Kitabı oku: «A History of Sarawak under Its Two White Rajahs 1839-1908», sayfa 28

The impression of the country which I carry away with me is that of a land full of contentment and prosperity, a land in which neither the native nor the white man has pushed his views of life to the logical conclusion, but where each has been willing to yield to the other something of his extreme convictions. There has been here a tacit understanding on both sides that those qualities which alone can insure the permanence of good government in the State are to be found in the White Man and not in the Native; and the final control remains therefore in European hands, although every opportunity is taken of consulting the natives and of benefiting by their intimate knowledge of the country and its people.

The wise and essential policy of granting the natives through their chiefs a part in the administration of the Government and in its deliberations, and in the selection of these chiefs of regarding the voice of the people, has always been maintained. Sympathy between the ruled and the rulers has been the guiding feature of the Rajah's policy, and this has led to the singular smoothness with which the wheels of the Government run. It must always exist, as it has ever existed, and still exists. That the country belongs to the natives must never be forgotten, and the people on their part will never forget that they owe their independence solely through the single-hearted endeavours of their white Rajahs on their behalf.

"The real strength of the Government," writes the Rajah, "lies in the native element, and depends upon it, though many Europeans may hold different views, especially those with a limited experience of the East. The unbiased native opinion, Malay and Dayak, concerning matters relating to the country is simply invaluable."

All with a true knowledge of natives, to whom his remarks may be said to apply generally, as well as to the Malays, will agree with Sir Frank Swettenham: —

That when you take the Malay, Sultan, Haji, chief, or simple village headman into your confidence, when you consult him on all questions affecting his country, you can carry him with you, secure his keen interest and co-operation, and he will travel quite as fast as is expedient along the path of progress. If, however, he is neglected and ignored, he will resent treatment to which he is not accustomed, and which he is conscious is undeserved. If such a mistake were ever made (and the Malay is not a person who is always asserting himself, airing grievances, and clamouring for rights) it would be found that the administration had gone too fast, had left the Malay behind, left him discontented, perhaps offended, and that would mean trouble and many years of effort to set matters right again.³⁵³

Sir Frank Swettenham pays a high tribute to the Malays of rank of the Malay Peninsula, quite as justly have those of Sarawak earned the same praise. Foremost amongst these latter stood the old Datu Patinggi Ali, the champion of his people's cause, before the deliverer from oppression came in the person of the late Rajah, in whose service he gallantly sacrificed his life. Of a different type was his eldest son, the Datu Bandar Muhammad Lana, whose courage was masked by a gentle and retiring disposition, though it flashed forth on many occasions, notably at the time of the Chinese rebellion. His brother, who succeeded him on his death, the late Datu Bandar Haji Bua Hasan, previously the Datu Imaum, was one of the most trustworthy and faithful chiefs the Government has had. By his long and faithful service of over fifty years he had won the most honoured place amongst those chiefs who so nobly assisted the two Rajahs in their work in laying the foundation of law, order, and civilisation in Sarawak. He was held in esteem and respect by all people, and his dignified and familiar figure is greatly missed. He died on October 6, 1906, over one hundred years of age, another example of longevity of life amongst Malays. As his descendants number exactly one hundred and fifty, the continuity of old Rajah Jarom's line is ensured. Two of his sons, Muhammad Kasim and Muhammad Ali, are now respectively the Datu Bandar and the Datu Hakim. The third son of Datu Patinggi Ali, Haji Muhammad Aim, became the Datu Imaum in 1877. He died in 1898, justly loved by all for his kindly nature and strict probity; no truer or more courteous gentleman could be found.

Of another family and of a very different type was the bluff old Datu Temanggong Mersal, with the reputation of having been a pirate in the bad old days, but who had "a fine spirit of chivalry which made up for a hundred faults."³⁵⁴ He was a stout and staunch servant. Of him the late Rajah, referring to the Datu's Court, humorously wrote: —

The old Temanggong is likewise a judge in Israel, and sometimes he breaks into the Court, upsets the gravity of all present by laying down his law for a quarter of an hour – Krising and hanging, flogging and fining all offenders, past, present or future, and after creating a strong impression vanishes for a month or two.

