State of North Borneo

BORNEO, STATE OF NORTH (a British-Protected State administered by the British North Borneo Company, which was incorporated by Royal Charter in .

The area is 31,106 sq.m., with a coast-line of over 90o miles. The interior consists almost entirely of highlands with here and there open valleys and plateaux 5o to 6o sq.m. in extent. On the west coast the mountain range runs parallel with the seashore at a distance from it of about 3o miles. Of this range the central feature is the mountain of Kinabalu (13455 ft.), one of the finest in the Far East. Mt. Madalon, some 15 or 20 M. to the north is 5,000 ft. in height, and inland across the valley of the Pagalan river, which runs through the Tembunan country and falls into the Padas, rises the peak of Trus Madi, estimated by some to be Ii,000 ft. and by others not more than 8,000 ft. above sea-level. The valley of the Pagalan is itself for the most part from i,000 to 2,000 ft. above the sea, forming a string of small plateaux marking the sites of former lakes. From the base of Trus Madi to the eastern coast the country consists of huddled hills broken here and there by mountainous regions. The princi pal plateaux are in the Tembunan and Keningau valleys, in the basin of the Pagalan, and the Ranau plain to the eastward of the base of Kinabalu. Similar plateaux of minor importance are dotted about the interior. The mountains make the rivers of the north-west coast, with the single exception of the Padas, rapid, boulder-obstructed, shallow streams of little value as means of communication for a distance of more than 6 m. from their mouths. The Padas is navigable for light-draught steam launches and native boats for a distance of nearly 6o m. from its mouth, and smaller craft can be punted up as far as Rayoh, some 12 m. farther, but at this point are met impassable falls and rapids. Even below Rayoh navigation is rendered difficult and occasionally dangerous by similar obstructions. None of the other rivers of the north-west coast of North Borneo is of great importance as a , means of communication. The Tempasuk is noted for the Kalupis waterfall (1,50o ft.), one of the highest in the world, though the volume of water is not great. At the northern extremity of the island Marudi bay receives the waters of the Bengkoka, Bongon and Marudi Rivers, of which the first is the most important, though it is navigable by small boats only. On the east coast the principal rivers are the Sugut, which rises in the hills to the east of Kinabalu; the Labuk, which has its sources 7o m. inland and debouches into Labuk bay; and the Kinabatangan, the largest and most important river in the terri tory, which rises eastward of the range of which Trus Madi is the principal feature, and is navigable by steam launches draw ing up to six feet as far as the mouth of the Lokan tributary, some 120 miles from the sea, and for smaller launches as far as Tangkulap. Some valuable tobacco land which, however, is some what liable to flood, and some remarkable burial caves are found in the valley of the Kinabatangan. The remaining rivers of the east coast are the Segamah, which rises west of Darvel bay, the Kumpong, and the Kalabakang, which debouches into Cowie Harbour. North Borneo has several natural harbours which are accessible, safe and commodious. Sandakan harbour on the north east coast (50° 4o' N., I18° io' E.), runs inland for some 17 m. with a very irregular outline broken by the mouths of numerous creeks and streams. The mouth, only 2 m. across, is split into two channels by the little, high, bluff-like island of Berhala. The depth in the main entrance varies from io to 17 fathoms, and vessels drawing 20 ft. can advance half-way up the bay. The principal town in the territory, and the seat of government (though some of the Government departments are located at Jesselton on the west coast), is Sandakan, situated just inside Sandakan bay. At Silam, on Darvel bay, there is good anchorage; and Kudat in Marudi bay, first surveyed by Com. Johnstone of H.M.S. "Egeria" in 1881, is a small but useful harbour.

Climate.—North Borneo has an equatorial climate with heavy rains in the last three months of the year during the north east monsoon. The dryest month is April with about 4 in. of rain. The mean annual range of temperature is about 3°, but tempera tures ranging from 64 to 91 degrees have been recorded on the coast, and'in the hills temperatures may be lower. The total rain fall varies between 6o and 18o in. according to locality; severe droughts are rare. The climate is somewhat enervating for Euro peans as is the case in most equatorial regions.

Population.

