Report from Lundu September & October 1908

The Malays and Dyaks of Siling all turned out early in September and remade the road which runs through their Kampong. The Dyaks also erected a substantial bridge over Sungei Siling.

On 5th September I left for Ulu Passir spending the night at Beawak and returning to Lundu the next day. The Dyaks had one or two complaints to lodge, all of which have been reported in the official diary. These natives of Passir are without exaggeration quite the dirtiest and filthiest people it has ever been my lot to come across.

From the 11th to 15th September I was away along coast, and I visited the Ulu Sampadi and Ulu Rambungan where I inspected all the gambier gardens. At the latter place I was informed that it is very many years since any European Officer had passed through that district. Both at Rambungan and Sampadi there is abundance of land for those who wish to plant on a large scale.

During the month of September no less than three coconut plantations were seriously damaged by fire, Nacodah Ahmat of Rambungan and Awang Bujang of Bandang Lundu each having some 700 plants, averaging from 6 to 10 years, destroyed Nacodah Ahmat's case is still sub judice but the one of Aw. Bujang vs. Lamit and others has been  dismissed as it was conclusively proved that defendants had given full and sufficient notice to plaintiff that they intended to burn their clearing. Plaintiff himself was present the day his estate caught fire, which was entirely due to his own negligence. At the same time Malays and Chinese, more particularly the latter, are far too callous in the matter of burning off their clearings and as often as not fail to give due warning to their neighbours that they are about to have a burn.

One Soon Lee, a Chinaman of Settuh, who has rented Inche Bakar's cocoanut plantation at Puloh Sampadian complains that large boats often stop off the island, the occupants of which he strongly suspects of stealing his cocoanuts. One night he had over 500 gathered cocoanuts stolen. Soon Lee further reports that on the 23rd August a schooner owned by Tuanku S'mail, a Puloh man, anchored off Sampadian and took on board as many as 14 passengers, persons living on the main-land at Rambungan and Settuh, several of whom were Cutch Coy debtors. I have issued a warrant for Tuanku S'mail's arrest and I hope it will not be long ere he visits Sarawak again.

Many of the bandong men here have complained of the treatment that they have received at the hands of one or two of the Customs' Officials at Santubong. This matter was duly reported to the Superintendent of Customs and I have since learnt from him that the two men implicated have been sentenced to six months imprisonment.

At 3.30 P.M. on 25th September the ss. Alice Lorraine arrived from Kuching. I received orders to proceed to Sadong to temporarily relieve Mr. Crocker. After handing over to the Court Writer I left at daylight on the 26th September for Kuching via Simatan. The s.s. Alice Lorraine brought $2,500 Straits dollars and returned with $2,500 old ones, also 25 head of Simatan cattle.

At about midnight on 4th October Goi Soo Chuan the Court Writer was awakened by a noise coming from his kitchen, on getting up to see he found same was alight. Fortunately the night was calm so the fire was quickly extinguished. Soo Chuan says he distinctly saw someone disappear into the darkness but was quite unable to recognize who it was. He therefore suspects this was the work of an incendiary. The Native Officer and Corporal Sohn Singh both examined the kitchen and are of the opinion that the fire originated from the outside.

There have been an unusual number of petty thefts reported these last two months and many of the Hokkien Chinese have been caused annoyance by finding in front of their shops of a morning large baskets of rubbish. Some also have had bricks on planks placed against their doors, all of which open inwards, so that the chances are that when the door is opened some one will receive a nasty blow. As shops owned by Khehs and Leochews have been left unmolested the conclusion is obvious. There has of late been quite an influx of Kheh Chinese into this bazaar; many of the new arrivals I feel sure are bad characters, no doubt the general depression in trade causes these undesirables to flitter about from one district to another in search of ill-gotten gains.

