British Borneo

in rivalry to Sumatra, and my readers may judge of the importance of this question from a glance at the following figures,

idends

The Tabak Maatschappi.

nt. 25 per cen

01 " 5

7 " 60

7 " 100

8 " ...

hinese Company, the China-Sabah Land Farming Company, who, on hurriedly selected land in Sandakan and under the disadvantages which usually attend pioneers in a new country, shipped a crop to England which was pronounced by experts in 1886 to equal in quality the best Sumatra-grown leaf. Unfortunately, this Company, which had wasted its resources on various experiments, instead of confining itself to tobacco planting, was unable to continue its operations, but a Dutch planter from Java, Count Geloes d'Elsloo, having carefully selected his land in Marudu Bay, obtained, in 1887, the high average of $1 per lb. for his trial crop at Amsterdam, and, having formed an influential Company

t owing to its much smaller rainfall, the tobacco it produces commands nothing like the prices fetched by that of the former. The seasons and rainfall in Borneo are found to be very similar to those of Sum

ons to the hills in the interior, but mentions it as probable that freezing point is occasionally reached near the top of the Kinabalu Mountains, which is 13,700 feet high; he adds that the lowest recorded temperature he has found is 36.5, given by Sir Spencer St. John in his "Life in the Forests of the Far East." Snow has never been reported even on Kinabalu, and I am informed that the Charles Louis Mountains in Dutch New Guinea, are the only ones in tropical Asia where the limit of perpetual snow is attained. I must stop to say a word in praise of Kinabal

ted up at evening by the last rays of

country becomes opened up by roads many suitable sites for sanitoria will be discovered, and the day w

December and January. But though the two seasons are sufficiently well defined and to be depended upon by planters, yet there is never a month during the dry season when no rain falls, nor in t

from the sea, so that no salt breezes may jeopardise the proper burning qualities of the future crop, and as devoid as possible of hills. Then, a point of primary importance which will be again referred to, engage your Chinese coolies, who have to sign agreements for

be employed on felling the forest, and for this purpose, indeed, the Malay is more suitable and the work is accordingly given him to do under contract. Simultaneously with th

er are planted and protected from rain and sun by palm leaf mats (kajangs) raised on sticks. In about a week, the young plants appear, and the Chinese tenant, as I may call him, has to carefully water them morning and evening. As the young seedlings grow up, their enemy, the worms and grubs, find them out and attack them in such numbers that at least once a day, sometimes oftener, the anxious planter has to go through his nursery and pick them off, otherwise in a short time he would have no tobacco to plant out. About thirty days after the seed has been sown, the seedlings are old enough to be planted out in the field, which has been all the time carefully prepared for their reception. The first thing to be done is to make holes in the soil, at distances of two feet one way and three feet

he soil is poor, perhaps only fourteen leaves will be allowed, while on the richest land the plant can stand and properly ripen as many as twenty-four leaves. The signs of ripening, which g

to the drying sheds. There they are examined by the overseer of his division, who credits him with the value, based on the quantity and quality of the crop he brin

ng lowered down, are stripped of their leaves, which are tied up

fully sorted according to colour, spottiness and freedom from injury of any kind. The price realized in Europe is greatly affected by the care with which the leaves have been fermented and sorted. Spottiness is not always considered a defect, as it is caused by the sun shining on the leaves when they have drops of rain on them, and to this the best leaves are liable; but spotted leaves, broken leaves and in short leaves having the same character

ney, $4 or $3 a month. At the end of the season their accounts are made up, being debited with the amount of the original advance, subsistence money and cost of implements, and credited with the value of the tobacco brought in and any wages that may be due for outside work. Each estate possesses a ho

e, and it is one of the duties of the Chinese "tindals," or overseers acting u

on the value of the crop it produces. His work is onerous and, during the season, he has little time to himself, but should be here, there, and everywhere in his division, seeing that the coolies come out to work at the stated times, that no field is allowed to get in a backward state, and that worms are carefully removed, and, as a large propo

ial qualifications for a good tobacco cooly, and, so far, they have only been found united

f procuring his coolies direct from China, instead of by the old fashioned, roundabout way of the extortionate labour-brokers of the Straits Settlements. North Borneo, it will be remembered, is situated midway between Hongkong and Singapore, and the Court of Directors of the Governing Company could do nothing better calculated to ensure the success of the

expiration of their term of agreement, receiving a fresh advance, and some of t

ooked after by Government Officials, who act under the provisions of a law

it is manifestly the planters' interest to treat his employés well, and to provide, so far as possible, for their health and comfort on the estate, but, notwithstanding all the care that may be taken, a considerable amount of sickness

es in April or May. The Native Dusun, Sulu and Brunai labour is available for jungle-felling and house

. * * * There seems every reason to conclude that it will do as well here as in Sumatra. When this fact becomes known, I presume there will be quite

en verified, and the rus

y and Banguey Island in the North, Labuk Bay and Darvel Bay in the neig

sued an order that in future no planting land is to be disposed of for a less sum than $1[21] per acre, free of qu

be imposed before the 1st January, 1892, after which date it will be optional with them to levy an export royalty at the rate

s a good colour and will burn well and evenly, with a fine white ash. This quality of leaf commands a much higher price than ordinary kinds, and, as stated, Count Geloes'trial c

r years past, supplying the population of Brunai and surrounding districts with a sun-dried article, which used to be preferred to that produce

panish, who settled in the Philippines in 1565. Its use has become universal with men, women and children, of

have acquired the patent for Borneo of Death's fibre-cleaning machines, and are experimenting with these products on a considerable scale and, apparently, with good prospects of success.[22] For a long time past, beautiful cloths

ocoa, cinnamon and Liberian coffee have been found to do remarka

tno

ells me 600,000 acres

erivation of this app

in 1890 to

d success has not b