North Borneo LONDON HER MAJESTY’S STATIONERY OFFICE SEVEN SHILLINGS NET COLONY OF NORTH BORNEO ANNUAL REPORT, 1956 Published by Authority Published in Great Britain by Her Majesty’s Stationery Ojjice 1957 Designed, printed and bound by the Technical Staff of the Government Printing Department, North Borneo, 1957 Contents Page PART I Chapter 1 General Review ... 1 PART II Chapter 1 Population 11 2 Occupation, Wages and Labour Organisation ... 16 3 Public Finance and Taxation 22 4 Currency and Banking 32 5 Commerce 33 6 Production Land Utilisation and Ownership 42 Agriculture 47 Animal Husbandry 54 Drainage and Irrigation 57 Forests 59 Fisheries 67 7 Social Services Education 69 Public Health ... 77 Housing and Town Planning 83 Social Welfare ... 87 8 Legislation 94 9 Justice, Police and Prisons Justice 96 Police 97 Prisons 103 10 Public Utilities and Public Works Public Works Department 106 Electricity 109 Water 111 11 Communications Flarbours and Shipping 113 Railways 119 Roads 122 Road Transport 124 Air Communications 125 Posts 129 Telecommunications 130 12 Government Information Services, Broadcasting, Press and Films 133 13 Geology 140 PART III Chapter 1 Geography and Climate 146 2 History History 152 List of Important Dates in the History of North Borneo 159 3 Administration * . , , , 162 4 Weights and Measures . , . ... 167 5 Reading List ... 168 Appendices Table of Appendices 171 Appendices I to XIV ... ... 172 Illustrations Page The Queen’s Birthday Parade at Jesselton (31st May, 1956) ... Frontispiece Tamu at Tuaran Opposite 16 Bajau Chief ... Between 16-17 Rice Cultivation: Planting out Seedlings ... Between 16-17 Rice Cultivation: Harrowing Prepara¬ tory to Planting ... Opposite 17 The Chartered Bank’s New Office at Sandakan ... Opposite 48 The New Customs and Marine Office at Labuan Opposite 49 The Bombay Burmah Trading Corpo¬ ration’s Forest Headquarters at Kalabakan Opposite 112 A view of the Railway between Beaufort and Tenom Between 112-113 Ferry across the Padas River at Tenom Between 112-113 Rubber Fund Board Clonal Stump Nursery at Tenom ... Opposite 113 Graphs Imports and Exports ... Opposite 32 Imports and Exports — Values by Country of Origin and Destination . Opposite 33 Ma)7 Colony of North Borneo Inside back cover PART I General Review His Excellency Sir Roland Turnbull, k.c.m.g., who received a Knighthood in the New Year’s Honours List, administered the Government of the Colony throughout 1956. In June, Mr. B. J. O’Brien, c.m.g., who had been Chief Secretary since March, 1953, left the Colony on retirement. His place was taken by Mr. R. N. Turner, c.m.g., who arrived in North Borneo in September. The year, in which both the seventy-fifth anniversary of the granting of the Royal Charter to the British North Borneo (Chartered) Company and the tenth anniversary of the cession of North Borneo to the Crown were celebrated, was again a prosperous one. The Colony maintained its enviable record of freedom from political strife and violence. The price of rubber, on which the well-being of the Colony still so largely depends, was nearly as high at the end of the year as the average price obtained during 1955, when it had been consistently higher than at any time since the boom period of 1950-51. Exports of timber and copra rose substantially. The total value of the Colony’s visible external trade was greater than in any other year during the history of North Borneo. The maintenance of production at such a high level was due largely to an appreciable increase during the year in the size of the Colony’s labour force. Numbers of Indonesians, who had commenced coming to North Borneo of their own volition in 1953 to work on the hemp and rubber estates on the East Coast, continued to arrive during the year. The island of Labuan became a free port on 1st September, thus regaining the position it had held, as a part of the Straits Settlements, until its occupation by the Japanese in 1942.. The reconstruction of the main towns proceeds apace. An extensive area has been reclaimed for building in the centre of Jesselton, where many temporary shops and some of the few pre-war buildings that miraculously survived the intensive bomb¬ ing which preceded the liberation of the country in 1945 have now disappeared, to make way for new shophouses and offices built of more permanent and attractive materials. Sandakan is following the example set by Jesselton; the rebuilding of the commercial area there has now begun in earnest, the lead being taken by the two Banks, each of which opened new premises during the year. Good progress has also been made at Labuan, Tawau and a number of other towns, though generally speaking the reconstruction of the smaller towns has long since been completed. 