| Straits Setts. proper Labuan . Christmas I. . Cocos Is. . | 359,760 | 261,154 4,430 46 669 | 52,579 | 24 ,4 7 4 116 32 50 Economic conditions: Agriculture, etc In many respects the colony actually benefited from the World War: there was, for instance, an increase in the gross value of trade from £63,600,000 in 1914 to £148,200,000 sterling in 1917. The more serious economic problems were not all results of the war. For example, it was about 1909-10 that a remarkable development of agricultural activity set in, especially in Malacca and Province Wellesley. This took the direction mainly of rubber planting, which led to the neglect of fruit cultivation and other forms of native agriculture; and this tendency has persisted. It has been asserted, indeed, that the rubber industry has been overexploited here: the people ceased in great measure to cultivate their own food crops and raise their own live stock, and became dependent on imported food stuffs. In 1917 rice was imported from Rangoon, Siam, and French Indo-China; wheat flour from Australia and India; cold storage foodstuffs from Australia, and other foodstuffs from China. Difficulties connected with shortage of supplies and shipping made it necessary to set up food control in 1917. An enquiry was instituted into measures for increasing home produce of rice and other foods, and " cultivation clauses " were inserted into leases of newly alienated lands. In 1918 the United States restricted imports of rubber, with a consequent reaction upon the Straits Settlements industry. This could not, however, immediately affect food cultivations, and in that year shortage in India, floods in Siam, and the demand for imported rice in Java and Nationalities Japan caused serious conditions in the Straits Settlements. Siam prohibited export of rice in July 1919: the Straits Settlements controller took entire charge of import and wholesale dealing, and a food production department was established which fostered home planting, and in spite of many difficulties it was found possible, early in 1920, to ensure supplies for several months. The Governments of the Straits Settlements, Netherlands India, and Ceylon agreed in 1919 to purchase through a single agent to avoid competition. The cultivation and yield of coco-nuts declined in and after 1917, and the destruction of palms to make room for rubber had advanced so far in Singapore and Province Wellesley that an enactment was directed against it. Copra prices, however, rose in 1919. The clove, nutmeg, gambier, and areca nut industries of Penang shared in the general decline of cultivations which had become subsidiary to that of rubber. The pineapple cultivation was affected by the difficulty of obtaining tin plate for the canning industry. As for live stock (of which mention has been made above) a report for 1917 showed that whereas in 1910 Malacca exported 12,000 pigs, in the later year that number was imported, and that the former large export of poultry from Penang was more than balanced by import. Forestry.-Measures have been taken to amalgamate the forest. services of the Straits Settlements and the Federated Malay States, the first step being taken in 1918, when the forests of Malacca were placed under the deputy conservator of forests for Negri Sembilan. The area of reserved forests in 1920 was 107,270 ac., about II % of lands in the colony. The mangrove industry has been fostered by imposing a control over cutting, and by replanting, over 2,000,000 seedlings having been planted in Penang and the Dindings in 1919. | Imports (piculs) | From | Tin | Tin Ore | Rubber | Malay States. .. . Netherlands India . Siam. .. . Other countries | 133,000 38,000 6,000 2,000 | 686,000 113,000 207,000 , 3,000 | 1,412,000 456,000 - 79,000 | | Exports 1 | To | Pic°is | Value | Rubber , | Value | United Kingdom . United States . Elsewhere. . | 324,000 454,000 219,000 | $41,347,000 $59,928,000 $ 2 7,445, 000 | 406,000 2,310,000 2 54, 000 | $ 44,088,000 $230,511,000 $ 24,227,000 | Tin.-War conditions reacted favourably upon the tin trade. In July 1918 the price reached $160 per picul, and subsequently $185 when buying was prohibited except under licence. But after the Armistice the price, already declining, was further lowered when M the Imperial Government ceased to buy direct, and the Federated alay States had to guarantee purchase at $118 per picul. Commerce.