blundering of a quarter of a century, and the expenditure of vast quantities of ink
and paper.
The only manufacture deserving this name that is earned on in Singapore, is that
of sago, and for this, it is the workshop of nearly all that at present appears in
commerce. This amounts to about 8000 tons yearly, of the value of about 30,0001.
Great quantities of tools, implements, swords, and wall-pieces are manufactured by
the Chinese, and there is some manufacture of furniture, with some boat and shipbuilding,
but not to any great extent, for wet and dry docks remain yet to be constructed,
although there be localities well adapted to them.
But every branch of industry is merely subsidiary to trade. Singapore, is, in fact,
a great commercial emporium, in which are warehoused for future distribution, the
staple products of Europe, Asia, and America. The town, the seat of this commerce,
lies in north latitude 1° 17', or only seventy-seven miles from the equator, and in east
longitude 103° 50' 47". Its locality is on the southern side of the island, on a salt
creek, into which falls the brook called the river of Singapore; the commercial part
of it being on the western bank, and the public buildings and private houses on the
eastern, which spreads into a sandy plain, a little above the level of the sea. There
is, properly, no harbour, but the bay which fronts the town, and which is also the
highway through the Straits of Malacca, is a roadstead equivalent to a harbour in a
region never vexed by storms. Ships of the largest burdens lie in good anchoring-
ground at the distance of two miles from the shore, those of moderate draught of
water, within a mile, and small craft close to it. The salt creek, which has a quay
on the commercial side, is navigable at all times for lighters up to the warehouses of
the merchants.
In 1826, or seven years after the British occupation of Singapore, the population of
the island, in round numbers, had already amounted to 13,000. In 1850, it had risen
to nearly 60,000, of which 26,000 were in the town. The ingredients of this population
were very heterogeneous, and composed of no fewer than fifteen nationalities.
The most numerous party were the Chinese, forming fifty-three parts out of a
hundred, or better than one half of the whole. Then followed the Malays, or proper
natives of the country, forming twenty-three parts, or less than a fourth ; natives of
the Continent of India, chiefly of Bengal and the Coromandel coasts, forming fourteen
parts, natives of Celebes four parts, and Javanese three parts. The coloured
descendants of Europeans amounted to no more than 922, and the Europeans themselves,
the rulers, only to 360. The languages spoken are, at least, as numerous as
the nationalities. The Chinese speak three different tongues, the people of Continental
India four, and those of Celebes and Java two each. Then come English,
Arabic, and Persian. But the common medium of intercommunication, the language
which unites all classes of inhabitants, and prevents such a variety of tongues from
making a Babel of the place, is the liquid, easily-acquired Malay, of which all
Btrangers acquire at least an useful smattering.
One peculiarity of the population of Singapore deserves special notice,—the
extraordinary inequality of the sexes. This applies, more or less, to every class of the
inhabitants. In the whole, the females form little more than one-seventh part, or
to six men there is but one woman. But the disproportion is far greater in the
Chinese population, for here the females form but one-nineteenth of the whole
number, so that there is but one woman to eighteen men. This arises from the
peculiarity of Chinese emigration which, with rare exceptions, and those very recent
ones, is confined to the male sex, and this too, of men in the prime of life. Even the
few females classed as Chinese, are not really so, but the offspring of native women
married to Chinese or their mestizo descendants. This state of things, especially in
regard to the Chinese inhabitants, forming too the majority of the population, is a
source of much immorality and disorder, but it is hard to say how it can be
remedied.
The commercial intercourse of Singapore is carried on with most of the European
ports carrying on a distant foreign trade ;—with the ports of Continental Asia, from
the Red almost to the Yellow Sea, including those of Arabia, Persia, Hindustan, Siam,
Cochin-China, and several of China; with all the ports of the Malay Archipelago,
from Sumatra to New Guinea; with the capital of the Philippines; and with several
of the east and west coasts of America. In the public returns of exports and imports,
these places are classed under two-and-thirty different heads. The most important
branch of the trade is that with the United Kingdom, and then follow respectively
the trades with China, with British Continental India, and with Netherland India.