Absolutely fearless as himself were his sons Abang Pata and Muhammad Hasan. How the former distinguished himself we have already noticed. On the death of his father in 1863 the latter succeeded him as Datu Temanggong. He was a tall, handsome man of a distinct Arab type. Though a good Muhammadan, he was the least bigoted of a broad-minded class, and owing to his liking for their society he was probably the most popular with Europeans of all the datus, and at their club he was a constant and welcome guest. He died on the haj at Mecca in October, 1883.

Other native officials, whose names will ever live in the annals of Sarawak, are some who served in the out-stations, and these have been already noticed. The qualities which distinguished these men, and which brought them to the fore, were grit, sound common-sense and fearlessness, and upon their shoulders fell the hardest task of managing the Sea-Dayaks and other interior tribes, a task fraught with danger and discomfort, and one that gave them little rest, but which they shared with their white leaders faithfully and without a murmur.

Sarawak has been exceptionally fortunate in having been able to draw upon a good class of men capable of supplying the State with servants fitted by intelligence and rank to become native officers. Though, autre temps, autre mœurs, the type is changing, yet the people generally are jealous of their country, and honour its traditions. Contented, they seek no change, and they are ready to uphold their Rajah and to maintain their independence as vigorously now as they have done in the past – an independence which Lord John Russell had many years ago graciously intimated they were at liberty to achieve and maintain as far as it lay in their power; though he declined to hold out a helping hand. These are wholesome and promising indications that good men will always be found worthy to take the places which their forefathers so nobly filled.

Sarawak owes its prosperity, and the people their rights and liberty, to the Brookes, and to the Brookes alone. Equality between high and low, rich and poor, undisturbed rights over property, freedom from the bonds of slavery and from harsh and cruel laws are blessings which but for the Brookes in all probability would have been denied them for many more weary years of desolating tyranny.

In a country like Sarawak, peopled by Easterns of so great a diversity of races, customs and ideas, an union of the people for their common weal is an impossibility. For them the best and only practical form of government is that which they now enjoy, a mild and benevolent despotism, under a Ruler of a superior and exotic race, standing firm and isolated amidst racial jealousies, as no native Ruler could do, and unsuspected of racial partiality; a Ruler upon whom all can depend as a common friend, and a Ruler who has devoted his life to their common welfare.

Strength of character and integrity of purpose, tact and courage, firmness and compassion, combined with a thorough knowledge, not only of their languages and customs, but of the innermost thoughts of his people, to be gained only by a long experience, are qualities without which a despotic Ruler must fall into the hands of the strongest faction, and, eventually bring disaster on himself and his country; but are those which have enabled the Rajah to tide over many political troubles, to consolidate the many and diverse interests of his people, and to guide the State to its present position of prosperity and content.

CHAPTER XVI
FINANCE – TRADE – INDUSTRIES

A general review of the financial, commercial, and industrial progress of Sarawak will probably convey to our readers a better conception than the foregoing history may have enabled them to form of the uniform advance of Sarawak along the path of civilisation: for no better evidence of the prosperity of a country can be advanced than the growth of its trade and industries, dependent as this is upon security to life and property and liberal laws.

Of the revenue before the Chinese rebellion there are no records, as all the archives were then destroyed. Three years later, in 1860, the revenue was so insignificant as to be quite inadequate to meet the needs of the country, which then for the first time became involved in debt; a debt which was unavoidably increased in subsequent years, until it had reached a somewhat high figure for such a young and striving State, but from which, however, it has now been freed by the exercise of prudent economy, and by improvement in its finances.³⁵⁵

On January 1st, 1908, the Government balances amounted to a little over $800,000, and the only liability was for notes in circulation, amounting to $190,796.

In 1875, fifty-six years after its foundation, the revenue of Singapore was but $967,235, and that of Penang, then established for eighty-nine years, $453,029.³⁵⁶ In 1900, the Raj of Sarawak had been in existence for fifty-eight years. Since 1875, the effect of the development of the rich tin deposits of the Malayan States of the Peninsula has been to so enormously enhance the commercial prosperity of the Straits Settlements that the present revenues of the "sister colonies" have quite surpassed anything that Sarawak may perhaps hope to acquire in a corresponding number of years.

