Aug: 1, 1892.1 
f -I 
THE BRITISH HORTH BORNEO HERALD. 
261 
for tlie European grown article causes the price to rise 
beyond a certain point the tropical substitute conies more 
and more into use. As for instance, starch is largely 
^ made from potatoes in Europe at present, demand for 
potatoes was over supply last season, prices ro.se and the 
tropics were drawm upon for a starch giving product as 
a. substitute for potatoes and the consequence was a 
heavy rise in the price of sago and a brisk business in 
all sago producing countries. Sago also is largely used 
to make cheap pastry of when floiir is dear and as Hour 
too went up, sago benefitted from this cause also. The 
price of neither potatoes nor flour rose very much, but if 
the price of sago is on the average as high eight years 
hence as it has been on the average for the last six 
months there would be fortunes in making sago plant¬ 
ations now: and if I am not very much mistaken the 
price of both flour and potatoes will be a good deal 
higher eight years hence than they were at any time 
last year. 
In calculating with regard to tropical pi'oducts gen¬ 
erally it has to be remembered that everything as far as 
can be at present foreseen, makes in favour of laying 
them all down in Europe at far lower prices than were 
dreamt of not very many years since; low exchange 
low freight low insurance low commissions are all in 
favour of the tropical agriculturist, and not only tapioca 
and sago but millet rice Indian corn and other things will 
inevitably be shipped in increasing quantities to And a 
use for one purpose or another in Europe in response to 
a very slight rise in prices there. 
The production of sugar from beetroot is peculiar, 
it may be regarded as an invasion, by the products of 
tlie tempei'ate zone, of the region of the products of the 
tropics ; the probabilities all being in favour of the re¬ 
verse ’ invasion commencing within a few short years; 
and as the present state of things is quite abnormal it 
will no doubt be defeated in the long ruu and cane come 
out triumphant. If most temperate zone products rise in 
price, while the price of beetroot sugar is always limited 
by the price at which cane sugar production would be 
enormously increased, it follows that beetroot planting- 
will be gradually abandoned in favour of the products 
Avhich are not so bounded or limited and which show i 
an always increasing tendency to rise in price. 
It is not difiicult to calculate when the States will 
have ceased to send Europe food stufl’s in any quantity 
and as the population of Europe will then be much larger 
than it is now, the ordinary sources of supply will have 
been strained to their utmost and the produce of tropical 
countries will be finding a profitable sale on a scale un¬ 
dreamt of at present. When that day comes the agri¬ 
cultural interest all over the world will be a flourishinc: 
one. 
Long ere then it will have been realized that thinly 
inhabited tropical countries arc to be regarded as store¬ 
houses to be drawn upon for food supplies for Europe’s 
increasing millions and well it will be for that country 
which shall own most such lands, the importance of the 
possession of which will then be becqniing increasingly 
apparent year by year and it is not difiicult to predict 
that the possession of Sumatra of Borneo of Mindanao 
and of similar islands will then be of more pressing im¬ 
portance than nearly all the international a,nd social 
questions which now agitate politicians. 
MYNAH. 
Urifish and Diitcli Bouiuiaries in fiSonico, 
^‘Tiie text of the Convention between Great Britain and 
Holland, defining tlieii* respective boundaries in Borneo, 
whieh was signed on June l>0 last year, .and ratified on 
May 11 last, has now been puhlislied. The subject has 
long been one on which coiisiderabl© variance has existed 
between the two Governments, as was readily seen by the 
maps which were issued by the Government at the time an 
active interchange of correspondence was ptassing after the 
cessions made liy the Sultans of Sulu and Brunei of the 
territories now constituting British North Borneo. The 
Blue-book, with these maps, was issued in 1882, at the time 
the Charter was granted to the British North Borneo Com¬ 
pany. The maps showed that the claims and contentious 
of Holland from 1824 to 184G were quite different from 
those they sought to establish in 1882, and which the British 
Government therefore resisted. Eor nearly ten years lon¬ 
ger a desultory correspondence was maintained, which has 
now found its climax in the ahove-mentioued agreement. 
Meanwhile, the British North Borneo Company had been 
' in effective occupiation of the country which had been ceded 
to them by the two Native Sultans. Briefiy spieaking-, the 
new Convention lays it down that the boundaries of the 
respective countries shall he as follow.—Commencing on 
the East Coast at 4 deg. 10 min. N. lat., the line runs bet¬ 
ween the rivers Simengaris and Soedang to the point where 
117 deg. E. long, cuts 4 deg. 20 miu. N. lat,, when the line 
follows 4 deg. 20 min. N. lat. until it reaches some shad¬ 
owy point, which shall hereafter he found to be, the summit 
of the range of mountains whicb forms on the parallel the 
watershed of the rivers deboiichiag on tlie North-West 
Coast and those of the East Coast of Borneo; sliould any 
river flowing into the sea south of 4 deg. 10 miu. N. lat. on 
the East Coast be found to cross the boundary line within a 
radius of five geographical miles the line shall be diverted so 
as to include such portions within Dutch territory, and 
similarly should any river discharging into the sea to the 
north 01 4 deg-. 10 miu. lat. be found to cross the boundary 
a like concession will ho made in favour of Great Britain. 
As regards the Island of Sehittik, which has been a great 
hone of contention all the way tlirough the discussion, the 
rather unsatisfactory arrangement to divide it nearly in half 
has been come to, and the fine formed by 4 deg. 10 min. N. 
lat. forms the boundary, all to the north pertaining to North 
Borneo, and that to the south to Holland. As regards the 
boundary line to be followed from the summit of the range 
above-mentioned, it will go to Tanjoug-Datu on the west 
coast of Borneo, and w'ill follow the watershed of the rivers 
running to the North-West and West Coasts, north of Tan- 
jong-Datu, and of those running to the West Coast, south 
of Tanjong-Datu, tlie South Ooast, and the Jfiist Coast south 
of 4 deg. 10 min. N. lat. All lands watered by the rivers 
debouching to the northward of Tanjong-Datu belong to 
Great Britain, and outside these to Holland. This arrange¬ 
ment includes Sarawak and Brunei in the Britisli portion. ” 
“ It will be seen that the boundaries are not very 
definitely fixed, and that the present Convention can only 
he looked on as a kind of draft agreement, though its 
provisions will probably he suflicient for many years to 
come. The country for the most part is Linexploretb and 
unknown, and it is unlikely to be effectively occupied or 
settled, by either party, for many years to come. It is 
satisfactory to note, however, that the question is now 
beyond any immediate dispute. It has been come to gene- 
ally on a give-and take principle, though it met with con¬ 
siderable opposition in Holland before being ratified by 
the States-General, while the lines on whieh it is framed 
should have been sufficient to have obviated it. ”— {London 
and China Express, June 3rd). • 
