A NEW ENGLISH COLONY.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2750, 16 January 1882, Page 2

A NEW ENGLISH COLONY.

“ European Mail”) The fact that Her Majesty has granted a Royal Charter to the British North BornepCompany is entitled to more than a passing notice in the current record of the day’s news. It accentuates an episode in the history of English enterprise which, in these days of alleged decadence, is especially interesting, and it marks a new- era in the history of tlie Malay Archipelago. During the past three or four years a few gentlemen of the City of London have discovered and .. secured fresh opportunities for the ' investment of capital and labor in those far distant “Gardens of the Sun” that cluster round about tlie famous mountain of Kini Balu.” By treaty arrangements with the Sultats of Brunei and Sulu they have taken formal possession of ' North Borned, where they are engaged in the engrossing work of establishing a new colony bn a constitutional basis I under-the auspicosof Groat Britain. A tract of almost virgin soil and a Region of jungle, forest stream, and mountain,,.,. , its shores washed/by the China Sea, ; North Borneo is j situate on a great ... ocean highway of trade. In the hands ... of a private company it is nevertheless* for strategic and commercial purposes, - practically a British possession. Queen- I Victoria, by the terms,of the charter 1 ■ under which the Brisish North Borneo Company raises its own flag ; on its own Government house, has all the V ' advantages of the fine harbors and ■ ” coaling stations of Sabah together with, , the privileges of a new Eastern market, „ without the expense of subsidies or the labors of local administration. There can be no doubt that these considerations have had their due weight with the advisers .of the, Crown in the ; encouragement they have given to the ; new rulers of what, so far as; general knowledge goes, may be called a . new country. Endorsed by Royal Charter, Confirmed in its position by the Sultans, by its own residential stations and officers, and welcomed by the Natives themselves, it may now, there* forebe chronicled as an interesting factin the current history of our time, that the British North Borneo Company has laid the foundation of a new colony almost side by side’ with prosperous 1 ’ Sarawak, and in close and friendly ‘ proximity to the Dutchman’s, great flourishing colony of Java. With the ' ' exception of Australia, Borneo is the largest, as it is one of the richest, islands in the world-. The northern region known as Sabah, and a portion of the north-east coast, comprising -a ... total of twenty thousand square miles, is the territory acquired by the new company. The aboriginal population,, number some hundred thousand. They r< J chiefly live by agriculture. Indiarubber,. guttapercha, rattans; beeswax,' camphor, rice, sago, and birds’ nests , are the chief things in which they deal. The soil is capable of growing all the • tropical products, coffee and tobacco especially. The Oriental palms, -and the cocoanut, the areca, ;tbe sago are wild and plentiful. The bamboo, the . canna, the reardus achieve, a splendid and stately growth. Nowhere does the camphor tree flourish more luxuriantly. Pepper, cotton, coffee are found in abundance, as, yet, however, without, cultivation. The woods,are varied and ;. , of value; including ebony, iron wood, maintangore, chena, buleau, and the > fruit bearing trees are innumerable, - those most familiar to Europeans being ’ the orange, lemon, citron, banana, and pomegranate.- The well-known fertility : • of the soil and salubrity of the climate, the equatorial heats tempered by sen and mountain breezes,will, it is believed, attract planters and young colonists to settle under the auspices of the com* - pany, and by turning the natural advantages to good account, speedily justify the title of “ The New Celbh’’ already conferred upon North Borneo by appreciative and observant travellers. We are told by Madrid journals that Spain claims to exercise a right over Borneo and the Sulu.. Islands as dependencies of her vassal, .the Sultan of Sulu, and that therefore the Queen’s Royal endorsement of the British North Borneo Company is a breach of the Spanish supremacy. Diplomatic, re-- ; presentations, we are assured, are abont to bo addressed by Spain to the /Foreign Office on the subject. . ; •