Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1899 American Edition.djvu/451

 BORNEO 111 Most of the trade is carried on through Singapore with Great Britain and the colonies. The chief products are timber, sago, rice, gums, coffee, pepper, gambier, gutta-percha, tapioca, sweet potatoes, and tobacco, which IS being planted on a large scale. Coal and gold have been found. The exports comprise mostly jungle and sea produce, wax, birds'-nests (edible), coco-nuts, gutta-percha, sago, tobacco, rattans, india-rubber, seed pearls, beche-de-mer, &c. A flourishing timber trade is stated to have been opened with China. Exports of leaf tobacco, 1896, 1,372,277 dollars ; 1897, 1,686,173 dollars. Shipping entered, 1897, 95,300 tons; cleared, 94,168 tons, nearly all British. The Government issues its own copper coinage (cents and half-cents) ; also notes of one, five, ten, and twenty-five dollars to the extent of 100,000 dollars, and have also arranged to issue notes of the value of 10, 25, and 50 cents. Accounts are kept in dollar currency. Borneo is now connected by cable with the outer world by a branch of the cable between Labuan and Singapore. A telegraph line has been constructed from Menumbok, where the cable reaches land, to Sandakan. A railway is in course of construction from Bninei Bay into the interior. Native military force of 350 men under European oflicers, with one machine and two mountain guns. There are two Missions, one Protestant and the other Roman Catholic ; and the Protestant community has a church and school at Sandakan, with a branch at Kudat. Brunei and Sarawak. — In 1888 the neighbouring territories on the north-west coast of Borneo, Brunei and Sarawak, were placed under British protection. The area of Brunei, which is under a Sultan, is about 3,000 square miles, and its products are of the same character as those of British North Borneo. Sarawak has an area of about 50,000 square miles, with a coast line of ^bout 400 miles. The government of part of the present territory was obtained in 1842 by Sir James Brooke from the Sultan of Brunei. Various accessions were made between 1861 and 1885, and the Limbang River district was annexed in 1890. The Rajah, H.H. Sir Charles Johnson Brooke, nephew of the late Rajah, born June 3, 1829, succeeded in 1868. The popu- lation is about 300,000, consisting of native races, Malays, Dyaks, Kayans, and Muruts, with Chinese and other settlers. The chief towns are the capital, Kuching, about 23 miles inland, on the Sarawak River, and Sibu, 90 miles up the Rejang River, which is navigable by large steamers. Timber trade is carried on from the river mouth with Hong Kong. Brooketon is a settle- ment in the coal district opposite Labuan. At Kuching are Church of England and Catholic missions with schools. The revenue for 1896 was 508,771 dollars, and expenditure 565,796 dollars. The revenue is derived chiefly from the opium, gambling, arrack and pawn farms, exemption tax payable by Malays, and Irom Dyak revenue. There are import duties on tobacco, salt, kerosine oil, wines (duty imposed July 1894), and spirits ; export duties on sago, gambier, pepper, all jungle produce, dried fish, kc. The produce in general resembles that of North Borneo. Coal exists in large quantities, as well as gold, silver, diamonds, antimony, and quicksilver. Coal exported in 1896, 22,870 tons, valued at 114,347 dollars. In 1896 the im- ports amounted to 3,701,394 dollars (including 1,427,235 dollars, coasting trade) ; and the exports, 3,557,868 dollars (including 1,132,303 dollars, coast- ing trade). There are military and police forces, the former with 250 men. British Consul at Bntnci. — A. L. Keyser.