I am glad to be able to report that the engkabang tree, the fruit of which was such a godsend early in the year, it is very heavily in flower again this season. It is sincerely to be hoped that a large crop of nuts will follow and that natives will seize the opportunity of gathering them; and at the same time refrain from adulterationj. Although no cases of the kind are brought before thi scourt I have good grounds for knowing that some traders did resort to this seemingly smart practice. The people have been duly warned and anyone being proved to have committed such an offence will receive a very sharp lesson, as such methods of trading cannot be conducive to the prosperity of the country.

The Hon'ble the Resident and Mr. Crocker arrived at 2.30 P.M. on 8th October per s.s. Alice Lorraine from Kuching, returning in the same steamer the next morning at 11 A.M.

The s.l. La Fee arrived from Kuching on 14th october, Mr. E.L. Grove and myself were passengers by her; she returned to Kuchingh on 15th October at 8 A.M. Mr. Grove taking passage by her.

Each of the following days were observed as public holidays, when all Government Offices and school were closed - His Highness the Rajah Muda's birthday, September 26th, Her Highness the Ranee's birthday, October 9th, and Hari Raya, October 27th.

Three prisoners in October were forwarded to Kuching to complete their sentences. Those left here have been employed in the general up-keep of the station.

F.F. Boult
Resident 2nd Class.

The Sarawak Gazette Oct. 16, 1908

Mr. F.F. Boult who has been on temporary duty at Sadong returned to Lundu in s.l. La Fee to resume charge of that Station on the 14th instant. Mr. Grove also went for a trip to Lundu and back, the La Fee returning the following day.

Report from Lundu August 1908

Corporal 57 Sohn Singh arrived from Headquarters on 5th to take Corporal Wan Ali's place and on 11th P.C. 126 Rom Singh also arrived. The latter returned to Headquarters the next day, as owing to the present police routine it is not convenient to have Sikhs stationed here. Although they are very estimable men, at the same timer they are quite incompetent to assist in fatigue duties which it has always been customary for the Malay police here to perform.

The marriage of Yioh Joo Guan to Marina Hugh of Stunggang by civil contract on 10th October 1907 has by order of the Hon'ble the Resident 1st Division been declared invalid and Yioh Joo Guan has been fined $50 for obtaining a Civil Marriage Certificate under false pretences.

The Venerable Archdeacon Sharp was in the district from 12th to 14th looking into the affairs of the S.P.G. Mission.

I regret to report the death of the young short horn bull, which Mr. Staples brought last May. He was killed by a tree falling on him and breaking his back. Another bull will therefore be required for the herd.

I received advoice from the Treasury that the 24 head of Simatan cattle shipped to Kuching last May fetched $720. Might I suggest that another time the cattle be put up to auction. It is not, I think, unlikely that if disposed of in this way they would realise a higher figure.

A very successful tubah fishing under the management of O.K. Baja took place at Stungkor on 11th. The water was just right and the weather conditions perfect. The boats numbered about 150. Those present were mostly Sebuyow Dyaks.

Three Malay bandongs belonging to Lundu got into a huge shoal of fish (ikan simpirik) off Tanjong Sirik on the 18th. Over 100 pikuls were caught. Unfortunately they reached the bazaar late that evening so a good deal of the fish was wasted, there being no time for salting. Such a large haul, I am informed, constitutes a record for Lundu.

Accompanied by Abang Ahmat, the Native Officer, I was away from 19th to 22nd visiting coast as far as Tulok Milano. At Simatan things were quiet, natives were all away clearing their farms. The bungalow and cowshed have been releaf attapped. At Tulok Srabang I found collected some 15 Malay fishing bandongs from Santubong which were on their way to Tulok Limo, Sambas, to fish.

His Highness the Rajah having ordered that the floor of the Court House be cemented, I took the opportunity of engaging masons who were working on the Chinese Temple to do the work. This is now finished and has been thoroughly done.