-Imports were valued at £43,856,000 sterling in 1914, and exports at £ 38,032,000. Both rose annually thereafter almost without exception, until in 1919 the figures were: imports, £96,664,- 000; exports, £99,318,000. The entrepot trade in tin and Path rubber is illustrated by the following figures for 1919 Shipping.-The total tonnage of shipping entered and cleared for the year 1919 is shown as follows: Singapore 14,088,775; Penang, 4,009,126; Malacca, 564,400; Christmas I. and Labuan, 222,882. The principal flags were British (nearly five-ninths of the whole), Japanese, and Dutch, and the total increase over the year 4918 was 5,820,913, nearly four-fifths of which was in British shipping. The total of 18,885,183 tons thus compares with 13,064,270 tons for 1918 when the shortage of shipping was most acute, and with 27,124,789 tons in 1913. | | | | No. of | Net | Inbound and Outbound | | | | Vessels | Tonnage | Coal, tons Cargo,tons | Singapore | 1913 1918 | . | 2+708 2,114 | 5+794+ 53 6 3+33 0 + 79 1 | 1 ,33 8 +495 732,231 | 1,462,788 I,213,730 | Penang | J 1913 1 1918 | | 732 513 | 1,532,361 581,132 | 282,067 60,029 | 399,412 251,183 Work on the Lagoon wet dock and main wharf reconstruction, Tanjong Pagar, was completed and made over to the Singapore Harbour Board in May 1917. The revenue and expenditure of the Board, which reached $6,015,648 and $4,216,015 respectively in 1912, declined to $5,432,425 and $3,421,271 in 1915, and amounted to $9,617,718 and $5+444+410 in 1918. Penang wharf and dock receipts amounted in 1919 to $996,372 (approximately), and expenditure to $815,092. The wharf tonnage returns for Singapore and Penang show the following figures: Land Communications.-The Singapore Railway Transfer Ordinance, 1918, enabled the Government of the Federated Malay States to construct a causeway across Johor Straits and to lay a railway to connect the Singapore line with the Johor and Federated Malay States systems. The sale of the Singapore Railway and railway stores involved a sum of $4,149,750. Metalled roads in the colony at the end of 1919 had a length of 584 m. (Singapore, 96 m.; Penang and the Dindings, 86 m.; Province Wellesley, 166 m.; Malacca, 231 m.; Labuan, 5 m.); and the Public Works Department had charge, in addition, of 50 m. of gravelled roads in Malacca, and 93 m. of " natural " roads in Penang, the Dindings, and Prov. Wellesley. Education.-The centenary of the modern foundation of Singapore by Sir Stamford Raffles was the occasion of local celebrations in Feb. 1919, and by way of commemoration it was decided to found a Raffles College for higher education. Evidence of the general enthusiasm for this scheme was given by the prompt provision of subscriptions which ensured its success and enabled plans to be laid forthwith. The Straits Settlements Government promised a donation of $1,000,000 and an annual contribution of $50,000: the Governments of the Federated Malay States and Johor, and many private individuals, contributed. There have been other signs of a demand for a more active education policy; it being especially desirable as a counter measure against undesirable propaganda. The Government maintained in 1919 eight English schools, and aided 45 English, Anglo-Tamil, Malay, Tamil, and Chinese schools: it also supported the Malacca Training College for Malay teachers. The Central Training College in Perak, the erection of which was started in that year, is intended for Malay teachers not only in the Federated Malay States but also in the Straits Settlements. Labuan.-Revenue collected in Labuan in 1919 amounted to $38,308, and expenditure was $81,927. The total value of trade was $3,748,930 in that year, and $2,763,561 in 1918. Merchant shipping entered and cleared amounted to 141,686 tons in 1919. The Labuan Exploration Co. of London undertook a geological survey in 1920 with the view of prospecting for minerals. Christmas Island.-Revenue (1919), $26,155; expenditure, $12,791. The export of phosphate of lime, which reached 89,889 tons in 1917, showing a large increase, fell to 53,370 tons in 1918 and amounted to 68,621 tons in 1919. The export was taken in 1919 by Japan (71%) and Australia. Shipping entered and cleared amounted to 81,197 tons (61% Japanese). There is a small export of rubber. The phosphate company maintained its output during the war, completed an inclined haulage way, and carried the railway to new quarries at South Point in 1918-9. Cocos Islands.