S T R A ITS S E T T L E M E N T S 
Paper to be laid before the Legislative Council by Command oi 
His Excellency the Officer Administering the Government. 
Annual Report of the Botanic Gardens, Singapore, 
for the year 1903. 
Staff. 
Mr. A. D. Machado, Acting Assistant during the absence of Mr. Fox, having 
accepted a position on an estate in Perak, resigned his post at the end of July. His 
services were so highly appreciated by the Government that he received a gratuity 
of $500 from the Government. He was succeeded by Mr. C. B. Kloss who 
remained till the end of the year, when Mr. Derry was expected to return from Eng- 
land, which he did early in January. The salary provided for an Acting Assistant 
Superintendent is too small for an European to live on, about $125 a month, 
so that it is by no means easy to get any one at all to act during the absence of either 
of the Superintendents, so that the Department was very fortunate in procuring the 
services of the above-mentioned gentlemen. 
The Mandor VICTOR PASSANAH, who was employed last year, was dismissed, and 
his place was not filled up. 
The collapse of the labour supply throughout the East was felt very severely in 
the Gardens. All the better class of the ordinary coolies left, and it was discovered 
late in the year that certain licensed cooly- brokers had been crimping the men and 
shipping them to Bangkok and Borneo. The men usually ran away immediately 
after receiving their pay and were not heard of again. This was discovered by one 
of the men who had been kidnapped against his will escaping from the house in 
which he had been locked up. In this way a very large number of men had dis- 
appeared. In fact, during the year, no less than 176 men ran away or were discharged 
for worthlessness out of a staff of 71 men, and this does not include a large number 
who came for a single day. The attention of the Chinese Protector in charge of the 
Emigration Department was called to the matter, the licence of one of the worst of 
the cooly-brokers ie\oked, and the running away of the men immediately stopped. 
The result of this wholesale exportation of labour was that the only coolies procurable 
were lads of 15 or 16 or old worn-out or diseased men rejected by the cooly-brokers, 
and for a good portion of the vear the supply of these was inadequate. These coolies 
were not only lazy, but knew no Malay nor could most of them handle any tools. It 
was useless to discharge them as no others could be procured. At the end of the year 
matters got a little better, but many of those employed w ? ere of very little value. 
The watchmen, although their wages were raised considerably, were almost equally 
troublesome, and several lots were dismissed during the vear. 
There was very little sickness throughout the year and none of any importance. 
Visitors. 
The number of ordinary visitors was as large as ever, but the residents do not 
make as much use of the Gardens as would be expected, except on occasions on 
which the regimental band plays. Performances took place not oniy on moonlight 
nights but also on Sunday afternoons on two occasions, and were highly appreciated 
especially the Sunday performances to which large crowds came. 
1l he number of scientific visitors and those studying agriculture increases largely 
each year, as the Gardens are becoming more widely known throughout the world. 
Among this class of visitors may be mentioned : — Colonel LUMSDEN, Mr. DuNN {Hong- 
kong Gardens), Dr. PI ALL I ER, M BONNECHAUX, Mr. C. D. COBHAM, (H. M. Commis- 
sioner of Larnaca), Professor Hochreutiner, Dr. Nils SWEDELIUS, Baron de 
SOSTEN, Professor C. S. SARGENT, and Mr. A. R. SARGENT, Dr. Treub, Mr. YV. R 
Tromp de Haas, Dr. Heinricher, Professor Preuss, M. Jacquet. 
The tapping and other experiments with Para rubber attracted many planters 
and others interested in rubber planting, and there were often six or seven persons a 
day present while the rubber was being collected and prepared. 
