Nov. 1, 1899.] THE THOPICAL AGElCULTURIST. 333 
GUTTA AND RUBBER IN BRITISH 
NORTH BORNEO. 
By Henry Walker, Commissioner oe 
Lands. 
Borneo Gnttas and Rubbers are quoted in the 
price currents of the world and are well known to 
trade. They have been collected and are still being 
collected by Dyaka in the vast jungles of British 
North Borneo. There are many qualities of gutta, 
the price of which varies from §30 to §380 a picul, 
say 5Ad. to 5s. 9d. a lb. Of Bobbers there are several 
kinds" but the price is more constant, say about |60 
to §80 a picul or lOd. to Is. 2d. a ft. The railway 
to the interior, now constructed as far as Beaufort 
on the Padas river, promises to increase the export 
of gutta from the West Coast of British North Borneo 
as parties of Dyaks are already making their way 
up to the interior by the route in larger numbers 
than hitherto. In 1895, one Dyake Chief, Nakoda 
Balli, came down the Penotal George road with some 
Muruts from the far interior of North Borneo and 
sold bis coUection of gutta for §3,600 (that was the 
first time that any of the interior tribesmen had 
seen the sea), but the collections likely to be 
made by Dyaks in the near future will probably 
beat that record. The Dyak collector only fells 
gutta trees over six inches in diameter, because, as 
he says, trees of a smaller size have too thin a 
bark to yield any gutta. Consequently the gutta 
collector does not exterminate — he merely collects 
a ripe crop and leaves nature to furnish a further 
supply in years to come. In this respect he differs 
from the gutta leaf collector who fells every tree, 
small or great ; and if leaf collecting is allowed, 
extermination must ensue— or so few trees will be 
overlooked that future collection will not pay. Another 
point against leaf collection is the weight of the 
leaf, if not dry— the trouble of drying it— and when 
dry the small percentage of gutta extracted. 
Having felled a gutta tree, the collector rings the 
trunk at intervals of about seventeen inches— cutting 
through the bark to the wood— and, if available, 
places a piece of bamboo below each cut to receive 
the juice arid keep it clean. A great deal of the 
variation in price is due to bad treatment and to 
adulteration with leaves, twigs and soil. There are 
many trees in British North Borneo yielding gutta, 
but I am not yet able to give any but native names. 
At Tenom at the junction of the Pagalan and Padas 
rivers, which is to be the terminus of the present 
railway, a fair is now held every fifty days and is 
attended by traders who carry up salt, cloth, matches 
and luxuries, such as Bimmel's scents in superior 
bottles, I and bring down gutta, rubber, dammer, rat- 
tans, bees-wax, skins, &c. At Tenom there are seven 
kinds of gutta with the following native names: — 
Hang, two kinds, red aud white, price $100 a picul, 
At Kaningow thirty miles higher up the Pagalan ; 
this is better prepared and fetches $120. 
Gutta Durian, red, $100, Gutta Tagal, $80. Ba- 
joorye, $80. Merrisa, $60. Menown, pO to §40. 
Of rubber two kinds are brought to the fair : — 
Kubal at $60 and Menungunor Gutta Liohakat $80. 
The Menuuguu rubber creeper is cultivated by tho 
natives dwelling on the Telicossan river, a very 
large stream — so large indeed that at times it causes 
a flood on the Padas. There are several large vil- 
lages with long houses well raised above the ground 
; containing sixty doors, i.e., families. Some of the 
people have plots planted with the Menungun creeper 
which they tap after about the seventh year and 
only retap wheu the last wound has healed, which 
probably means once a year. I am told that this cree- 
per attains a diameter of twenty inches. I have seen it 
fully sixinchesthickon theSegama Biver anditisknown 
all through North Borneo by the samename. The fruit 
resembles a very large orange and is sweetly acid — a 
most delicious fruit to eat. So far as I know it ripens 
in October. It should be grown together with rotan, 
^hiflb ftssiste the creeper in climbing upwards. 