-A typhoon in 1909 left standing only 3% out of over 1,000,000 coco-nut palms, but replanting was completed in 1911, and export of copra was resumed two years later and reached Boo tons in 1918. An exchange cable station of the Eastern Extension Telegraph Co. and a high-power wireless station are established on Direction Island. The German raider " Emden " landed a party to destroy these on Nov. 9 1914, and was caught and herself destroyed by the " Sydney " of the Australian navy, running ashore on North Keeling Island, while her landing-party captured and escaped in the schooner belonging to the proprietor of the islands. The governor of the Straits Settlements is high commissioner for the Malay States, Federated and Non-Federated (see Malay States), and also for Brunei, and British agent for Sarawak and British North Borneo. These three divisions of northern Borneo are dealt with below. Brunei (see 4.681).-Pop. (1911), 21,718. Revenue (1919), $162,020; expenditure, $138,844. Imports were valued in 1916 at $ 2 54,75 6, and $614,061 in 1919; exports at $734,254 in 1 16 and $1,134,864 in 1919, including plantation rubber ($243,596), cutch ($3 0 4, 2 49), and coal ($296,621). The demand for sago, wild rubber (jelutong) and other forest produce, and dried fish, was great, and purchase prices ceased to be controlled by a group of traders as previously, which enabled the peasantry to profit to the extent of balancing the high prices of rice and other foodstuffs. Attempts were made to increase home production. The rice crop of 1918-9 failed, but the effort was maintained and rewarded in the following season. Plantation rubber (429,823 lb.) came mainly from the Brunei district, which has become the chief centre of the industry, in place of the Temburong basin. The cutch industry was suffering from the former indiscriminate cutting of mangroves in accessible districts where no replanting had been done, and the production was only maintained at the expense of heavier labour and transport. The Brooketon collieries yielded 29,565 tons of coal in 1918 and 26,274 tons in 1919. Attempts to develop a petroleum field at Tutong at this period were unsuccessful, though it was still expected that later there would be good results. Plantations and mines were encountering a serious shortage of labour, owing to the prosperity of the native traffic in forest produce, etc., above referred to. Sarawak (see 24.207).-Pop. (estimated 1919), 600,000. Revenue (1918), $1,921,964; expenditure, $1,455,692. Imports, $9,908,132; exports, $11,540,190. Gold was exported to the value of $1,256,500 in 1915 and $923,100 in 1918. An extensive oil-field has been developed in Baram district, and 74,400 tons of oil were exported in 1918. Other principal exports include sago, pepper, and jelutong. There are four wireless stations, affording communication with Singapore. Charles Vyner Brooke (b. 1874) succeeded his father, Sir Charles Johnson Brooke, as rajah on May 17 1917. British North Borneo (see 4.262).-Pop. (1911), 208,183; (estimated 1919), 227,000. The revenue of the British North Borneo Chartered Company (exclusive of land sales) has shown unbroken increase since 1910, from £170,767 in that year to £234,804 in 1914 and f373,936 in 1919; expenditure for 1919 amounted to £193,230. Imports were valued in 1919 at £925,235, and exports at £1,453,990, including rubber (£782,037), tobacco (mostly grown on estates; £ 230,122), coal (£78,706), copra (f39,629), cutch £24,651), sago, and dried fish. The company's railway from Jesselton extends to Melalap in the interior, and has a branch from Beaufort to Weston, and a total length of 130 miles. There are four wireless stations. A Legislative Council was established in 1911 to aid the governor and civil staff in the local administration: the commercial, planting, Chinese, and native communities are represented on it. The company created an opium monopoly department in 1913, following the policy of the Straits Settlements Government. (0. J. R. H.)
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These files are public domain. Bibliography Information
Chisholm, Hugh, General Editor. Entry for 'Straits Settlements and Dependencies'. 1911 Encyclopedia Britanica. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/bri/s/straits-settlements-and-dependencies.html. 1910.
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