The trade is mainly in the hands of the Chinese merchants, mostly country born, who are successfully carrying on thriving businesses of which the foundations were laid by their fathers in the early days of the raj. These merchants are of a highly respectable class, and they take the interest of intelligent men in the welfare of the country, which they have come to regard as their own. They rarely visit China – some not at all. They are consulted by the Government in all matters in which their interests are concerned.

The only European Firm is the Borneo Company Limited, and the career of this Company has for over fifty years been so closely linked with that of the State, and so much to the advantage of the latter, that it fully merits more than a passing notice in these pages, without which this history would not be complete.

For a considerable period Mr. J. C. Templer, the late Rajah's old friend, laboured very hard to meet the ignorant and cruel criticism which had been cast on the Rajah's great work, and, in order that the development of Sarawak might have financial support, he interested friends in the city in the matter, chiefly Mr. Robert Henderson of Messrs. R. and J. Henderson.

After considerable negotiation, the Borneo Company Limited was registered in May, 1856. The attention of the Company was turned primarily to supporting the Rajah, and to developing the resources of the country. The first Directors were Messrs. Robert Henderson (Chairman), J. C. Templer, J. D. Nicol, John Smith, Francis Richardson and John Harvey (Managing Director).

Most unfortunately, immediately after the formation of the Company troubles arose which nearly overwhelmed the State. The Chinese insurrection the next year, and the later political intrigues obscured for a time the prosperity of Sarawak, and left the prospects of the Company very black indeed, but it struggled on bravely; and it cannot be doubted that its formation before the insurrection was a matter of great value in the history of the country.

The Company, as soon as they received news of the insurrection, instructed their Manager in Singapore to supply the Rajah with all the arms, ammunition, and stores he might require, and it was their steamer, named after himself, that arrived at such an opportune moment, and enabled him to drive the rebels out of Kuching, and to cut short their work of ruin far sooner than he could otherwise have done; and it was the Company which not only subsequently advanced the Rajah the means he so sorely needed to carry on the government, but headed a subscription list started in England to relieve the Government of pressing wants, with a donation of £1000. Long before this the Rajah's private fortune had been exhausted.

Some appear to have formed the opinion that the Company were subsequently inconsiderate in pressing for payment of the loan, but more consideration should have been given to the position of the Directors as being a fiduciary one to the shareholders, who had invested their money in a commercial enterprise, and at that time by no means a prosperous one.

Since the Company was formed over £200,000 has been paid to the Government for mining royalties, and during the same period £2,000,000 has been paid out in wages, which has tended to the prosperity and advantage of the country.

Until 1898, no balance of profit had been made by the Company from Sarawak; indeed, there was a very considerable deficit, which had been met from the profits of their other operations.³⁵⁷ This persistence in the original policy of the founders of the Company for forty years without return has, however, been rewarded by considerable success in the last decade. The enterprise that brought this success, the extraction of gold from poor grade ores by the cyanide process, is noticed further on, and we will conclude this notice of the Company by a quotation from a speech by the Rajah given thirty years after the foundation of the raj.

The Company has held fast and stuck to its work through the perils and dangers and the adversity which Sarawak has experienced and encountered. It has shown a solid and stolid example to other merchants, and has formed a basis for mercantile operations; and the importance of the presence in a new State of such a large and influential body as the Borneo Company cannot be overrated.

