The Wairarapa Daily. TUESDAY, JUNE 3,1890. A Borneo Newspaper.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3526, 3 June 1890, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. TUESDAY, JUNE 3,1890. A Borneo Newspaper.

We were unaware thai journalls:

with all its übiqnaty, had penetrated the savage wilds of Borneo, until a friend placed in our hands a copy of the" British North Borneo Herald," an exceedingly well printed and carefully edited journal. Tho issue of our Borneo contemporary is a monthly one, so that the editorial staff in that tropical clime has an interval for refreshment and recuperation between the periods of publication. The British protectorate in Northern Borneo governs a territory about two-thirds the size of New Zealand, possesses a full-fledged governor, and all the appurtenances essential to the dignity and well being of a Crown colony, The colony was originally founded by a company of plauters, and has a valuable export of sugar, tobacco, and sage besides considerable mineral wealth, The capital is Sandakan, where His Excellency resides, and where the North Borneo Herald is published. Tho plimate, judging from the record of the M press, appears to be decidedly humid. ApptJjly meteorological report gives 19 inches of rain for 18 days, the temperature varying from 'a minimum of 72 to a maximum of 87 degrees, That tlie climate is trying is apparent from the fact that a considerable proportion of llio news of the Herald refei'3 to officials who are recovering from sickness, or gravitating in that direction, and to vacations granted to invalid members of the staff ranging frop a few weeks to sixteen months and ueyentepji days, tbo latter term being accorded to' ohp l)jg]|ly favored civil semut, The record of deaths in ono month's return seems heavy, amounting to 42, and among the causes of death appears a somewhat strung?) but no doubt commendable return, under the significent heading of "judicial hanging,' 1 so that it would appear that all the mortality of North Borneo cannot well bo debited to the climate. Against tho 42 deaths, one birth iB recorded, and the editor naturally makes much of this, and accords, under a big headline, " domestic occurrence," far more prominence to it than is given to the judicial hanging. Among the high state officials 'is an old Masterton resident, Mr N. J. Tone, who fills tli.e position of Chief Surveyor, and adds to' his proper work tlie gf Commissioner of Lands. Aipujem.enta ave pt neglected in North Borneo, 'as the )ipi journal reports upon a tennis Mil) $9 P n a billiard tournament. Sport also, ji)dgjng from references to oleplmnts and rhinoceroses is to bo liad by them 'who

who oai'o to penetrate the tropic jungle of 'the big island, .It stvango to find that however wild

country may be and however treacherous its climate there are to be found Englishmen with' tho pluck to

develop its resources and plant on it all tho institutions peculiar to tho race. No place seoms too hot or too cold to-.; humid, or to dry for the British journalist to set up his type and work his press. Englishman aro colonising and subduing north Borneo on much tho samo

line's as they lmvo conquered for the mother country Australia and New Zealand and it would appear to be only a question of time for tho race to beoorao supreme, on, leaving out Australia, the biggest island in the world.