The population at the 1931 census was 270,223, nearly two-thirds living in the west coast and interior residences. The west coast is peopled by Dusuns, Bajaus, Brunei Malays, Besayas, Kedayans, Tagels and Illanuns. The east coast is sparsely populated by Bajaus and settlers from the neighbouring Sulu archipelago. The interior is dotted with infrequent villages of Dusuns or Muruts (see BORNEO: Ethnology).

Settlements and Communication.—There are a number of small stations along the coast, of which Sandakan, with a popula tion of about 12,000, is the most important. The remainder which call for separate mention are Laha Datu and Tawau on the east coast ; Kudat on Marudi bay ; and Jesselton on Gaya bay on the west coast. Beaufort and Tenom are important interior stations. The State Railway, 125 miles long, runs along the west coast from Jesselton to Beaufort, where it bifurcates, one branch going to Weston on Brunei bay, the other along the banks of the Padas to Tenom above the rapids. Originally built as a pioneer line it since has been reconstructed. After 1918 an extension scheme for opening up North Borneo by means of roads was introduced, a metalled road connecting Jesselton with Tuaran, 20 miles to the north was begun in 1921 and completed in 1924: and work also proceeded on a road from Sandakan in a northwesterly direction towards the Lobuk district. In 1928 a more comprehensive scheme was initiated. Telegraphic communication is maintained by a series of wireless stations, and there are direct radio services with Hongkong, Sarawak and the Philippine Islands. The only re maining land telegraphic line is on the West Coast which connects with the Eastern Telegraph Company's cable station at Labuan.

Products and Trade.—Coal of good quality has been worked for a number of years in the neighbourhood of Cowie harbour. Gold has been found in alluvial deposits of east coast rivers. Traces of mineral oil, iron ores, copper, zinc and antimony have been found, but the wealth of North Borneo lies mainly in its agricultural and jungle produce. Like the rest of the island it possesses a great profusion of excellent timber. In 1920 a modern band sawmill was established in Sandakan, the value of timber exported has more than doubled in the last decade. Cutch, a tanning extract made from the bark of certain mangrove trees damar, edible bird's-nests, rattans, gutta, camphor, etc. are all valuable articles of export. The principal cultivated produce is rubber, tobacco, copra and sago. The area under rubber in creased from 3.00o acres in 1907 to 109,00o acres in 1929, and over 7,000 tons of rubber, valued at £590,000 were exported in 1929. Between 1886 and 1900 the value of the tobacco crop in creased from f471 to £200,000, but the industry has in recent years experienced serious reverses which have brought it to the verge of extinction. Other important exports are dried and salt fish, live stock, hides and seed pearls. The exports of British , North Borneo included, in 1928, tobacco worth £116,662, Estate rubber worth f592,074 and timber worth f247,268. Tobacco and other exports were far lower than those of 1927 but those of timber were higher. The total values for 1928 were imports, in cluding transhipments A,186,262, Exports £1,523,057. As is common throughout Malayan lands, the trade of North Borneo is largely in the hands of Chinese shopkeepers.

Administration.—For administrative purposes the Territory is divided into four Residencies known respectively as the Sanda kan and Kudat, West Coast, Interior and Tawau Residencies. These are again sub-divided into districts, each controlled by a District Officer or an Assistant District Officer. The form of government is modelled roughly upon the system adopted in the Malay States of the peninsula during the early days of their administration by British residents. The government is vested primarily in the Court of Directors in London by whom the policy of the Company is directed. The supreme authority on the spot is represented by the Governor appointed with the approval of the Secretary of State for the Colonies and responsible to the Court. The principal departments, whose chiefs reside at the capital or at Jesselton are the Treasury, Customs and Excise, Land and Survey, Public Works, Constabulary, Protectorate, Medical and Judicial. The Secretariat is under the charge of a Government Secretary who ranks next in precedence to the Governor. Legislation is by Ordinance enacted by the Governor, but there is a Legislative Council meeting at irregular intervals, upon which the principal heads of departments and five un official members have seats. The public service is recruited by nomination by the Court of Directors. The Governor is the President of the High Court, but there is a Chief Justice who, sitting alone, may constitute the High Court in certain cases e.g. the original criminal or civil jurisdiction of the Court. The laws are the Indian Penal and Civil Procedure Codes and other adopted Indian Acts, supplemented by numerous local Ordinances. The native courts deal with all actions arising out of the breach of native law and custom where both parties are Asiatics. The native chiefs are responsible for the preservation of law and order and have restricted judicial powers. The con stabulary numbers some 56o men and consists of a mixed force of Sikhs, Mohammedans and natives officered by a few Europeans. There is a Protestant mission which supports a church—the only stone building in the territory—and a school at Sandakan, with branches at Jesselton, Kudat, Keningau and Tambunan. The Roman Catholic mission maintains an orphanage, a church and school at Sandakan, and has missions among the Dusuns at sev eral points on the west coast and in the Tembunan country. Its headquarters are at Kuching in Sarawak. The Chinese have their joss-houses and the Mohammedans a few small mosques, but the vast majority are pagans without religious buildings.

