Apart From This Harassing Debt, The Expenses Are
Pre-Eminently For "Establishments," The Construction Of Roads And
Bridges, And Pensions To Rajahs Whose Former Sources Of Revenue Have
Been Interfered With Or Abolished.
The sources of revenue are to some
extent remarkable, and it is possible that some of them might be
altogether abolished if public attention became focussed upon them.
Export duties are levied only on tin, the great product of Sungei
Ujong, and gutta-percha.
The chief import duty is on opium, and in 1879
this produced 4,182 pounds, or about one-fourth of the whole revenue.
Besides this fruitful and growing source of income, 3,074 pounds was
raised in 1879 under the head "Farms;" a most innocuous designation of
a system which has nothing to do with the "kindly fruits of the earth"
at all, but with spirits, gambling, oil, salt, opium, and a lottery! In
other words, the "farms" are so many monopolies, sold at intervals to
the highest bidder, the "gambling farm" being the most lucrative of the
lot to the Government, and of course to the "farmer"!
The prison expenses are happily small, and the hospital expenses also,
owing mainly in the former case to the efforts of the "Capitans China,"
who are responsible for their countrymen, and in the latter to the
extreme healthiness of the climate. The military police force now
consists of a European superintendent, ninety-four constables, paid
45s. per month, and twelve officers, all Malays; but as it is Malay
nature to desire a change, and it is found impossible to retain the men
for any lengthened periods, it is proposed to employ Sikhs, as in
Perak.
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