THE NORTH
BORNEO HERALD AND THE OFFICIAL GAZETTE
EDUCATIONAL
SERIES BY BORNEO HISTORY
No. 22 -
VOL.XXXIX. JESSELTON, WEDNESDAY, 16TH NOVEMBER 1921.
The North
Borneo Herald.
WEDNESDAY,
16TH NOVEMBER 1921.
VICTORIA VALLEY
AN APPRECIATION
Not so many years ago a
mangrove swamp, with all its slime and smell and hidden horrors, thrust its way
into what is now known as Victoria Valley. No track lay across its inky bed,
war parties coming to attack of Gaya passed by winding goat tracks over the
hills, skirted the borders of the swamp and camped at any convenient spot along
foreshore.
From Gaya, Government
and the Constabulary moved to Gantian, and from Gantian to Api-Api. That is now
getting on for 25 years ago, and who amongst those who formed raiding and
counter raiding parties when Mat Salleh, Langkap or Kamunta were abroad,
bothered to think that such a place as Victoria Valley could ever be evolved
from a bottomless swamp?
Yet as time went on
Lieut-Col. (then Captain) Harington found that the space at his disposal in
Sandakan was too cramped for his growing force of police. It was as Acting
Resident of the West Coast that in 1903 he saw the possibilities of the present
site of Victoria barracks and began to build what has evolved into the
extensive headquarters of the Constabulary. Whether he has succeeded or not is
a question that anyone can answer for himself who cares to pay a visit to the
Victoria Valley as it is today. The slime of the past lies buried many feet
below the green turf of the golf links, and with it lie the memories of an
eventful past. It was indeed fitting that Colonel Harington should, on our 40th
Charter Day, find himself in command of so fine a body of men as paraded to
receive their new colour, earned, as His Excellency the Governor said, by good
service and unbroken loyalty. Colonel Harington’s Indian officers are men who
have risen from the ranks and whose time is approaching to retire with honours
of a commission well-earned and well deserved by many years of faithful
service.
Comparisons may be
odious, but let us ponder for a moment of what Jesselton can do in 1921 and
what it was in 1881. Of course this sort of thing has been done before, (is not
Singapore built on a mangrove swamp?); but comparisons are not so odious when
we who make them have watched the changes made, have marched where today we
ride, have sat over campfires where today stands some comfortable bungalow, and
have sown where today others reap.
In drawing comparisons
let us give Honor where Honor is due; from a handful of Somali boys recruited
in Singapore, passing to the first Indian contingent brought down by Captain C.
Harington of the Rifle Brigade, who later became famous as Harington Bay, the
founder of the Egyptian mounted police, the Force has grown and developed until
today it is the backbone of the Government.
Lieut-Col. Harington
became Sub-Commandant in 1898 and Major Bond joined as a cadet in 1901. Turning
to an old Civil Service List we find Col. Harington accompanied the Mat Salleh
Expedition, 1899, the Illanun trouble In 1900, and the pursuit of Kamunta in
1901. Major Bond took part in the Tomani Expedition in 1901.
-/ss
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