Owing to the absolute lack of security to life and property, both within and without, before the accession of Sir James Brooke to the raj, Sarawak had no trade. After 1842 a small trade began to spring up, but the Lanun and Balenini pirates and the Sea-Dayaks rendered the pursuit of trade very difficult and dangerous. The lessons administered to the latter by the Rajah and Sir Henry Keppel caused these to confine themselves for some time to their homes, and the Foreign exports rose to $60,000 in 1847. Then the coast again became insecure, and it was not until after the battle of Beting Maru, in 1849, that trade made any considerable advance, and it continued to increase until the Chinese insurrection brought the country to the verge of ruin. A brief respite followed, and then came the internal political troubles, and renewed activity on the part of the Lanun and Balenini pirates. But in 1862, the authority of the Rajah was paramount from Cape Datu to Kedurong Point, and the defeat of the pirates off Bintulu in the middle of this year freed the Sarawak coast for ever from these pests. So in 1862 the increase in the value of the trade was over fifty per cent. In 1860, the Foreign imports and exports amounted to $574,097; in 1880 to $2,284,495; in 1900 to $9,065,715; and in 1905 to $13,422,267. Since 1905, in common with all countries, the State has been suffering from commercial depression, and in 1907 the decrease in the imports was $709,162, and in the exports $823,682, compared with 1905, though only $2276 and $166,285 as compared with 1906. But though the exports have fallen off in value, there has been an increase in the quantities of the products exported. As prices fluctuate, the industrial progress of a country is, therefore, better gauged by the quantity rather than by the value of its products, and in 1907, 7000 tons more sago flour, 800 tons more pepper, 7000 oz. more gold, and 150 tons more gutta and india-rubber were exported than in 1905.

Practically Singapore has the benefit of the whole of the Sarawak trade, which is borne in two steamers of 900 tons each under the Sarawak flag, owned by the Sarawak and Singapore S.S. Company, and these maintain a weekly communication between Kuching and Singapore. The coasting trade is carried in three smaller steamers owned by the same Company. There is a small trade in timber with Hong Kong; and a few junks come yearly from Siam and Cochin China.

Agriculture is the foremost industry, and as it is a permanent one, only requiring wise and liberal measures to foster and encourage it, Sarawak is in this respect fortunate, for the natural products of a country, such as minerals and jungle produce, must in time be worked out; and the future of a country is therefore more dependent upon its industries than on its natural products.

In 1907, the value of the cultivated products exported was $3,133,565. Of these sago may be said to be the staple product, and the markets of the world are mainly supplied by Sarawak with this commodity. From it Borneo derives its Eastern name, Pulo-Ka-lamanta-an (the island of raw sago).³⁵⁸ The palm, the pith of which is the raw or crude sago, is indigenous, and there are many varieties growing wild all over the island that yield excellent sago. On the low, marshy banks of the rivers, lying between Kalaka and Kedurong Point, are miles upon miles of what might be termed jungles of the cultivated palm, where fifty years ago there were but patchy plantations. The raw sago as extracted by the Melanaus is purchased by the Chinese and shipped to the sago factories in Kuching, where it is converted into sago flour, in which form it is exported to Singapore. How the cultivation of the sago palm is increasing, the following figures will show: —

359 Quantity not given in published trade returns.

In 1847-48, only 2,000 tons were imported into Singapore, practically all from Borneo.

In times immemorial pepper was very extensively cultivated in Borneo. In the middle ages this cultivation attracted particular attention to the island; and to obtain a control over the pepper trade by depriving the Turks of their control over the trade in spices was one of the main incentives to the discovery of a route to the East by the Cape. By many the introduction of pepper into Borneo is attributed to the Chinese, and from them the natives are supposed to have learnt its cultivation, but this is doubtful, as pepper is not a product of China, and was probably introduced by the Hindus; but that the Chinese, finding the industry a profitable one, improved and extended the cultivation of pepper, there can be no doubt. What the export of pepper was in the days when the Malayan Sultanates were at their prime it is impossible to determine, but that it must have been very considerable is indicated by the fact that as late as 1809 Hunt estimated the export from Bruni at 3500 tons, and at that time the country had been brought to the verge of ruin by misrule and oppression, which led to the gradual extinction of the Chinese colony, and to the deprival of all incentive to the Muruts and Bisayas to carry on an industry for which they had once been famous – indeed, Hunt notices that he saw numbers of abandoned gardens, and his observations were restricted to a very limited area. In spite of the harmful restrictions of the Dutch, in the south at Banjermasin, two hundred years ago, the export was still from 2000 to 3000 tons.³⁵⁹ Had different conditions prevailed, had native industry been encouraged instead of having been suppressed, then truly might Borneo have become the "Insula Bonæ Fortunæ" of Ptolemy.

