2()(i 
THE nEITiSH ]^ORTH BORNEO HERALD. 
r Atk;: 1, 1892. 
In sayilig tlii.': I do not merely speak of tlie produce 
of a fe^v Manila-hemp, pepper, coffee, or cocoaniit 
plantations; wliat I mean is that in the opinion of any 
man of cool judg-ment, the advantages of climate of soil 
and of transport facilities olfered hy North Borneo must 
cause the planting- up in time of lands suitable to 
raise the several products on the same scale as would he 
the case if these lands were in China or India, and what 
this means is that thousands of tons of produce will 
then 1)0 there pouring out of our ports monthly. About 
tliis there can be no doubt, the only question is, wheii ? 
Such a rise m price as is inevitable for foodstuffs in the 
western world will bring about the commencement of this 
result very soon : but leaving this contingency out of 
the question altogether, at the moment the planting of 
cocoanuts, sago and other things can be undertaken with 
a certainty of very large profits when they come into 
bearing, and two or three other things seem to promise 
better and better to the planter, rice being one of them 
and sugar another. With regard to the latter article 
alone the causes now at work, without any special fillip 
owing to an alt round agricultural crisis, will if I am 
not much mistaken result in an export of 200,000 tons 
yearly from Sandakan Bay within 10 years, and when, 
as will certainly be the case sooner or later, the fertile 
acres by hundreds of thousands in North Borneo are turn¬ 
ing out their crops of exportable products, may I as is 
quite possible still be here to see. This is the goal I 
always had in view from the first and which I am 
confident we are now on the high road to attain. 
MYNAH. 
\o, :{. 
Whex srpiuaEs FROAi temperate iikgioxs are insueet- 
CIENT 'I'HE TROPICS WII.E COME EORWARD. 
The outcome of careful investigation tends to shoAv 
that population (i.e. consumption} yearly increases at a 
pace hitherto unknown in the worlds history, that re¬ 
serves of land are rapidl}* being used up, that Avhat 
remains is in most cases of less value than that already in 
use, and finalK that an average years consumption is 
rapidly overhauling an average years production of food¬ 
stuffs for people of European extraction. 
All this give^s serious food for reflection and it seems 
inevitable that wo are not far from general rises in prices 
all lound of Agricultural produce. Already during the 
last three years, twice we hav^e seen calculations that 
the years wheat crop would not suffice for the years 
consumption; a shaking out of invisible stocks spoken 
of as unprecedented preventing a crisis the first time, and 
enormous crops in America and India the second; but 
the meiG fact that such calculations hav'c twice been 
possible ill so short a time is sufficiently alarming, es¬ 
pecially as they were made in the face of known crops 
that would have been enormously in excess of require¬ 
ments but a few short years before. 
As it IS, people hav^e got into the way of always 
expecting that some new country will step forward and 
supplv deficiencies ; such has been their experience du¬ 
ring the last forty years, and what has always happened 
in the past they see^l to think will always happen in the 
future. But a rude awakening is inevitalile, as there 
are^ hut one or two fresh countries left to draw from, 
while supplies from* some of those already exploited are 
likely to be smaller and smaller in the future. 
As to wheu this Millenium for the farmer is to com¬ 
mence it is not easy to predict within a year or two. If 
there is any threatening of rises in price, wheat is the 
thing that everybodv^ wishes to plant and it scorns nro- 
bable therefore that as the market for it is ijioro closelv 
followed and its fluctuations, especially the upward ones, 
more closely acted upon that it is other things rather 
than wdieat that wdll first feel the benefit of an increased 
general demand. As the request for foodstuffs becomes 
more pressing and pastoral land is changed into arable- — 
in America at least—Cattle should he one of tlic first 
things to benefit, wdiile stocks of other tilings such as 
potatoes, turnips, oats, barley, beans, peas and maize are 
more likely to give out from time to time with conse¬ 
quent sharp advances in prices, than is likely to he the 
^ case with wheat. Which of the abovementioned things 
. will first feel the consequences of increasing demand it 
I is of course impossible to say, but a shortness of one or 
! two of them annually is likely to cause overplantiiig of 
that particular product, to he followed by a short crop of 
somcthiiig else. The matter about which there is little 
I doubt is that within a ^^ear or two, some one—two or three 
things will he in short supply every year, and this ten¬ 
dency wdll increase vear after vear. 
Almost the only disturbing elements, likely to defer 
I this forecaste for a time, are China and the price of sil- 
I ver. It is not too much to say if the rupee had been at 
I 2/ last year, that wheat would now be oO/—■ per quar¬ 
ter as India could not have shipped anything like the 
7,000,000 quarters she did had not exchange been as low 
as it was, exchange is still lower this year and it remains 
, to be seen bow much further this will stimulate the lu- 
j diaii exporter, while with cheap freights and low^ ex¬ 
change, Chinas’ becoming a seller of foodstuffs on tlie 
I European market comes into the range of possibilities. 
I W ith the aid of manure and high farming the 
i fertility of the soil in the States and elsewhere can be 
much increased, while as prices rise, lots of land, at pre¬ 
sent waste, even in England, will he brought under 
cultivation. 
As shortness of supplies of various things is more 
and more felt year after year, more and more laud in 
South America and elsewhere will be brought under 
cultivation, Australia, Brazil and other countries will 
I increase their flocks and herds, the acreage under culti¬ 
vation in the States will be made more productive and 
various measures will he taken hy men individually all 
over the globe which collectivelv^ will have the effect of 
increasing supplies and preventing rises in price from 
time to time being too acute. But notwithstanding all 
this, the needs of a fresh number of five million people 
annually will tell faster than these means can he brought 
to bear, and other means wall have to be had recourse to 
to make up the deficiency : and the tropics must he drawn 
upon more largely yearly. 
That the tropics can turn out enormous supplies of 
foodstuffs there is no question. To take one instance, 
such an advance in the whole sale price of tapioca as 
would hardly be noticed by the consumer would cause 
tens of thousands of acres to he put under this cultiva¬ 
tion in Malaya alone. It may be said that people in 
Europe would not take to tapioca as a direct article of 
food on so large a scale as this would imply, but it is not 
in this manner that things work; tropical products are a 
good deal used as substitutes, if not exactly as adulter¬ 
ants, for a dozen different purposes and if the demand 
