Annual Report of the Botanic Gardens, Singapore and 
Penang, for the Year 1913. 
Staff. 
The Committee of Management for the Gardens, Singapore, through 1913 
consisted of His Excellency Major-General T. E. Stephenson, c. b., the Hon’ble 
J. O. Anthonisz, c. m. g., Messrs. H. W. Firmstone, W. E. Hooper, St. 
V. B. Down, F. M. Elliot and the Director of Gardens. Throughout the year 
Mr. I. H. Burkill, Director, was at his post, Mr. J. W. ANDERSON, Assistant Curator, 
Singapore, at his (except during two brief intervals), and Mr. MAHOMED HANIFF, 
Overseer, Penang, at his. 
A new post — that of record-keeper — was made for the Penang Gardens, and 
filled, on July 1st, by the appointment of Mr. Mahomed Ismail bin Ali MeriCan. 
The duties of the post are in a small measure clerical, and in a larger measure 
connected with the labelling of the plants in cultivation. 
There were during the year more interruptions of services than usual, four out of 
the six of moment being connected with ill-health. Mr. R. Derry, the Curator, left 
for England on May 16th, on long leave. Mr. B. K. SAHIB, Foreman-Gardener in the 
Botanic Gardens, resigned after a service of fourteen years. Six months’ leave to India 
was granted to the Gardens’ clerk with effect from August 1st. The head watchman, 
Singapore, being unfit for his duties and at his age limit, left. Mr. MAHAMOOD BIN 
Musa, Sub-overseer at Penang, after six years’ service resigned to take up a post in 
Kedah. The Foreman-Gardener, Government House Domain, was granted leave out 
of the Colony for 25 days. 
The Curator’s work mainly fell on the Director, as his post could not be filled. 
Mr. Kastawi BIN JALIL, Overseer in the Botanic Gardens, succeeded Mr. Sahib ; and 
the overseer of rubber-tappers succeeded Mr. Kastawi. An untrained man was found 
for the post of sub-overseer, Penang. The clerical work in Singapore was done in 
August by a clerk lent from the Secretariat, and afterwards by the Inspector of 
Coconut Trees and a Herbarium subordinate jointly. Both arrangements proved 
unsatisfactory; the first because young clerks cannot be got to set up house in the 
allotted quarters and cannot keep office hours when living with their parents at a 
distance : the second because neither of the two named has the training of a clerk. 
There was discontent in Singapore during the first part of the year in the labour 
force on account of the higher wages which could be obtained on rubber estates ; it 
ended in the departure for Malacca of the greater part of the Javanese coolies and a 
strike among the Tamils on the Government House Domain. Soon after this 
die Malacca planters reduced wages, and there was no further trouble: but the 
Gardens had lost the trained men. 
There were two deaths in the coolie lines, Singapore ; one of an elderly man after 
an illness of three weeks ; the other of an infant. Neither occurrence reflected on the 
healthiness of the lines. 
Finance. 
The amount budgetted in the Colonial Estimates for 1913 for the whole 
department exclusive of items borne on the vote of the Public Works Depart- 
ment, was $43,365 being Central Staff, $14,943; Penang Staff, $1,968; Govern- 
ment House Domain Staff, $780; Singapore Coconut Inspection, $690; Malacca 
Coconut Inspection, $612; Maintenance, etc., Singapore, $12,536 ($7,950 under 
the Gardens Committee), Maintenance of Government House Grounds, $6,440; 
Maintenance, Penang, $4,500; and Maintenance of the Rubber ground on the 