Finance and Money.

The principal headings of revenue are Excise, Customs, Land Revenue, Forest Revenue, Railway, Re ceipts, Local Rates, Posts and Telegraphs and Harbour Fees. The people of the country are by no means heavily taxed, a large number of the natives of the interior escaping all payment of dues to the company, the revenue being for the most part con tributed by the inhabitants of the more settled districts of the territory. Revenue in 1929 was £449,000 as compared with £334,000 in 1919 and £236,000 in 1909, expenditure in the same years being £263,000, £179,000 and £88,000. Imports in 1928 were £995,400 and in 1929 £964,34o, exports being respectively L1,332,207 and L1,362,738. Banking facilities are provided by the State Bank at Sandakan which has a branch office at Jesselton. The State is in the postal union, and money orders on North Borneo are issued in Great Britain and in most British dominions and vice versa. The unit of currency is the Singapore dollar (value 2/4) the Company issuing its own coinage; there are also Treasury notes for both dollars and cents issued by the company for use within the territory only. The principal medium of ex change among the natives in the interior is the large earthenware jars, imported originally, it is believed, from China,which form the chief wealth of tribes and individuals. (See BORNEO.) (C. H., X.) History. The British connection with northern and north western Borneo, broken off iit 1775, was not resumed till Labuan (q.v.) was occupied by the British as a Crown Colony in 1848, and in 1872 the Labuan Trading Company was established in Sandakan, the fine harbour on the northern coast which later became the capital of the British North Borneo Company's terri tory. In 1877 and 1878, through the instrumentality of Mr. (afterwards Sir) Alfred Dent, the Sultans of Brunei and Sulu were induced to transfer to a syndicate, formed by Baron Over beck and Mr. Dent, all their rights in North Borneo, of which they had been from time immemorial the overlords. The syndi cate enlisted the support of several prominent public men, includ ing Sir Rutherford Alcock, Admiral of the Fleet the Hon. Sir Harry Keppel, and Richard B. Martin. Early in 1881 the British North Borneo Provisional Association Limited was formed to take over the concessions which had been obtained from the Sul tans pending the grant of a royal charter, for which a petition had already (in December 1878) been presented to Queen Vic toria. The Charter was granted on November 1st, 1881, and subsequently the British North Borneo Company, which was formed in May 1882, took over, in spite of diplomatic protests from the Dutch and Spanish Governments, all the sovereign and territorial rights ceded by the original grants, and proceeded to organize the administration of the territory. The company sub sequently acquired further rights from the Sultan of Brunei and his chiefs in addition to those already obtained at the time of the formation of the company. The Putatan river was ceded in May 1884, the Padas district, including the Padas and Klias rivers, in November of the same year, the Kawang river in February 1885 and the Mantanani islands in April 1885. In 1888, by an agreement between the British Government and the com pany, the "State of North Borneo" was placed under British pro tection, but its administration remained entirely in the hands of the company, the Crown reserving control of its foreign relations. In 1890 the British Government placed the Colony of Labuan under the administration of the company, the governor of the State of North Borneo thereafter holding a royal commission as governor of Labuan in addition to his commission from the com pany. This arrangement held until 1905, when