11 
45. I have endeavoured, by many means, to arrive at an 
approximate estimate of the amount of timber annually used 
iu the island for constructive and other purposes, and give 
below the results of my enquiries. According to a rough esti- 
mate, the figures may he stated as under: — - 
Used by the Public Works Department .. . 80,600 c. ft. 
Used by the Public ... ... ... 200,000 ,, 
Used by Pepper Cultivators ... ... 530,400 „ 
Total ... 811,000 „ 
46. None of the above is the produce of the Settlements, 
but is reported to have been brought chiefly from Johor and 
the neighbouring Dutch islands. I am unable, as I should 
have wished, to give statistics of the Timber exports and 
imports : because as the Returns for the Colony deal with a pass- 
ing trade I should not be able to produce accurate figures. 
47. From figures supplied by the Land office, the number 
of permits issued for firewood-cutting in 1881 numbered 1,009, 
of which 609 were for a term of three months each, and 400 for 
two months each, which is equal to about 218 men cutting all 
the year round ; but it is generally believed that from 300 to 400 
men are annually engaged in this work. The Revenue received 
from permits of this description amounted in 1881 to $1,020. 
It is difficult to arrive at correct figures of the annual amount 
of firewood used in the Settlement, but if it be assumed that 
2 lbs. per head of population are daily used as fuel — a quantity 
believed to be considerably under the actual consumption — 
there will be a total annual consumption of about 45,000 tons: 
of which amount 32,000 tons are' consumed in the town of 
Singapore alone. 
48. To the quantity used by the inhabitants in the coun- 
try must be added the requirements of the gambier planta- 
tions, of which there are some 20 in the Island, each of which 
is believed to consume on an average 2,500 lbs. daily during 
the crop, which lasts for about six months of the year ; and into 
this may be thrown the requirements of the pepper crop, the 
poles for new plantations excepted, as it must be understood 
that for the sake of keeping the coolies employed all the year 
round, and as a guard against a fall in prices, the gambier cul- 
tivators are also largely cultivators of pepper ; and as the latter 
has a proper season for ripening its fruits, and the gambier no 
such season, the cultivators take the precaution to have the 
gambier plantations stripped by the time the pepper crop is 
ieady to gather, so that no sooner are the boiler fires of the 
gambier preparers extinguished than those of the pepper kilns 
aie lighted up. But again some cultivators prepare gambier all 
plan*p ear rottn d when they possess a large' plantation of such 
4J. Much fuel is also used by the. small coasting steamers 
ami numeious steam launches, thirty-one of which burn wood 
exclusively, and others occasionally. These thirty-one boats 
have an aveiage tonnage of 228 tons each, and consume monthly 
about 1,240 tons ot wood. 
.. °^* The supply for this demand is drawn almost exclu- 
sively from the Dutch islands on the opposite side of the 
b traits, and is sold m the harbour of Singapore at an average 
Timber Consumption. 
Firewood. 
