8 
III. LOCAL lOTORTANCE OF THE INDUSTRY 
AS SHOWN BY STATISTICS, 
It is iiiinecessfiry to emphasize the great local im[)ortancc of the birdy' nest 
industry but, although the value of an industry cannot be entirely estimated by a 
consideration of its purely monetary returns, the following figures kindly sup[)lied 
by the Hon. Mr. M. M. Clark, the Comuiissioner for Customs and Trade, enable 
one to visualize its place in the commerce of the country and to appreciate thnt it 
is not only worthy of the serious consideration it receives on the part of the 
administration but also of a certain amount of additional fostering. 
The position of the North Bornean industry from the point of view of world 
trade is discussed in a later section of this report. 
During the last three years the Government royalties frum birds' nests have 
Ijeen as follows : — 
1928 ... ^46,948.00 1920 ... $:I9,497.00 
19*27 ... $38,587.00 
These royalties are obtained in two ways 
(a) Certain caves are the property of the State and, excluding some minor 
adjustments, the Government draws 50 per cent of the total proceeds. 
(b) Other caves are recognised as private property ( that is of individuals, 
communities or tribes) and are subject to an annual royalty of 10 per cent of the 
nests collected. 
The Gomantong caves, the largest and most important in the country, are 
owned by the State and the Government share of the proceeds from them for the 
last four years as shown by figures in the Resident's Office, Sandakan, is : — 
1929 ... $45,685.22 1 1927 ... $32,095.91 
1928 H3,546.8(j | 1920 ... :?33,041.04 
In addition to the royalties the Customs collected the following export duty : — 
1928 ... $12,849.00 
1927 ... $11,079.00 
192(i ... J^10,825.00 
IV. EXISTING FALLACIES, 
It is hoped that this report will disperse many mistaken ideas, widespread in 
Borneo, concerning the swiftlets and their economy and thus stimulate an interest 
in their habits based on the right notions. Fallacious ideas are by no means 
confined to North Borneo, where even the well informed natives of Bilit consider 
that the exceptionally fine white nests found on Berhala Islet in Sandakan Bay 
are due to a very favourable environment. 
Many of the old ideas concerning the composition of the material of which 
the nests are made, the cause of the various kinds of nest, the correlation of the 
quality of the nests with the local food supply, the hypothetical migrations of the 
birds in the non-breeding season and even the specific identity of the birds have 
died very hard, and indeed are in some cases, not yet dead and have found their 
way into official reports one of which published in 1923 contained the following 
astonishing statement ; — 
*' The Swift collects the material— gelatinous wormlike organisms— from the 
surface of the sea. " 