9 COLONY OF NORTH BORNEO The work of associating the people of the Colony in the management of their own affairs has continued. There are now four Town Boards with unofficial majorities and control over their own finances, twelve Township Authorities with representa¬ tive boards of official and unofficial members, and nineteen Township Authorities without such boards in which the District Officer exercises the powers of the Authority. A third Local Authority was constituted during 1956 under the Rural Govern¬ ment Ordinance. This was at Papar. Inaugurated on 1st July, it embraces the whole of the administrative district of Papar, including the townships of Papar, Kinarut, Kimanis and Bongawan. The Authority conforms to the same pattern as those established earlier at Kota Belud and Sipitang, and present indications are that it will prove as successful. In addition to the work of the statutory Authorities, very valuable progress has been made by the Residency and District Teams constituted in 1954. These Teams are comprised of representatives of Govern¬ ment Departments and of prominent local unofficials, and are under the chairmanship of the Resident or District Officer. They command wide support and have achieved much in the short time since their inception. At the meeting of Legislative Council held in November, 1955, His Excellency the Governor outlined new arrangements which he had devised for the nomination of unofficial members of that Council and of Executive Council from panels of names sub¬ mitted by various representative bodies throughout the Colony. By the end of 1956, all but two of the unofficial members of Legislative Council had been appointed in accordance with these arrangements. Three important items of Government policy attracted public attention during 1956. These were forest policy, education policy and the report of the 1956 Salaries Commission. Legislative Council Paper No. 34 of 1955 sought to secure the establishment of the forest industry as a permanent factor in the economy of the Colony through the imposition of strict control over the operations of the great body of annual licensees and by this means to afford a measure of protection to the holders of long-term forest licences, to whom Government owed its principal respon¬ sibility. The Paper, which was debated in Legislative Council in April, met vigorous opposition. In June certain relaxations were made to the policy outlined in the Paper and the misgivings of the annual licensees appeared to a certain extent to have been allayed. Insofar as educational policy was concerned, an out¬ standing development during the year was the amendment of the Education Ordinance on the recommendation of a Select Committee appointed by the Governor in 1955 to provide for the establishment of a statutory Board of Education representa¬ tive of all educational interests and all sections of the community. ANNUAL REPORT, 1 95 6 3 The functions of the Board, which met for the first time in December, are to devise educational policy applicable to all schools and, as an ultimate goal, to assume responsibility as the chief instrument of Government in the field of education operating through the Department of Education and Local Education Com¬ mittees. The report of the 1956 Salaries Commission, which was presented to Legislative Council in September, recommended overall increases in salary scales for Government servants. The report was accepted by Legislative Council and its principal provisions have now been introduced. Among its recommenda¬ tions was the creation of a fully integrated structure within the civil service obviating the previous distinction between its “Senior” and “Junior” divisions. A disturbing feature during 1956 was the occurrence of a number of fires in urban areas. Of these, two were particularly serious in Sandakan and one in Jesselton. The largest occurred in Sandakan on the night of 23rd May when sixty-seven shophouses were totally destroyed and damage estimated at three million dollars was caused. The reasons for the fires have not been established. In each case the buildings destroyed were temporary structures erected after the war and the answer clearly lies in rebuilding in permanent materials at the earliest oppor¬ tunity. The potential danger that temporary buildings represent and the advisability of insuring premises against fire have now been generally accepted by the commercial community. The annual Conference of Native Chiefs was held in Jesselton in November. The purpose of the Conference was, as in previous years, to enable the leading representatives of the several Native communities to meet one another and discuss matters of common concern. For the first time the Conference was opened to the press. A very considerable number of students from North Borneo, both men and women, are receiving higher education outside the Colony. The greater part of these students have been enabled to pursue their studies through generous assistance made available under the Colombo Plan. North Borneo’s first barrister returned to the Colony from the United Kingdom in 1956.