On Sunday, 30th, I went overland from Timalan to Ulu Stunggang. This walk takes about two hours over a batang path. The soil at Stunggang struck me as very fertile. It is here that Lim Swee has settled. She some years back was granted leavbe to work the bilian in this river. She states that she has dropped a considerable number of dollars over the business. The bilian is so far inland that it can only be floated out when there are exceptionally heavy freshes and high tides. I saw a great deal of splendid bilian lying about in the jungle ready for exportation. Lim Swee's pepper garde of over 2,000 vines is quite one of the best I have seen in the country. The vines which for six months received no attention, were at the end of that time still in a fine and healthy state.

The prisoners have for the greater part of the month been employed on the orange estate.

F.F. Boult
Resident 2nd Class

The Sarawak Gazette October 1, 1908

Mr. Boult arrived by s.s. Alice Lorraine from Lundu on the 27th ulto. and left on the 29th for Sadong to do temporary duty there.

Report from Lundu, July 1908

Nothing of importance has occurred during the month.

The Dyak Revennue is coming in and the pepper vine tax has practically all been paid. This latter shows a slight increase over last year's receipts. Since payment of tax a good many gardens have been abandoned.

The amount of illegal tender presented at the Treasury here considerably increases the work of the clerk and police; Natives and Chinese never for one moment dream of sorting their coins before hand. There must be a large percentage of foreign copper in circulation throughout this district.

Simatan was visited from 2nd to 4th and Rembungan from 27th to 29th. At Tembungan I made enquiries into the raid on Joon Hin's house at Sungei Jaban. With regard to this matter I have communicated with the Hon'ble the Resident.

Finding that Orang Kaya Petor of the Slakow Dyaks was unable to properly execute the affairs of his large and scattered district, Dangor of Jangkoh and Lanang of Berdaun were each raised to the rank of Pengara. They will act as Orang Kaya Petor's deputies at their respective Kampongs. This should be of the greatest assistance and convenience to Orang Kaya Petor and the Slakow Dyaks generally. The new Pengara received their Surat Kuasa from Kuching.

The prisoners have been chiefly enganged in clearing the land for the new orange estate. The seedlings for same are thriving well. It remains to be seen whether the site chosen is a suitable one for planting oranges.

The long bridge over Sungei Lundu has been strengthened. This bridge was built over 15 years ago by the late Haji Usop. It bids fair to last a number of years yet.

At end of the month I was obliged to return Corporal 89 Wan Ali to headquarters owing to insubordination and intemperance.

F.F. Boult
Resident 2nd Class

The Sarawak Gazette, July 16, 1908

Vanishing Borneana

"All the world's a stage and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances." Thus spake our immortal Countryman, and in all ages poets, moralists and the like have loved to dwell upon everchanging character of life, it's bevity and it's uncertainties. The same theme runs through our most sacred hymns and the element of changefulness is a constant factor in the experience of all: so much so that it would seem that the quality of life necessarily implies change. Nevertheless, it is not the intention of the writer to pose as a moralist but rather prosaically to consider some aspects of this subject as it relates to Sarawak.

We do not need to turn to the literature - now obsolete though scarely forty years old - on Sarawak to learn that within recent times more than one Sarawak tribe has gradually vanished altogether. Such is the case with the Lundu Dayaks, the Long Utan of the Tinjar and the Srus of the Kalaka River - these latter people are not quite extinct. The causes for this senile decay amongst such tribes are probably complicated and we will say no more about it other than that it has nothing whatever to do with European influence. Who can tell us where are the people who carved the stones in Upper Sarawak and at Santubong or what was the fate of those industrious workers in iron who bequeathed to us those large quantities of slag still to be found at Santubong.

Tis supposed that once this region was visited by Hindus and that thus did the Land Dayaks acquire the smatterings of Hinduism that they now possess: however this may be no descendants of such people now remain to us.

We are tols too that centuries ago the enterprising Celestials anticipated Messrs. the Borneo Company Limited in Upper Sarawak and, having filled their pockets, they too disappeared.

Malay tradition has much to tell us of certain heroes of old who performed many wondrous feats worthy to be remembered for ever in history: but how little do we really know concerning the founders of this colony, and of Sarawak in "pre-European" times!

