary  between  the  producer  and 
the  buyer  a trade  of  considerable  importance  to  the  country  on  the 
one  hand  and  the  brush-makers  on  the  other  might  have  been  esta- 
blished, and  when  fairly  started  would  doubtlessly  have  gone  on 
of  itself. 
Another  instance  of  a somewhat  similar  kind  was  afforded  by 
the  fibre  of  the  common  plant  ciircidigo  known  as  Lumbah.  This 
plant  has  a broad  leaf  which  contains  a fibre  used  by  the  Dyaks 
for  fishing-nets,  and  a firm  of  fibre  dealers  in  England  were  much 
struck  by  the  fibre  and  desirous  of  obtaining  it  in  quantity,  but  it  was 
found  impossible  to  get  any  natives  to  collect  and  prepare  the  fibre, 
an  easy  process,  because  there  was  no  means  of  their  getting  the 
product  to  the  home  firms,  except  at  a large  preliminary  expense 
which  they  were  unable  to  undergo. 
In  such  cases  of  the  introduction  of  a new  or  almost  new  product 
we  may  hope  to  be  assisted  by  the  Imperial  Institute,  but  it  would 
be  necessary  for  the  Government  to  give  assistance  to  the  native 
in  the  first  instance,  to  get  the  trade  well  started  at  least. 
In  respect  of  minor  cultivations  too,  much  could  be  done  by 
judicious  aid,  it  seems  really  absurd  that  we  should  annually  import 
large  quantities  of  dried  chilis  for  native  consumption,  when  the 
plant  not  only  grows  here  with  great  readiness,  but  has  even  run 
wild  in  some  places. 
The  position  of  rice  cultivation  has  been  commented  on  in  Rajah 
Lot’s  letter  published  in  Bulletin  \o\.  I Page  582  and  has  indeed 
been  the  subject  of  discussion  at  the  Eederal  conference  in  July  of 
this  year. 
The  importance  oi  the  native  population  being  independent  ol 
other  countries  in  the  production  of  their  own  food-stuffs  where  pos- 
sible cannot  be  over-rated. 
In  the  matter  of  major  products  such  as  Coffee,  Tapioca,  Sago, 
Ramie,  txc.,  the  native  agriculturist  should  he  be  in  the  neighbour- 