But Sarawak is placing Borneo once more to the fore amongst the pepper producing countries of the far East, and in 1907 exported 5177 tons, as against 400 tons in 1886. After many previous failures the foundations of this large industry, which is entirely in the hands of the Chinese, were laid in 1876 by the Rajah in conjunction with certain local Chinese merchants.

As with sago and pepper, Borneo is essentially a rubber producing country, and it is to be hoped when the time arrives, and as yet it appears to be far from being in view, that the natural product is worked out, it will be more than replaced by cultivated rubber. The Borneo Company have laid out extensive plantations, that give promise of a paying and lasting industry.

With the exception of the cultivation of sago, agriculture in Sarawak is, and will remain dependent upon imported labour. It is not in the nature of the Malay, whose wants are so few and simple that they are procured by a minimum of exertion, to undertake any work requiring persistent and diligent labour; and no more is it in the nature of the Sea-Dayak, though he is not afraid of hard work. Having finished his farming and gathered his harvest the latter prefers an occupation that, whilst bringing in a fair profit, will gratify his proneness for roaming. The native methods of rice growing are crude and wasteful, and attempts to improve these have failed, as have all attempts to introduce Chinese for the purpose of cultivating rice, with the idea of establishing an agricultural industry for which there is so much room and need in Sarawak. The Malays and Dayaks, like the Kayans and Melanaus, produce barely enough rice for their own consumption, and rice figures as the biggest item in the imports of a country which is capable of producing a considerable quantity more than it needs.

Sugar cane grows well, but enterprise in its production has probably been damped by the failure, through mismanagement, of an English Company, which, in 1864, started a large plantation on about the very worst soil that could have been selected. Tobacco planting proved to be a failure, and a costly experiment to the Government. Coffee and tea grow well on high ground, but the country has little elevated plateau land suitable for its cultivation. Gambir is a paying product, but the cultivation of pepper has proved more attractive to the Chinese, though the production of gambir has been fairly well maintained at over 1000 tons yearly. Tapioca, cotton (which in former days was largely exported from Bruni), the cocoa-nut, the areca or pinang, and the oil or soap palms all grow well. Ramie is being cultivated by an English Company in the Lawas, and experiments have shown that this plant will grow well. The sisal aloe grows freely, and on poor soil. Pine-apples are largely cultivated for canning. The fruits and vegetables common to all countries in the Malayan Archipelago abound in Sarawak.

The land regulations are liberal and fair. Bona fide planters receive every encouragement, though none is held out to speculators in land. The indiscriminate alienation of large tracts of land for unlimited periods and for indefinite purposes is an unsound policy, which does not find favour in Sarawak. It leads to land being locked up, sometimes for a long period, and to placing ultimately in the hands of a foreign speculator profits which the State should reap, and to the natives it causes many hardships. In 1890, such a concession was granted to a company by the Dutch Government in the province of Sambas, quite independently of any consideration for existing and long-established rights of the natives, the real owners of the soil. This act drove many families over the borders into Sarawak, when rudely awakened to the fact that except by the permission of the employees of a company, only to be obtained by payment, they could not farm, neither could they fish or hunt, nor could they obtain the many necessities of life with which the jungle supplies them.

In his report upon Borneo for 1899, Mr. Consul Keyser writes: —

I should here like to dispel, once and for all, the idea so often heard suggested that the Ruler of Sarawak is averse to progress and the introduction of European capital. That the Rajah is anxious to discourage that undesirable class of adventurer, who descends upon undeveloped countries to fill his own purse regardless of the result, it is true. The fate of the adjacent country of Bruni, whose ruin and decay are not entirely disconnected with the unfulfilled promises and specious tales of selfish speculators, is in itself ample justification, if one were needed, for this attitude.

At the same time, no bona fide investor need fear to visit Sarawak if he is prepared to deal fairly with the natives and conform to the usages of the country. Such a man would be sure of welcome, and he himself equally certain of success.

