The North Borneo Herald. TUESDAY, 1st MAY 1883 SOURCES OF REVENUE

THE NORTH BORNEO HERALD

AND

THE OFFICIAL GAZETTE

EDUCATIONAL SERIES BY BORNEO HISTORY

No. 2. - VOL.1. KUDAT, TUESDAY, 1st MAY, 1883.

The North Borneo Herald.

TUESDAY, 1st MAY 1883

SOURCES OF REVENUE

The question is often asked, "I am well assured that for North Borneo and  its  inhabitants the advent of the company is the best thing possible, as the advent of the dynasty of Sir James Brooke has proved to be in another part of the island ; but how does the Company expect to a revenue out of the country in excess of the expenditure which will be required to carry on government in such a manner as the sentiments and feeling of the nineteenth century demand?  In the limits of a leading article it is hardly possible to discuss each available source of revenue, but it may be interesting to examine a few of the more salient and interesting sources whence the requisite taxation for carrying on the government may be expected to be obtained, so far as our  experience and knowledge of what has been done enables us to forecast.

Take first the Land, the most permanent of wealth in all countries. The Company's territory is roughly estimated to contain at least 20,000 square miles of land, or 12,800,000 acres. Owing to sparseness of the indigenous population and their want of energy, and of any desire to lay up wealth to provide more than is sufficient for their wants from day to day, a very large proportion of this acreage, especially on the East Coast, where the population is scantiest is available for sale by the of company to European and  Chinese planters and companies. From this sale of land the government of the Company derives not only a direct profit the price realized per acre-but indirect revenue derived from the population introduced by the planters directly and indirectly, coolies, and the store keepers and traders who supply their wants. The bulk of the coolies employed will is now certain, be Chinese, and the experience of Hongkong, the  Straits Settlements and of the Malay Peninsula teaches us that every Chinaman in the population is worth to the Treasury from $10 to $12 per annum, derived from their contributions to the excise farms of opium, tobacco, spirits, and in other ways we need not particularize here. For attracting, Chinese capitalist, planters, traders and coolies the territory is most favourably situated, being within four and a half days steam from Hongkong whence, by the arrangements successfully inaugurated by Sir Waiter Medhurst, the Company's special representative at Hongkong, coolies can. be engaged without the intervention of the class of Chinese brokers, such as those in Penang and Singapore who have acquired fortune from this lucrative business at the expense, partly of the planters of Province Wellesley, Johore, the Native Protected States and  Deli  (Sumatra ), and partly at that of the coolies themselves.

Already influential Chinese agricultural companies have been formed and have taken up land on the East Coast of the territory and set to work. We may instance the China Sabah Land-farming Company, with a capital of 300,000 taels, which taken up 40,000 acres, on the banks of some of the rivers running into Sandakan Bay. The geographical position of North Borneo as regards Australia is also most favorable, Elopura (Sandakan) being within five days steam of Port Darwin, and this fact has already attracted the attention of capitalists in the colonies, Mr De Lissa having been the first to appreciate the advantages to be derived and having acquired 10,000 acres of land on the Sapagaya river, in Sandakan Bay, which is pronounced by many experienced in that cultivation to be specially adapted for the culture of Sugar. A North Borneo land syndicate has since been formed in Australia, and has applied for 100,000 acres of agriculture land in North Borneo.

Apart from these companies, numerous allotments of agricultural land have been made to private individuals of Chinese nationality, who have been pouring into the country since direct communication has been established by Messrs. Douglas, Lapraik and Company's line of steamers. A large number of applications in addition have been received, with which the weakness of the survey staff, not expecting to have such a heavy strain so suddenly thrown on it, has for the present been unable to comply. This department has recently been considerably strengthened by the appointment of additional survey officers from Ceylon, and the work of surveying the allotments is being taken in hand vigorously by the Commissioner of Lands. For town lots, especially at Elopura and amongst the Chinese immigrants, competition has been keen. These lots are sixty-six feet by thirty-three, or one-twentieth of an acre in extent. The upset price at auction is fixed at $16 per lot, and the highest price realized was at Sandakan in January last, when one lot was knocked down to a Chinaman for $215, or at the rate of $4,300 per acre.

We now hear of the formation of a powerful syndicate in Hongkong, for the purpose of acquiring a large number of town lots at the different:, settlement for building and speculative purposes, and  if need be, they will be prepared to reclaim extensive tracts of water frontage at Elopura and Kudat. It is expected that a gentleman of a large experience in reclamation at Hongkong will shortly visit the territory in the interest of this syndicate.

We have obtained the following returns of lands sold up to the 21st March last; through the courtesy of Mr G.D. Collinson, the Commissioner of Lands. Lands sold 1st July to 31st December : Town and suburban, 113 lots; agricultural, 115,565 acres. Lands sold 1st January to 21st March, 1883: Town and suburban, 98 lots; agricultural, 32,710 acres. The average price of town lots at Elopura in the latter half of the year 1882 was $36.76 and of suburban $15.16. For the period to 21st, March, 1883, the average price for town lots was $112.93 and for suburban lots $108.33. Agricultural land was sold without auction at $1 per acre, but since February 1883, the price per acre in the Sandakan district has been raised to $2. With the exception of 20,000 acres at Lahat Datu, near Silam, the whole of the above sales of agricultural land have been effected in Sandakan Bay.  In addition to the sales returned, there were on the 21st March applications for 10,500 acres of agricultural land. The Company it should be remembered took possession of the country on the 1st July 1882.

Other sources of revenue are those of the excise farms of opium, tobacco and spirits already alluded  to the export or royalty, at the rate of ten per cent ad valorem, on jungle produce collected in and exported from the territory, such as gutta, rubber, rattans, beeswax, camphor, & c. & c. and the Government rights in the valuable bird's nest caves with their treasures of edible nests and guano. Important and interesting reports on these two latter articles have been supplied by Mr. C. Bampfylde, Sub-Resident of Sandakan, an able officer who received his training in the service of the government of Sarawak, but our space prevent us from now adverting to these and other sources of revenue above enumerated. In the larger settlements doubtless municipal bodies will be shortly incorporated with power to levy taxes for municipal purposes and to take charge of sanitary measures in populous centres.

-/sj