Annual Report on the Botanic Gardens, Singapore and Penang, 
for the Year 1905. 
Staff. 
No changes took place among the Staff during the year except that caused by the 
dismissal of JapHET S. Isaac, Foreman Gardener, of the Economic Gardens, who was 
succeeded by Sat hi an athan. 
The cooly supply was still short and the men obtained were an inferior lot 
Very few stay for any length of time as Javanese labour is scarce anywhere now, and 
the men can get employed at higher wages outside. A considerable number run away 
immediately after receiving their pay without giving any notice, and this is especially 
the case when it happens to be 'necessary to pay the salaries early in the month. The 
Ordinance to prevent this is quite inefficacious, as it is much too expensive in time and 
money to hunt for the fugitives, even if it were possible to find them again. 
There was no sickness of any importance among the coolies during the year. 
Visitors. 
As was to be expected, the number of visitors to the Gardens fell off very largely 
owing to the abolition of the menagerie. It is no exaggeration to say that hundreds 
of people enquired for the animals and left the Gardens as soon as they found they were 
there no more. The natives, who used to come in crowds on Native Holidays, have 
ceased to come, and the European travellers who had been to Singapore before, or who 
had heard from others of Ihe menagerie, were surprised to find the animals gone, and 
many left the Gardens when they discovered the fact. 
The Regimental band played in the Gardens four times only and the perform- 
ances were well attended. 
A large number of persons interested in rubber cultivation and other vegetable 
products visited the Gardens. Among these were M. ClBOT (Paris), Mr. John 
Allen (Warrington) interested in oilseeds, Mr. VerNET (Agricultural Department of 
Annam), Dr. WATERHOUSE (Honolulu), Mr. G. Kayabashi (Osaka), Mr. Hagedorn 
(Samoa), Dr. PREUSS (New Guinea), M. Laurent (Deli), M. Bruinsma (Inspector- 
General of Forests, Buitenzorg), Mr. Scheitin (Illinois, U.S.A.), Mr. Strickland 
(Madras), Dr. Schyvara (Tokio), Mr. Goodrich (Australia), Carl Linow (Bangkok), 
and many others. 
Professor ENGLER of Berlin, spent a week in Singapore, studying the Aroids, 
wild and cultivated, and other local plants. 
Prince and Princess A RISC G AW A visited the Gardens cn the occasion of their 
visits, to Singapore. 
Thefts, etc. 
There were no very important cases of theft during the year, but there were three 
prosecutions: one Chinaman, for gathering Champaca flowers, fined $10; another 
for digging up roots in the Garden jungle, fined $2, and one for cutting large 
quantities of Heliconia leaves, alleging, when first detected, that he had paid one of the 
Officials for them. He was fined $30. 
There was a case of suicide in the Gardens, a Dutchman having shot himself in 
the little summer-house near the lake. 'I his is the first case of the kind for about 
18 years. 
Aviaries. 
The remaining birds and animals were sold off during the year, mostly at a very 
low figure. The Mias, the old Birtturong, the best of the hybrid Apes, an Arctogale, 
and the white Porcupine were sent to the Zoological Society's Garden in London, 
