MINERAL PRODUCTIONS OP THE TENASSERIM PROVINCES. 730 
Snell a process would ere this have resulted in creating a name for 
these Provinces as a tin producing country of the first scale of im¬ 
portance ; and in comparison with the tin localities of the Malacca 
peninsula, (with, for the most part, a semi-barbarian at the head of 
each petty state whose will is law, and whose cupidity, excited 
by the exhibition of any considerable amount of property, is rarely 
satisfied with less than the wholesale massacre of the miners for its 
attainment j such acts have on several occasions been perpetrated,) 
the contrast, with the security enjoyed under British rule and 
freedom from all oppressive taxes or other restriction on labor or 
produce, will claim for these provinces a preference it would be 
folly to dispute.* 
The causes which have operated to retard the developement of 
this source of wealth are as follows 
1. The isolated position of the localities enriched by the tin 
* The territory of Malacca claims a passing notice here from its rich mineral 
deposits (tin and gold) as well as for the fertile nature of its soil generally, and the 
invaluable acquisition for general purposes of cultivation which it possesses in the 
rivers which water its magnificent plains; during the Dutch occupation of the 
country, which then extended interiorly as far as Nanning, its resources were 
undergoing a gradual development, by the operation of a system of protection and 
encouragement to Chinese miners and to agriculturists, which, had their rule 
been uninterrupted to the present period, would have rendered that portion of their 
possessions second in importance only to the island of Java; this will he evident 
from the fact, that at the period of the transfer of the country to the British 
Government, tne tin mines of “ Sungie Ujong” alone produced 6, to 7,000 piculs of 
metal annually, worked by 800 Chinese, but in the course of the succeeding twelve 
years of British rule, the produce of the same locality rarely exceeded 3,000 piculs, 
with the number of Chinese miners reduced to 300—and so with the produce of 
the adjoining districts of “ Rumbow” “ Johol ” and “ Jelibu. ” 
Whatever may be the defects in the system of Government applied by the Dutch 
to their colonies ; that one of apathetic conduct in regard to the perfect development 
of the resources of their possessions cannot be laid to their charge, as witness their 
boards of forests, “of mines” of cultures &c, and it may fearlessly be asserted, that bad 
the British Government adopted the measures of legislation they found instituted 
on assuming the administration of that territory, such measures, strengthened by 
the more liberal policy which characterises the British domination, would have 
resulted in placing the province of Malacca in the first class of importance for its 
valuable productions. 
To those acquainted with the early Government of the Straits, the cause of this 
decadence and long torpor to which the province of Malacca has been subjected 
must be obvious enough, but may be briefly stated as 
1st. The over-legislation which obtained in the first instance in regard to land, 
tenures and other processes of local arrangement, which demanded the most liberal 
consideration instead of the opposite course ; this, for many years hung as an 
“incubus” on the growing energies of the Straits settlements. 
2nd. To the absence oi all beyond a superficial knowledge either of the language 
of the people, of the country, or its capabilities, on the part of the chief local 
authority. 
To this latter absence of one of the principle elements of effective Government, 
mu3t be attributed the dismemberment of Rumbau and its dependencies from the 
Malacca territory, which was given in January 1833 to the cliieftenship and rule 
of Rajah Ali and his son-in-law Syed Saban: opposed to the claims of the legiti¬ 
mate chief Kodin; thus was sown the germ of anarchy and all its attendant evils, 
which ever since the expulsion of Rajah Ali by the latter chief in 1836 lias continu¬ 
ed to shed its baneful influence throughout all the adjoining petty states, where 
restrained by no law, and subject to no effective rule beyond the “ dicta” ofthaself 
constituted “ Panghulu,” no security for person or property exists, and the 
treasures of the earth are brought to light scantily and fearfully. 