In 1855, the whole imports amounted to the value of 21,267,696 Spanish dollars, and
the exports to 17,504,398 Spanish dollars. This, as at all our Indian ports, included
treasure as well as merchandise. The number of square-rigged vessels which arrived
in the same year was 892, the departures 825. The number of junks and native
praus was 2513, and the departures 2615. The staple imports from Europe are,
cottons, woollens, and metals ; from the continent of India, opium and cotton-wool
for the Chinese market, and from China, coarse porcelain, silk, tea, camphor, and cassia.
An ordinary price-current will contain at least forty different articles of the Malay and
Philippine Archipelagos, with the countries immediately in their neighbourhood, as
Tonquin, Cochin-china^ Kamboja, and Siam. Among these, the staples are, rice,
sugar, pepper, coffee, tin, gold, antimony, tortoise-shell, and fossil coal. The first
appearance in commerce of several of the articles of this branch of the trade may
said to be almost coeval with the foundation Of the settlement, or to have appeared
in consequence of its existence, such as the abaca or banana hemp, gutta-percha,
Indian-rubber, vegetable tallow, pearl and flour sago, hides and horns.
Singapore is in every sense a free port, open to the flags of all nations upon equal
terms, and has continued so nearly from its foundation. There is no impost whatever,
on ship or cargo, saving a small charge for the light-house on the rock of Pedra-branca,
and even from this, all native vessels are exempt. This freedom, and its highly convenient
position, with security for life and property, are the causes of its rapid prosperity,—
a prosperity of which there is no other example in the east, and which far
more resembles that of an American than an Asiatic settlement. The example of
Singapore has been followed by the Netherland government at several points of its
vast possessions in the Archipelago, and with great, although not equal success.
In 1853, the number of dwelling-houses, shops, warehouses, and public buildings,
constructed for the most part of brick, and roofed with tile, was 4719. A municipal tax
of 10 per cent on the rental, yielded 52247., which would make the yearly rent 52,2407.,
and reckoning house property at fifteen years’ purchase, the value would be 783,6007.
But as the rating for the assessment is low, this probably falls greatly short of its
actual worth.
The executive government of Singapore is exercised conjointly with that of
the two other British settlements in the Straits, Malacca and Penang, distant
respectively about 90 and 400 miles, by an officer who hasthe title of Governor, but who
is virtually but the lieutenant of the Governor-General of India, in whom is vested
the essential attributes of government,—those of making laws, and directing their
administration. Under the Governor, at each of the three settlements, is an officer, with
the title of Resident Councillor. The laws are those of England, modified, in so
far as concerns the native inhabitants, by an attention to their respective laws
of inheritance and domestic usages. They are administered by the Court of a
Recorder. There is also a Small Debt Court and a Court of Petty Sessions always
sitting.
The public revenue is derived from excises, chiefly on the consumption of opium,
spirits,.and wine; the rent of public markets the property of the government; thé
sale of wild lands, the quit-rents on lands within the town held on long leases,
namely, some for ninety-nine years, and some for ten times that time ; fees and
fines m the courts; and the post-office. In 1852-53, the gross amount of this
revenue was 45,7207., and the chief branches of it being farmed, and always by the
Chinese, the nominal charge of collection was but three-and-a-half per cent., which
was, m tact, for the most part, the cost, not of collecting, but simply of receiving the
amount. 1 he expenditure in the same year, was 44,2347., or by 14867. less than the
income, lh e balance in favour of the last ought to have been much larger, but for
certain charges which are preposterously debited to the settlement, such as a naval
establishment for the general suppression of piracy, in which all India is equally
interested, and the maintenance of the convicts of British continental India. These
two items alone amount to near 10,0007., or close on one-fourth of the whole expenditure.
In 1854-55, the public revenue had increased by the sum of near 10,0007.
? ma; n P“ :* of I* is derived from excises on articles of luxury, and from the
rents of public markets, the property of government. These taxes, with their
" T e “ °'v, m the year in question opium, 32,5207. ; ardent spirits,
7 ; , . , ; palm wine and hempjuice, 6707. ; and public markets, 33727., making a total
of 47,8747., exclusive of the sale of public lands.
esides the publio revenue, there is a municipal one, under the management of a
committee composed of public officers and merchants, or rate-payers, being justices of
the peace. From this fund are maintained the police, roads, bridges, watering and
lighting. I t is derived, as already stated, from a rate of ten per cent, on the rent of