68 
FASCICULI MALATENSES 
According to the Census Report of 1901, the total population of Perak 
in that year was 329,665, against 214,254 in 1891 ; in 1901, ‘Malays,’ as 
distinguished from other races of the Archipelago and from ‘ aborigines,’ 
numbered 131,037, against 96,116 ten years previously, and this substantial 
increase has been the subject of much congratulation in official documents as 
evidence that the indigenous Malay is holding his own in face of the economic 
competition arising from the increasing numbers of Chinese immigrants 
attracted by the prosperity of the mining industry, and, in a less degree, from 
the presence of Indian agricultural labourers. 
But in 1891 the Chinese of Perak were less in numbers than the Malays 
by about two per cent. ; while now they exceed them by no less than sixteen 
per cent. Moreover, the methods of determining nationality seem, as far as 
the ‘Malays’ are concerned, open to grave objection. No account is taken 
of the fact that in Perak, and to an even greater extent in Selangor, there is a 
very considerable floating population, attracted from Kelantan and the Patani 
States, and, perhaps, also from Trengganu, who leave their own homes in 
the hope of earning a competence, which to them is a fortune, in the richer 
British States, but who, as soon as they have amassed a few dollars, return to 
their own state. There are, it is believed, greater numbers of these temporary 
residents now than was the case ten or fifteen years ago, owing to the abolition 
of local warfare on both sides of the frontier ; while in the districts of Selama 
and Upper Perak practically the whole population is of Kelantan, Rhaman, or 
South Kedah ancestry. 
It may also be reasonably doubted if many of the people enrolled as 
Peninsular Malays are really so, and we can instance one case in point from our 
own experience. The total number of Achinese recorded in 1901 for the 
whole of Perak is only 88 ; but in the two villages of Bidor and Sungkei in 
the Batang Padang district, where there is no reason to believe that members 
of this race are more numerous than in any other mining district, out of perhaps 
fifty people who presented themselves for measurement we had to reject at 
least six as being actually Achin born, while several others, though claiming 
that they were ‘ sons of Perak,’ admitted that both parents were foreigners. 
It will thus be seen that the Malay total has been swelled in recent years in 
two ways — (1) by actual, though temporary, immigration, and (2) by the 
natural increase of those aliens who have been attracted to the state from other 
parts of the Peninsula and Archipelago. 
Now that the Siamese are establishing a stable and enlightened form of 
government in that portion of the Peninsula under their sway, there is little 
doubt that immigration into the British States from the Eastern side will 
