244 
THE BEITISH NOETH BOENEO HEEALD. 
[Aug: 1, 1892. 
ments for an advance of fifteen dollars per man 
wfiere formerly, under the sway of the brokers, 
the average advance in which the planters were 
mulcted, amounted to and ST5 per coolie, 
and in some instances even higher. This fact 
alone coupled with the very inferior physique of 
the. coolies supplied for the money, was, as was 
natural, the most serious drawback to encounter, 
and the result could not but be that planters 
were from the start very heavily handicapped. 
Then again the Mackus^ley tariff could not 
have come upon us at a worse time. It in 
fact completely spoiled the market of 1890. 
In spite of the tariff however Americans will 
smoke, and they musl have the delicate wrapper 
tobacco which so far has only proved capable of 
being grown in Sumatra and Is'orth Borneo. 
While the result of the markets of 1892 for the 
Borneo tobacco of 1891 has yet to be ascertained, 
we are advised on all hands that there is a 
large demand, the American buyers are , again in 
the market, and first class tobacco has so far this 
year commanded high prices. In our opinion 
this is not the time, nor will it ever be the time, 
to raise the cry that tobacco planting is a failure in 
North Borneo. On the contrary, as wo stated in our 
last issue, what is required is unremitting atten¬ 
tion from first to last on the part of Managers 
and their assistants, until the bales of tobacco 
are packed, and shipped to Europe. If this is 
to be the rule then we consider success as 
assured, and the tobacco industry will continue 
to flourish as an important and unquestionably 
legitimate industry of the Country in spite of 
the occasional waves of depression to which 
without exception all countries and colonies are 
as equally liable as North Borneo, While how¬ 
ever we must emphatically deprecate the idea 
that tobacco in Borneo has been tried in the 
balance and found wanting; we at the same time 
most cordially admit that there are many other 
products which can, and doubtless will be grown 
in the future with every chance of profit and 
success. We must not forget that one product 
at least has been steadily grown in the country, 
certainly on an exceedingly small scale, from a 
time antecedent to the advent of tobacco. 
Liberian Coffee was one the first experiments 
made in Silam, and during the time Mr. E. G. 
Callaghan the present Eesident of Labuan, pre¬ 
sided oveL* the district of Darvel Bay Silam 
Coffee was sold and eagerly bought in the 
Sandakan Markets. Mr. Christian’s Coffee 
estate also at Kudat though also on a small scale 
thoroughly proved the fact that Liberian Coffee 
can grow and flourish luxuriantly in this coun¬ 
try, Coffee estates are now' being opened up in 
both Sandakan and Marudu Bays and w'e have 
every confidence in their success in the future. 
Liberian Coffee is just now attracting consider¬ 
able attention in more quarters of the globe than 
North Borneo. It is being tried in Perak with 
every chance of developing into a leading in¬ 
dustry, and its initiation in New Guinea is 
chronicled in a note in another column of this 
issue. It apparently has taken first place 
airiong Java products, and from what we can 
learn its value is becoming more understood and 
appreciated in all the colonies of the tropical 
East. We consider we may safely prophecy that 
tobacco and Liberian Coffee will rank as the 
leading indu;|lries of this country, although 
there are many others such as pepper, gambieiv 
hemp, and others hitherto untried, which 
we hope soon to see take their proper place 
among our exports. In our opinion all that is 
necessary is that they should be intelligently 
and carefully undertaken, and carried on as 
economically as possible until their success is 
fully assured. Had this theory been carried 
out strictly in the case of all our tobacco coin- 
panies, we should have now been in the position 
of being enabled to vigorously prosecute our suc¬ 
cesses, and of having no time for discussing hard 
times, or regretting that affairs were looking dull. 
A Visit 
By invitation of Mr. and Mrs. Pryer I paid a visit to 
the River Byte on the 23rd and 24th. It took j ust 
two hours in a launch from Sandakan jetty to the_ 
jetty on the Byte, a structure of some 200 yards in 
length leading through mangrove, lightly but well built 
and planked the whole way. Mr. and Mrs. Pryer were 
staying at the Managers house, a cool and commodious 
hut unpretentious building standing on a fair sized hill 
commanding a view of Bahalla, Buli Sim Sim and the 
three Sisters towards the South East. An ample' kedei 
kept by Ah Cliee of Sandakan supplies most wants, two 
or three native houses flank the path to the house which 
already runs between gardens of Indian' corn and 
tapioca, well grown up, with cocoanut and cotton, papaiag 
and pisang, trying to catch up the others in height. 
There are some five or six clearings made between the 
Byte and Western Jarvis (Sungei Manila) varying in size^, 
from ten to a hundred acres, portions of which had been 
burnt, and no inconsiderable quantity was under cultiva¬ 
tion. Sulus were busy holeing and planting coffee in the 
clearing round the house: a field of some 90 acres was being 
got ready for ])addy by Sulus who have tlie land rent-free 
for 2 years on condition of handing it over fully cleared 
and planted-up at the end of that time: Malays were 
felling more jungle: Chinese squatters were making 
gardens or rather, were tending their gardens already 
made, for the production and sale of fruit, vegetables, 
pigs and poultry to the mixed races in the neighbourhood: 
while at Sungei Manila some Manilamen with their 
, wives and children could even now gaze on many 
thousands of Manila hemp trees. Interspersed with 
