THE PROPOSED NEW KINGDOM OF BORNEO.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5410, 30 July 1878, Page 3

THE PROPOSED NEW KINGDOM OF BORNEO.

In reference to the establishment by a powerful British company, under the lead of Baron Overbeck, of a now kingdom in the island of Borneo, reports of which obtained publicity recently, we (Oapricornian, 13th instant) learn from the Sarawak Gazette that some of the statements on this subject were at least premature. That journal says ; —• “ Baron Overbeck has, it is true, obtained n cession of a large tract of country from the Sultan of Borneo, but the stipulated sums in consideration of which that cession was made have not been paid. The title of Maharajah of Saba has not been conferred, and in face of the almost universal opposition which is entertained to the transfer, it.is more than doubtful if the grant of land is worth the paper it is written upon. It appears also very dubious whether the ‘ powerful British company’ has any existence except in the imagination of its would-be promoters, “The presence of tho Acting-Governor of Labuan and of H.M.S. Hart, - on which so much stress was laid, was calculated to leave an impression that the undertaking was id some way specially recognised by H. B. M.’s Government, but we are informed that this is not tho case, although it is clear that the Brunai Government were to some degree under this mistaken impression. “From the proceedings of the Supremo Council, and from the extracts from a diary kept on the Rajah’s late trip to Brunai and the North, it can be seen that much of the exultation displayed in the inspired communication which was furnishhed to tho Straits Times and the Chronicle was premature, to say the least of it, and that its facts were hardly quite correct, to put it mildly, • “In many respects the proceedings of the new speculators have a remarkable likeness to those of the defunct American Borneo Company, a member of which, wo believe, accompanied Baron Overbeck to Sulu. The coincidence in the lavish promises, and the delay in the fulfilment of them, when paying down cash is concerned, are quite striking. ; The sum promised to the Sultan is out of all proportion with any revenue that can be for many years derived from the unsettled and misgoverned districts in the North, while the stipulation that the lease is not to lapse until three consecutive payments have been omitted has a somewhat suspicious ring, as if the contingency of the powerful British Company being occasionally a little short of ready cash had been contemplated as possible. . “The criminal recklessness displayed by the Brunai Government in signing away sovereign rights, even had they belonged to it, without the smallest guarantee or apparent case as to how the power thus given was to bo exercised, or as to the character of those to whom it was to be trusted, shows how unfit the Sultan’s Government is to ‘ have even tho shadow of absolute power. If any bold policy could find favor in the. eyes ,of tho British public at Home, it might bo well‘now to urgo the duty that is incumbent on England of taking some steps to bring about some settled and responsible government, and to insure security for life and property in countries with which she has been for many years moro or less con? nected.

“ A Government which is scoffed at by its vassals and agents, which is powerless for good, oven had it tho inclination, and which is only able to be a shield , for the oppression and rapacity of its beggarly nobles, had better bo swept away at once, but if. this * thorough* policy is not to the taste of the somewhat timid majority at Home, such a Government might at least be practically effaced by the convenient fiction of an advising resident. “ However, r it is clear that there is little prospect of anything beyond perhaps the floating of a company being effected. •“ It will hardly be necessary for tho Dutch authorities to trouble themselves about tho affair, which will doubtless he lifctlo . more heard of.' , . •

“ It may bo worth while to state that: the El Dorado, of which such a glowing account was furnished, has now beon ‘ suffering for six months (therefore daring the Baron’s first visit) from a drought, which ban made it resemble Aden more than the planter’s paradise which was described. During tho period mentioned no rain lias fallen —paddy farms, sago plantations, and other plantations are dying or dead, burnt up by the intense heat. Fires are bursting forth in all directions, and such a dense haze has been hanging over everything for months that traffic has been to a great oxtout put a stop to. Ono who saw it ’compared it to an English November fog. If the

Ceylon planters could see it under this aspect, they would perhaps think twice before recognising the great advantages offered by the new dominion.”