And, again, of the peoples who still remain, how many are here to stay: is it possible, for example, that the Land Dayaks can persist and will the Milanos (includingt Siduans etc.) be able to keep up with their more vigorous neighbours when competition makes the sthe struggle for existence keen and deadly?

Fashions also change. All of us know that the radical Sea Dayaks has very few customs which he can really count his own: how that he borrows other people's tatu patterns, their decorative art and their clothing. People who know them tell us that hat fashions among Saribas ladies are periodically changed much as in the gay cities of Europe: and the Dayaks dandy of today decks himself out in a costume very different from that of the swell of fifty years ago.

As for the rising generation of our Islam friends they love to wear a tuan's clothes and to play his games: the 'main raga' - how many of us have ever witnessed this characteristic Malay game - has entirely given place to football, hockey and the like.

The same processes are at work amongst tribes who in some respects are rather conservative. It is prophesied that a generation hence there will not be left a single Bayoh (the witch doctor - we had thought him a permanent institution amongst Milanos!) to the Milanos of the Oya district: and for a very trivial reason - it takes up too much time forsooth! - the Milano mothers are abandoning the practice of pressing their heads of their female children. At one time these same people were wont to weave their own cloth but nowadays the material itself is rarely met with. For centuries apparently they have worked sago and have employed a very odd-looking tool, the Pemalo - of considerable interest being probably a derivative of a stone adze - but within quite recent years this has been dropped in favour of an entirely different tool, the Parut. Not many generations ago they lived in big fine houses, tall and strong like those of the Kayans: today their homes are much like those of the Malays.

Ad exception to this rule is presented by those conservative people, the Kayans, who, I am told, take some pride in preserving their tribal customs and peculiarities: but it is noteworthy that in Sarawak they do not more than hold their own and perhaps their conservatism will be sorely tried in the future.

Having thus briefly indicated sone of the numerous processes of change taking place on every side one may enquire to what extent they are desirable. Whether it be worth while to artificially prolong the life of a tribe in the last throes of decay must be question for individual opinion, but at any rate it would seem that in a country where the struggle for existence is so mild as in Sarawak the tribe which dies off must indeed be a poor one and in the long run the country is the richer when a superior tribe takes it's place.

As for changing customs, however it may appeal to our sentiment, we should remember that progress - a vexed question full of pitfalls - necessarily implies change. And turning to a lighter side of the subject, the mere fact that on a festive occasion a Malay boy will make use of his tuan's brown boots does not necessarilyimply that the present day Malay is a degenerate person, as, given the opportunity, his grandfather would doubtlessly have done exactly the same: and for that matter we are ourselves as much the slaves of fashion, particularly at a certain period of our lives, as are the Malayan gallants.

In one respect at least these changing scenes offer to us opportunities which should not be missed. When, as frequently happens, an interesting custom dating back from antiquity is evidently fast disappearing it is surely fitting that it should find some place in our records lest oblivion overtake it entirely: and it were well that a vanishing tribe, providing perhaps an important link in a chain of evidence concerning the relationships of the people of Sarawak, should have it's annals written in the story of the earth's people. This is the demand of Ethnology and of History and already the data are rapidly leaving us.

Exactly similar processes are in evidence in the animate nature around us. When we go to the top of the hill and carefully scan the lowlands around us, it is usually easy to distinguish between primitive virgin jungle and secondary jungle - that which appears sonme years after a clearing has been made - and the amount of destruction which has been taken place is much greater than one would have supposed. Now, the trees of the secondary growth include but a few representatives of the original jungle and these are mostly of an inferior type, so that, as everybody knows, some of the valuable timber trees are in such areas exterminated. Another result of the Dayaks extravagant method of padi farming is that not a few of the more local elements of the flora must be exterminated before ever they are known to science. The same story has been told in well nigh every other country and usually the cry has been raised when it is too late. We may mention the oft quoted case of St. Helena: this island was once densely clothed with a luxuriant forest, rich in Ebony and other valuable woodsa: today, partly on account of goats, the greatest of all foes to trees, the island is comparatively speaking barren and forbidding.