All the above guttas and rubbers grow in the 
Tenoin district where the Government is now opening 
an experimental garden under the charge of Mr. 
Chas. Keasberry. That gentleman informs me that 
he can get all the labour he requires and frequently 
has to refuse work to parties of natives from the 
Upper Padas. A large block of Tobacco land was 
marked out on the upper Padas by the Borneo To- 
bacco Syndicate and since then the natives p.re con- 
stantly enquiring when the estate will be opened. 
From what I can gather I should say that several 
thousand coolies can be obtained from the Upper 
Padas when required for planting purposes. The 
women work as well as the men. Until the railway 
is opened to Tenom the bridle path on the right 
bank of the i'adas must be availed of. When I 
used the road in July it was in good order aud I 
could have ridden a pony along it except for one 
small landslip at Koyoh 'and one fallen tree. Mr. 
Tower, the Railway Engineer, who was with me, re- 
marked that it was as good a bridle path as the 
hill roads of Ceylon. The telegraph wire runs along 
this path which can be kept in order by the tele- 
graph coolies at a small additional expenditure. 
At present a party of Dyaks are seeking gutta on 
the lower Padas district which contains gutta trera 
in large quantities :— a very reassuring fact to the 
planter who may think of taking up land along the 
railwaj line. An application ^as just been made by 
the Eastern Extension Telegraph Co. for a huge block 
of land between Bukow and Beaufort, along the rail- 
way line, for rubber and gutta planting. 
At Kaningow on the Pagalan the great southern 
tributary on the Padas, a better class of gutta is 
brought called Kayan, a red Gutta, which sella for 
$200 at Kimanis. It is of a superior quality, unbreak- 
able when bent and comes from Menown on the south- 
east of Kaningow in the Dalit country. This wealth 
of natural, indigenous, gutta extends across the terri- 
tory to Sandakan, but at Sandakan a more valuable 
class of gutta is obtainable. The local name is Klapeii, 
a large and a small leaf, red underneath, growing on 
lov/ hills the gutta from which sells for §140 to $380 
a picul, say (at exchange 2,'-) equal to 2/1 to 5/9 per t). 
I met parties of Dyaks on the Segama in 1885, 
who had been about 250 miles up that river gutta 
collecting, but the Kinabatangan and its great tri- 
butaries, which extend beyond Ihe'centre of our terri- 
tory up to the Eastern slopes of the West Coast 
hills, afford the largest gutta collecting ground. The 
amounts collected must vary considerably, but as far 
as 1 can learn the gutta collectors earn about nine 
or ten dollars a mouth after paying their expenses. 
Their expenses are not great; a little rice, a little 
(a very little) clothing, matches, salt and tobacco, 
all of which they obtain on credit from a trader, 
who, of course, expects to buy the gutta on their 
return. He has to pay the current price and the 
Dyaks are quite able to take care of then:=elves in 
that respect. When in the jungle the Dyaka main- 
tain themselves by fishing, snaring aud hunting, in 
which they are assisted by their dogs. On the whole 
the gutta collector's life is a hard one — small profit 
and much loss of life— but their traditions and 
customs lead them into the jungle where they can 
indulge their taste for a wild, savage, life to the fullest 
extent except as regards head hunting which haa 
been put down with so stern a hand by the European 
and the venture some Dyak now only rarely takeshead. 
Large collections of gutta are made on the head 
waters of the Padas by the local natives but these 
chiefly go to the independent territories and into 
Dutch Borneo and are sold to traders who supply 
repeating rifles and guns of sorts, the importation 
of which is not allowed in British North Borneo. 
The|exports of Gutta and Rubber from British North 
Borueo for the years 1897 and 1898 were as follows 
1897 1898 
Gutta §93,639 $125,280 
India Rubber §49,513 $ 79,600 
—British North Borneo Herald, 
