Jan. 1, 1903.] 
TIIETROPICAL ACIPJCTJLTUPJST, 
BRITISH , AND SIAMES?: MALAYA, 
At a meeting t''f Royal ('nlonial Iiistitnte, 
held ->M TueaWay, Dc 9, at the WliiteliaM Rooms, 
Hofel M-tropo e, Mi- liiigli CliffMiil. c M G, read 
a paper on " Dritiali airl Siam.^se MalnyH," which 
was illustrateil by laniern slidts. Sir Wiiliam 
Rohinson was in ihc (diair. 
Mr Clifford said that the Malay Peninsula was 
a country with a strong individuality, hub itcon- 
tlnued inexplicably to attract only a very small 
mea«nre of attention from (ireat Britain. After 
describing some of the chief characteristics of the 
country, he said that in 1895, the year immediately 
preceding the federation of the States, the joint 
revenue of the pi otectorate amounted to |b,?>31:,677; 
and the returns for la,st year showed that the total 
had reached #17,511,507 (nearly £1,500,000 sterling), 
which was more than double the joint revenue of 
the States six years ngo. As to tiie sources of tlie 
revenue, he remai ked that the main wealth of the 
peninsul.i, had hitherto been in its vast alluvial tin 
fields, from which nearly 47,000 tons, valued at 
£5,240,000 were exported during 1901. Upon that 
the Government levied a duty. Another source of 
revenue was the f irm-, let by public tender, for tiie 
coliectitin of import duties on opium and spirits. 
The taxes to which he had referred might roughly 
be stated to fall almost wholly upon the fon.'i<<n - 
that wa^f, practically, the Cliine.se— portion ot the 
commnnity. Railways, too, were a source of 
revenue, and had been and were being constructed 
by the tioverTiraent out of surplus revenue, without 
any recourse being h id to loans. This fact would 
peihaps show the extraunliiiary wealth of the 
country and the successful results which had 
attended its administration under the pioiectioti of 
Greai Britain. At the heijinning of this vear the 
assets exceeded the liahllities by over $5,000,000, 
and the actual cost of administration, as repre- 
sented hy the cost of the Government civil estab- 
lishment, amounted to only 17 63 per cent of the 
revenue. This demonstrated liow economical was 
the system of government winch had been intro- 
duced and how successinl the temptation to extrava- 
gance had been resisted in thecase of this British 
proiectorate. An examiraiion of the Blu -hook 
relating to the Federated Milay States siiowed that 
the M day |)i)|iulai ion h id increased during the 
decade en led 19ol by 35 percent. But while the 
population increased it was found that their own 
land now yielded the people all the support ihey 
needed, and they were enjoying a complete indivi- 
dual lilrerty. It must be confessed that in a land 
such as the Feilerated States, where every enter- 
prise Was chit fly hampered by a laelc of sufficient 
labour, the temptation to adopt the Dutch system 
was very gieat. The sight of the entire native 
popu'ation lonfins away its d;iys, and giving to 
its fields a tninimuin of grudging labour, was an 
outrage to the economist ; for theie was a vast 
qivmlityof potential enertiy suffered to go to waste. 
Whatever ih' feelings of ihe Asiatic populations 
mifiht be elsewhere, in tlie Malay State-i it was 
certain that if a, plehiftcPe were taken today it 
would return an overwiielming majority in favour 
of our rule as against the ancient rigime. As 
ijjatt.eis stood at the present time, Mie most; u''gent 
and crying U' ed of the Federate 1 Mahiy Siafes was 
asutficieni supply oi lahour. So far, lire stream of 
Chinese iminigralion had llowed with h iiilly im 
interruption, hut as a set oil' against ii the counter- 
stream of Chinamen returning to their homes must 
be borne iu mind, and it was not in Uie power 
the British Government to control the emigration. 
It would appear that Malaya was snecially creat^ed 
to serve as a receptacle for the ovetllow of the 
natives of India— a natufal refuge for a population 
which annu.illy counted the number of those on 
famine relief by the hundred thousand. The 
efforts in this direction had proved wofully dis- 
appointing, and the Government of India evinced 
no iireat desire to utilise tlie means of relief which 
the Malay States offered. After referring to 
Pahang, the most recently acquired and the least 
prosperous of the States, he briefly alluded to the 
portion of the peninsula which lay beyond the 
limits of the British Protectorate, and, in conclu- 
sion, said that, if the Siamese administration of the 
Malay States was to be saved from failure, tliey 
must secure the aid of a Civil service such as had 
been at the disposal of the British Government in 
Malaya during the past 3) years. (Hear, hear.) 
A discusion followed and the proceedings 
closed. — London Times, Dec II. 
VANILLA. 
A consignment of about 300 kilos ot vanilla 
cultivated in German B ist Africa, arrived in Ham- 
burg a short time ago. The beans are said to be 
ot the flue dark chocolate colour, and are commencing 
to crystallise. Tri^-y are of various lengths, and are 
reported l;o compare t'lvnuvalily with the best Bour- 
bon qiAWky. — Chemist and Druggist, Dee. 13. 
THE SHORTAGE IN (iUTTA PERCHA. 
If anybody doubted it, the recent enormous 
rises in the price of crude gutta-percha make 
it perfectly obvious that, taking it all round, 
the supply is not equal to the demand. Of course, 
the rise in crude gutta from about 5s 5d per 
lb to 9s per lb is very largely iluo to the new 
cable projects, but, as the tendancy is for more 
cables in every direction, this rise promises to 
maintain itself for a long time to come, and it 
is* moreover, very definite proof of the fact 
that the production of sutta is extremely limited, 
and does not seem to be capable of extension in 
the n-'ar future. If additional proof for this 
contention were wanted it could easily be found 
in the fact that for several years there has been 
a marked and increasing deterioration iu tlie 
quality of the gutta shipped. All this leaves no 
doubt that the piesent is an excellent time for a 
substitute like Gentzsch's New Gutta perclia to 
a-serD and demonstrate its merits. — 7»rfM"/?i<66ej' 
Journal, Dec. 8. 
-« 
ZANZfBAR.— In 1901, Zanzibar exported .£25,130 
worth of rubber, against £25 286 in 19.X). Of 
this, Germany received £7,828 more than in the 
previous year, 
FrkMCH GuintEA — The import and export of 
this colony show a decideil decline during 1901. 
This is chiefly caused by the rubber trarle crisis, 
the chief product which the country exports. 
The export of raw rubber decreased from 
7,5S0.120 franc=) in 1901. As the natives- had not 
taken notice of the warning of the Govern- 
.iient not to forget the culture of other prodncta 
over rubber, i hey were unable, at the general 
fall in prices, to make tiieir usual j urcli ases, 
wiiich Caused the big fall in \m\t^tU.— India 
Rubber Joxd'yml, Dec. 8. 