It is but poor compensation that following the clearings many kinds of foreign plants appeat: so much is this the case that, as I believe, the majority of the wayside plants of Kuching are foreigners. Such are the South American "Lantana Camara" (bunga missi); that pretty little passion flower, also South American; that noxious weed Mimosa pudica, the sensitive plant: and the handsome blue flowered Thunbergia which strangles every tree over which it climbs.

Again, the exit of the jungle is accompanied by a rapid annihilation of certaib forms of animal life. With the rise of the pepper and gambier gardens in this neighbourhood a host of handsome butterflies and insects have been destroyed and in absence of their feeding ground they are lost to this part for ever. It is fortunate that the valuableinsect collections of the Sarawak Museum were formed at a time when primary jungle was to be found at the outskirts of this town: today it would be quite impossible to acquire such a collection.

Many animals, it is true, survive and multiply rapidly, but these are often pests inasmuch as they dwell in our homes or eat up our field crops; and to make matters worse animals (clothes moths for example) of like nature come from other parts of the tropics. Now, though this tale of woe may not appeal much to the utilitarian, nevertheless it has a serious aspect, particularly in relation to diseases. It is common knowledge that some of the most terrible scourges of manking are caused by the presence within the system of extremely minute animals (or plants) and that these same creatures are brought to us by means of certain hosts (e.g. mosquitoes) which we have with us here: such being the case it would be possible for a tick-carried parasite, brought from other countries, to effect great havoc amongst the Sarawak herds which are already somewhat troubled with ticks of bad reputation: and we may mention that amongst the mosquitoes which remain to us - the innocent jungle lovers have largely gone - we have at least half a dozen kinds which can carry the filaria parasite and others concerned with malaria, and if a case of yellow fever should be brought here - it is prophesied that the opening of the Panama canal will result in introducing this disease from America into Asia - it might spread far and wide, as we are well stocked wth the mosquito host. In concluding these rambling remarks on a subject somewhat wide I would crave the pardon of readers who think I have made too melancholy a case: my intention was merely to call attention to the fact that things of scientific interest will soon be gone for ever and that now is the time to collect the data.

J.H.

Report from Lundu, June, 1908

I was away with Dr. Foxworthy in the neighbourhood of Gunong Poe from the 2nd to the 4th. I will not enter into details of this trip as I hope we shall have the pleasure of hearing fron Dr. Foxworthy re his researches in the woods and forests of this country.

The 3rd being His Highness and the Rajah's birthday the usual public holiday was observed; the school and all Government Offices were closed.

On the 8th a sergeant and four (4) privates of H.N.M. force passed through here on their way to Kuching. They returned on the 14th and left immediately for Sambas having in custody a Chinese prisoner who was being extradited to Dutch territory.

I was absent from Lundu from 9th to 13th visiting coast as far as Tulok Milano. The population here, although small, is steadily increasing; more people arrive annually from the Dutch Islands and settle in this part. The banana estates have multiplied considerably since last year.

Several Chinese have had their planting permits cancelled. These people had done nothing to the land allotted them, but were simply holding on to same with the intention of selling it. They were informed a permit to open a garden was not a grant for land. The land was only lent them by Government to be cultivated.

I sent the Native Officer, Abang Ahmat, to the coast to erect some boundary marks and also to find out what land along the shore between Rembungan and Sampadi rivers was unoccupied. He tells me there are only about 400 fathoms left.

One Kian Seng has been fined $20 for carelessly allowing his shop house to catch fire on night of 21st May. Had not a Chinaman, who was returning home late that night and who noticed flames issuing out of Kian Seng's upper windows, raised the alarm. I fear a very serious fire would have resulted.

Since the above I have ordered the bazaar people to take certain precautions to guard against fire. Four wells will be sunk in front of the main bazaar, steps and buckets will always be in readiness to be used only in cases of fire.

The reports of theft of pepper have been numerous. As usual it is hard to trace the culprit.

F.F. Boult
Resident 2nd Class