Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1921.djvu/221

 COMMUNICATIONS— MONEY, WEIGHTS, AND MEASURES 1 GO

including British, 10,081,120 tons; Japanese, 4,102,800 tons; Dutch, 2,348,999 tons. The number of native and small craft entered and cleared was 63,770, with a tonnage of 2,566,091 tons.

Communications.

There is a railway from Singapore to "Woodlands on the Johore Strait*., communication between Woodlands and Johore being maintained by steam ferries. The Federated Malay States Railway extends from Parit Buntar in Krian to Kuala Prai in Province Wellesley, whence are steam ferries to Penang. There is a railway from Malacca to Tampin in the Negri Sembilan. All the railways have a gauge of one metre, and connect with the Federated Malay States Railway system, a continuation of which through Johore was opened in 1909. It is proposed to connect Singapore with the mainland by the construction of a causeway, carrying two lines of railway aud a 20-foot roadway, across the Johore Straits. Th-?re are electric tramway systems in Singapore and Penang. There are cables connecting Singapore, Malacca and Penang, and land lines from Singapore to Kuala Lnmpur and Penang, and from Malacca to Tampin.

In 1919, 13,182,061 letters and other articles of correspondence were posted, and 9,355,950 delivered. The number of letters sent to China in 1918 in clubbed packets was 1.011,228. The parcels posted (1918) numbered 105,347, those delivered 76,561.

From Labuan there are telegraph cables connecting with Hong Kong, Singapore, Sandakan, and the Continent.

Money, Weights, and Measures.

There are thirteen banks with establishments in the Colony. The amount of deposits in the Government Savings Bank on December 31, 1919, was 1,488,261 dollars, equivalent to 173,631/.

The dollar, value 25. id. , is the standard coin of the Colony, and with the half-dollar and the British sovereign is legal tender for the payment of any amount. Subsidiary silver coins are 20, 10, and 5 cent pieces ; copper coins are cents, half-cents, and quarter-cents. On December 31, 1916, Government currency notes to the value of 68,394,140 dollars (7,979,316/.) were in circulation in the Colony and Federated Malay States.

The measure of length in use in the Settlements is the English yard, with its divisions and multiples, and land is measured by the English acre. The native terms are, however, still in use. Commercial weights are : —

1 Kati = 16 Tahil= 1 J lb. avoirdupois. 1 Pikul =100 Kati = 133£ lbs. „

1 Koyan= 40 Pikul=5,333£ „

The kati of 1^ lbs. is known as the Chinese kati. Another weight, known as the Malay kati, and still in partial use in Penang, is equal to the weight of 24 Spanish dollars, or 9,984 grains. This gives 142 628 lbs. as the weight of the pikul, and 5, 705 "143 lbs. as the weight of the koyan. The measures of capacity throughout the Colony are the gantang or gallon, and chupak or quart.

The COCOS or Keeling Islands, a group of about twenty small coral islands, lie about 700 miles S. W. of Sumatra and 1,200 mile3 S.W. of Singapore. The estimated population in 1918 was 832. (Census population, 1911, 749).