r 
2 
It was found necessary to supply rice on credit to daily labour in Singa- 
pore: and the same course would have been useful in Penang, but difficulties 
stood in the way of adopting it. 
Expenditure and Revenue. 
> V 
With the labour force so much under due strength there was in Singa- 
pore a saving upon the votes for labour which covered, with a consider- 
able margin, the rise in daily wages; but an extension had to be taken to meet 
the greater rise in Penang, and also the rise on the Government House 
Domain. Small extensions had to be taken* also for travelling expenses, and 
for other expenditure in Singapore and in Penang. Revenue in Singapore 
came in well, attaining $9,316.81, made up of $6,101.29 from rubber, and 
$3,215.52 from the sale of plants. It fell, however, in Penang where it was 
$975.72. The demands of the public showed no sign of decrease during the 
year; but the loss of labour in Penang diminished the supplying power there. 
To replenish the stock of tools, etc., which had of necessity been kept at 
the lowest possible margin during the war, a larger expenditure than usual 
was necessary. Expenditure on timber and manure was also great. The 
local prices of timber might be regarded as exorbitant, and the price of manure 
as excessive; but there was so much competition for the available supplies of 
these that the sellers could sell as they pleased. Compensating economies 
were effected in material of other kinds. 
It is becoming a permanent condition that cattle manure is 
difficult to get in anything like adequate quantities; and therefore artificial 
manures have been ordered. The price of cattle manure at the same time is 
high; so that the amount required by the Gardens now costs five times as 
much as it did ten years ago. Opium refuse, which was thrown 
\ into the sea formerly, is being used in the Gardens experimentally as a 
manure. It decomposes very slowly ; — this in part because it has been thought 
necessary to bury it deeply; but it is possible that by mixing it with cow 
dung, and so innoculating it with bacteria, sufficiently rapid decomposition 
will be set up. 
Buildings. 
In Singapore a new building holding the Director's office, library and 
laboratory was erected, but not completed. The servants' quarters at the 
Director's and Assistant Director’s houses were improved. Lines for ten 
married Javanese were built. The water-pipe system to the Javanese lines 
and subordinate quarters was relaid by the Municipality from the Cluny Road 
main instead of from the remoter Dalvey Road main, thus liberating piping 
enough for the water supply to the new laboratory. In Penang the lines were 
repainted. 
Investigations and Collections. 
• 
Living collections . — The Department gratefully acknowledges the receipt 
of plants and seeds from Mrs. M. Barry, Mrs. A. W. D. Dove, 
Mrs. Knollema, Messrs. C. Boden-Kloss, H. M. Bone, G. Farmer ( Elaeis ), 
H. L. Jeppesen, C. V. Piper, E. L. Villiers {Cannas), C. L. Wragge, 
Dr. F. W. Foxworthy, Dr. J. D. Gimlette, Professor J. F. Rock, 
Dr. J. J. Smith,, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Calcutta, the 
Botanic Gardens, Bangalore, Brisbane, Buitenzorg, Georgetown-Deme- 
rara, Hongkong and Port Darwin, the Colonial Gardens of Laecken, the 
State Nursery, Gwalior, the Agricultural Departments of the Federated Malay 
States, Burma. Sierra Leone and Mauritius, the Bureau of Agriculture, 
Philippine Islands, the Department of Agriculture,. United States, the Director 
of Museums, Federated Malay States, the Agri-Horticultural Society of 
India, and the Conservators of Forests, Perak and Nigeria. 
* 
The Director visited Calcutta and Kew when on leave ; and the results 
of requests made there have come in; from the Royal Botanic Gardens. 
Calcutta, the Department received 57 plants, together with a consignment 
