THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 
^UGUST I, 1890.] 
105 
NORTH BORNEO NOTES : 
PERSONAL — PEARL SHELLS — FLAX — SAWMILLS, 
(From the North Borneo Herald, June 1st.) 
Mr. E. P. Gtjerttz who some seven years since was 
Assi-tant Resilient in Kudat, and who left the service 
in 1884 has again entered under the Company’s rule, 
and will take Charge of Labuan, Mr. F. G. Callaghan 
being about to proceed to England on six months leave 
of absence. 
In this issue we publish a most interesting lecture 
on the State of North Borneo its past, present and possi- 
ble future given by Mr. Alexander Cook Treasurer- 
General before a meeting of the British Association 
at Newcastle on Tyne on September 10th last during 
his absence on leave in England last year. There is 
one slight correction which it may be as well to make. 
Mr. Cook states that during Captain Beeston’s second 
Segama Expedition of 1887 the prospectors did not 
discover any “ matrix ” of gold but only the loose 
gold m the beaches. This is not quite correct. On both 
expeditions of 1886 and 1887 Captain Beeston success- 
fully treated quartz for gold, finding the quartz very 
heavy with baser minerals. In 1887 several quartz 
reefs some of large width were found in the creeks 
above Weary George where the slate and diorite 
country came in. Samples from these were reduced to 
powder and washed a very fair prospect being the result. 
It seems that attention is being given to the coast of 
British North Borneo as a suitable field for the pearl- 
shell fishing industry. The following extract is from 
a letter received by a firm at Thursday Island from one 
of the leading London brokers. The Torres Straits 
fishers referred to are probably from the North-West 
— “It has come to our knowledge that some Torres 
Straits fishers have been applying to the British North 
Borneo Company for leave to fish on the coast of that 
Island, and we think it well to call attention to this new 
ground, as we have seen some of the boldest and finest 
shell from there, and think it likely to have grand 
opportunities.” 
We append translation of a letter addressed to us by 
the Manager of the Societe de la Ramie Frangaise. All 
the samples alluded to can be seen at the office of the 
North Borneo Herald : — 
Sir, — We received your letter of the 18th December 
and thank you for the fiattering compliments with which 
you addressed us. According to your wish we are 
sending you , by this mail, patterns of ramie in the divers 
states in which it is utilised. 
I. Stalk of dried Ramie. 
II. Ramie unravelled by Chinese hand labour, and 
worth, in the European markets from 80 to 85 francs, 
per lOOk’los. 
III. Ramie unravelled when green by the machine 
P. A. Favier, and worth in the European markets 40 to 
45 francs per 100 k’los. 
IV. Ramie unravelled when dry by the machine 
P. A. Favier, worth 70 to 75 francs per 100 k’los, in 
the European markets. 
We add to these samples, some specimens of flax, 
after undergoing a certain preparation, and also some 
samples of tissue. We are also sending you some 
pamphlets appertaining to the culture and machines for 
working r.umie. We are convinced that there is much 
to be (lone with the ramie but in a damp climate the 
disentangling cannot be promptly effected unless through 
the agency of our machinery, working it in its crude 
state that is to say immediately after the cutting of the 
stalk. If any powerful company would undertake the 
first cultivation of the ramie, we could easily come to an 
arrangement with them and would be willing to allow 
them the monopoly of our machinery, at the same time 
we would be assisting them at arriving at a result. As to 
our being able to give you an idea as to what revenue 
would result from the undertaking on a proper scale the 
following information may be useful. In a climate like 
Borneo three crops of ramie can be thoroughly calculated 
upon in one year, each crop should give from 13 to 
14,000 k’los. of green stalks per acre which after un- 
dergoing treatment with our machines would give a 
leturn of 2,000 k’los of strips like the pattern herewith ; 
we are buyers of these strips at the rate of 40 francs 
14 
per 100 k’los ; this would represent a gross return of 
800 fraucs per acre. One machine with two workmen 
could produce 2,000 k’los in a space of from 6 to 8 
days. The power of the machinery does not come up to 
one hor.se power. The royalty we ehmild ask, to give 
up the right of this patent would only amount in 
any case to 0. . 75c. for every 100 k’los so unravelled. 
The material so delivered should be received free of 
all port charges in any European port, and the bales 
80 delivered should average from 200 to 250 k’los to 
the cubic yard, the total cost of the machine amounts 
to 2,000 francs and we shall bo very happy if this 
question should prove sufficiently encouraging to 
induce any of the companies in British North Borneo 
to take the initiative in developing this new industry 
which would certainly conduce to the profit of both 
grower and buyer and might develope into an industry 
of considerable importance. A. Favier, 
We publish the following communication with much 
pleasure, as it indicates the progress of the Saw Mill 
industry in Sandakan at the present time. 
Daring the recent visit of His Excellency the Gover- 
nor and Mrs. Oreagh to the Saw Mill and Engineering 
Departments of the British Borneo Trading and Plant- 
ing Company, it was the general subject of remark that 
energy and determination combined with sound practi- 
cal knowledge had worked great changes in the 
prospects of these Departments, during the past tew 
months, and what was formerly a ghastly mangrove 
swamp with a drowned Saw Mill in its midst was 
gradually assuming the appearance of a business centre, 
all the Saw benches in the Mill being hard at work 
on the execution of a large order for Railway sleepers 
for Manila, which are being turned out at the rate 
of 600 per day, and for which purpose the timber is 
specially adapted. 
The energetic Manager Mr. W. A. Leach is at 
present busily engaged on the reconstruction and exten- 
sion of the Saw Mill Wharf, which when completed 
will be 550 feet in length and will allow vessels drawing 
18 feet to come alongside at dead low water. Another 
Wharf 500 feet in length is also in course of construc- 
tion for the Engineering Department and alongside of 
this it is in contemplation to erect a patent Slipway for 
hauling launches and small steamers, and which will in 
junction with the New Machine and Boiler makers 
shops and Iron and Brass Foundries enable the Company 
to undertake and successfully carry out extensive re- 
pairs of all descriptions. In the course of conversation 
with the Manager that gentleman (who has had seven 
years’ experience with Teak timber in Siam) expressed 
his opinion that Billian was for many purposes far 
superior to Teak, and could be supplied at §rds of the 
cost of that wood, the forests which in Siam are in 
some instances 500 miles from the port, being an im- 
portant item in the cost of production, Kayu Kapur 
or Camphor, and Kruen or Borneo Teak, are also woods 
which in his opinion are quite equal to Teak for ship- 
building and other purposes and can be supplied at 
little more than half the cost of that wood. Altogether 
the Company is to be heartily congratulated on its im- 
proved prospects and there can be little doubt that when 
the quality of the magnificent timber which abounds on 
the property of the Company, becomes more generally 
known, the present Milling plant will have to be further 
increased in order to supply the demand which will 
certainly exist for it. 
The Government is corresponding with more than one 
of the leading members of the Western Australian 
Pearling industry who want to bring up a fleet of 
schooners to fish on our East coast during the Austra- 
lian winter months when the inclemency of the weather 
prevents them from leaving the ports of that colony. 
For the information of those who are interested in the 
business we may say that the first comer has been 
offered the privilege of exporting pearls at half the 
ordinary export duty (i, e. at five instead of ten per 
cent) for seven years from the date he starts business. 
This privilege covers a fleet not exceeding twenty 
ordinary pearling schooners. Not only the mother of 
pearl shell of very fine quality, but also the real pearl 
oyster have been found off our Bast coast, but neither 
variety is regularly fished : both inhabit deep water and 
none of the natives understand dredging. 