Labuan was re moved from the jurisdiction of the company and attached to the colony of the Straits Settlements. In March 1898 the Sultan of Brunei ceded to the company all his sovereign and territorial rights to the districts situated to the north of the Padas river. These further territorial acquisitions, by which the State was knit into a compact whole, were viewed with considerable dissatisfac tion by many of the natives, and this found expression in frequent acts of violence. The most noted and the most successful of the native leaders was a Bajau named Mat Saleh (Muhammad Saleh) who for several years defied the company. In 1898 a composition was made with him, the terms of which were un fortunately not defined with sufficient clearness, and he retired into the Tembunan country, where for a period he lorded it un checked over the Dusun tribes of the valley. In 1899, because of his acts of aggression and defiance, it was found necessary to ex pel him. A short and successful campaign followed, resulting, on the 31st of January 1900, in the death of Mat Saleh, and the de struction of his defences. Some of his followers who escaped raided the town of Kudat on Marudi bay in April 1900, but caused more panic than damage, and during the next few years the last smouldering embers of rebellion were extinguished. The intro duction of rubber planting under European control and manage ment has stimulated progress, and of late years there has been con siderable immigration of Chinese, but the territory still suffers from an inadequate population. (See BORNEO.) (H. Cl.) BIBLIOGRAPHY.—S. Blommaert, Discours ende ghelegentheyt van het Bibliography.—S. Blommaert, Discours ende ghelegentheyt van het eylandt Borneo int fear 1609; Hachelyke reystogt van Jacob Jansz, de Roy na Borneo en Atchin in het jaar 169r; Beeckman, Visit to Borneo, 1718, in J. Pinkerton's General Collections (1808-14) . See also H. Keppel, Expedition to Borneo of H.M.S. "Dido" (1846) ; R. Mundy, Narrative of Events in Borneo and Celebes (1848) ; F. S. Marryat, Borneo, etc. (1848) ; P. J. Veth, Borneo's Westerafdeeling (Zalt-Bommel, 1854 and 1856) ; S. Muller, Reizen en onderzoekingen in den Indischen Archipel (185 7) ; and Reis in Oost en Zuid-Borneo (The Hague, 1887) ; S. St. John, Life in the Forests of the Far East 2 vols. (1862) ; F. W. Burbridge, The Gardens of the Sun (188o) ; J. Hatton, The New Ceylon, a Sketch of British North Borneo (1882) ; T. Posewitz, Borneo . . . Verbreitung der nutzbaren Mineralien (Ber lin, 1889), Eng. trans., Borneo; its Geology and Mineral Resources (London, 1892) ; J. Whitehead, Exploration of Mount Kina Balu (1893) ; Mrs. W. B. Pryer, A Decade in Borneo (1894) ; H. Ling Roth, The Natives of Sarawak and North Borneo (1896) ; G. A. F. Molengraaf, Geologische Verkinningstochten in Centraal Borneo (Ley den, 190o, Eng. trans., 5902) ; A. W. Niewenhuis, In Centraal Borneo (Leyden, 1901) ; and Quer durch Borneo (Leyden, 5904) etc. ; W. H. Furness, Home Life of Borneo Head-hunters (1902) ; O. Beccari, Nelle Foreste di Borneo (Florence, 1902), Eng. trans., Wanderings in the Great Forests of Borneo (19o4) ; D. Cator, Everyday life amongst the Head-hunters (1905) ; 0. R. Maxwell, Census Report (1921) ; I. H. N. Evans, Among Primitive Peoples in Borneo (1922) ; Owen Rutter, British North Borneo (1922) and The Pagans of North Borneo (1929) ; Charles Bruce (A. B. C. Francis), Twenty years in Borneo (1924) ; Major C. M. Enriquez, Kinabalu: The Haunted Mountain of Borneo (1927) ; Handbook of the State of North Borneo (British North Borneo Company) 1929.

For geology besides the works of Posewitz and Molengraaf already cited, see R. B. Newton in Geol. Mag., 5897, pp. and Proc. Malac. Soc. vol. V. (1902—o3) pp. 403-409.