Land is usually granted at a small rental in large or small areas, in accordance with the capital and the objects of the grantee. The proportion of the land which is to be brought under cultivation in successive years is agreed upon. Any portion of the land that the grantee may have failed to bring under cultivation within the stipulated time, or, having cultivated, has abandoned it, reverts to the State; though in the former case circumstances occasionally arise which justify some latitude to the planter. But all land brought under cultivation becomes the absolute property of a planter or his assigns, and remains so, as long as it is maintained under cultivation. Abandonment of a plantation is abandonment of the land, and it then reverts to the State; and the State thus remains the real owner of the land, though not of the plantation on it. This system is obviously of advantage to the planter. He obtains his land, which he may select where he chooses, for next to nothing, and he runs no risk of losing capital sunk in the purchase of what might prove to be an unprofitable property, and therefore one that is unsaleable. And it secures to the State a sufficient guarantee that the land will be cultivated and kept under proper cultivation. Practically the whole of the Chinese pepper and gambir planters hold their land under these terms, and they are as secure in the possession of their gardens, and the right to alienate them, as if they had bought the land. Land is sold only for special purposes, such as for buildings and gardens in a town or its suburbs.

Jungle produce, in spite of seemingly natural predictions that it must soon be worked out, which have been yearly repeated for many years past, figures yet as a very important item in the export trade, and its collection not only remains a considerable industry, but is apparently still a growing one. The exports have risen in value from $267,480 in 1877 to $1,626,427 in 1907, which is just double that of ten years previously. The products are, in the order of their value, gutta, india-rubber, cutch, rattans, timber and barks, edible birds'-nests, camphor, and beeswax.

The supposed mineral wealth of Sarawak first brought it into notice. It was known to produce gold and diamonds, though so did other Bornean States, but in addition antimony ore was brought to the Singapore market in native prahus from Sarawak, and that was not a production of any other part of Borneo. It excited the interest of Europeans as well as the cupidity of the Bruni Rajahs, but to the former, Sarawak was not a safe place with which to trade, and the latter soon drove its people into rebellion by forced labour at the antimony mines, and the supply then ceased. After the accession of the late Rajah this natural product was nationalised and became the main source of revenue, but subsequently, with all other minerals, excepting gold, it was leased to the Borneo Company. Since the days of large production in Sarawak, antimony has been worked in many other countries, and this has sent the value down, so that it is only very occasionally that the price of antimony in consuming markets will admit of any export of the metal. The large deposits that previously existed have apparently been exhausted, but fresh rich deposits may still be found, though, as with cinnabar, which was once largely worked by the Company at one place, the discovery of these isolated pockets is greatly a matter of chance. Antimony has been found in many other parts of the State, though not yet in paying quantities, and cinnabar has been found here and there on the gravel shallows of rivers, an indication of the existence, though not a sufficient one to point to the position of other lodes.

It was entirely owing to the first Rajah that the Chinese had been able to settle on the gold-fields in Upper Sarawak and to establish a large and profitable mining industry; and it was entirely owing to their own supreme folly and ingratitude that that industry was destroyed. It was revived again after a time, but never to the extent of what it had been. As the visible outcrops of gold gave out, the Chinese turned their attention to the more profitable occupation of pepper-planting, and, ten years ago, the mining district of Upper Sarawak had been changed into an agricultural one – gold-mining had almost ceased, the cinnabar mines at Tegora had long been worked out, and but little antimony was mined, whilst pepper gardens had sprung up everywhere.

The Borneo Company had from time to time spent considerable sums on experimental work on the gold deposits, but, owing to the character of the ore, no method of working was found practicable on a mercantile scale until the discovery of the cyanide process. But even treatment by cyanide in any way then used was not found successful with Sarawak ore, and the method ultimately adopted was formulated by the Company's engineers themselves. The result has been considerable success, and it is gratifying that after so many years of steady work through many difficulties and disappointments, the Company have been able to place on a prosperous footing an industry which has brought them good fortune, and which is proving to be of so great advantage to the country.