The North Borneo Herald. MONDAY, 2ND JANUARY 1922. GOVERNMENT CHIEF ROMANTAI

THE NORTH BORNEO HERALD AND THE OFFICIAL GAZETTE

EDUCATIONAL SERIES BY BORNEO HISTORY

No. 1 - VOL.XL. JESSELTON, MONDAY, 2ND JANUARY 1922.

The North Borneo Herald.

MONDAY, 2ND JANUARY 1922.

GOVERNMENT CHIEF ROMANTAI

The President of the Court of the British North Borneo Company made a most interesting speech at the annual meeting of shareholders. Not the least telling of the statements was the complete refutation given to the attacks that have been made on the administration of the territory and the treatment of the natives. Sir West Ridgeway, who is again about to undertake a visit to North Borneo, was able to demolish completely the charges that had been made. There were even shareholders who complained that the policy of the Court was aimed at too much philanthropy for the native and too little in the shape of dividends to the proprietors. The fact is that the Court of Directors, which contains practical Colonial and Indian administrators, places its sovereign duties before commercial gain, which has ever been the policy of British governance of subject lands  and races. Sir West Ridgeway's denunciation of the statements by the writer in an American magazine was not the less vigorous and effective because it was couched in humorous  vein. His whole speech was effective and constitutes an able review of matters in North Borneo, and how the territory has fared during the critical period through which it and the rest of the world is passing. —The London & Chua Express.

People who lived at any time in Tambunan will hear with regret of the death, from dysentery of the Government Chief Romantai, Head of the Tegahas tribe of Dusuns. In the days when the rebel Mat Salleh urged the Dusuns to combine and attack the Government, Romantai's father was one of the strongest supporters of the movement, and one of the toughest opponents that the Government had to deal with. Mat Salleh fell in 1900 and the old man did not outlive him for long. His son, Romantai, became headman of the large village of Katuntul in about 1901 and soon showed himself to be a man of authority like his father. In 1907 we read in reports the departure of Nakoda Nyambong, who returned to Sarawak after serving some seven years as Government Chief in Tambunan, and thus was the way cleared for the Dusun Chiefs Romantai and Kenjawan, who thereafter ranked together as Head Chiefs in the Tambunan District. Both of these are now dead.

Romantai was never acclaimed a brilliant success but he was always a strong supporter of the Government, especially in resistance to rebellion, in this direction the services rendered in 1904 (after Kawang was raided) and in 1914 (Rundum rebellion) were invaluable. For 14 years he sat every ten days in the Tambunan native court and his decision were very rarely at fault.

One of the old type, addicted to over-indulgence in home brewed liquors, he will nevertheless be greatly missed.

-/ss