e white flour, is packed in gunny bags for the
Singapore market. At Singapore, some of this flour--a very small
proportion--is converted into the pearl sago of the shops, but the
greater portion is sent on direct to Europe, where it is used for sizing
cloth, in the manufacture of beer, for confectionery, &c.

It will be seen that the sago palm thus affords food and also employment
to a considerable number of both natives and Chinese and, requiring
little or no trouble in cultivation, it is a perfect gift of the gods to
the natives in the districts where it occurs. It is a curious fact that,
though abounding in Sarawak, in the districts near Brunai and in the
southern parts of British North Borneo on the West Coast, it seems to
stop short suddenly at the Putatan River, near Gaya Bay, and is not
found indigenous in the North nor on the North-East. Some time ago I
sent a quantity of young shoots to a Chief living on the Labuk River,
near Sandakan, on the East Coast, but have not yet heard whether they
have proved a success.

A nasty sour smell is inseparable from a sago factory, but the health of
the coolies, who live in the factory, does not appear to be affected by
it.

The Brunais and natives of sago districts consume a considerable
quantity of sago flour, which is boiled into a thick, tasteless paste,
called _boyat_ and eaten by being twisted into a large ball round a
stick and inserted into the mouth--an ungraceful operation. Tamarind, or
some very acid sauce is used to impart to it some flavour. Sago is of
course cheaper than rice, but the latter is, as a rule, much preferred
by the native, and is found more nutritious and _lasting_. LOGAN, in the
_Journal of the Indian Archipelago_, calculates that three sago palms
yield more nutritive matter than an acre of wheat, and six trees more
than an acre of potatoes. The plantain and banana also flourish, under
cultivation, in Borneo, and Mr. BURBIDGE, in his preface to the _Gardens
of the Sun_, points out that it fruits all the year round and that its
produce is to that of wheat as 133 : 1, and to that of the potato as
44 : 1. What a Paradise! some of my readers will exclaim. There can be
no want here! I am sure the figures and calculations above quoted are
absolutely correct, but I have certainly seen want and poverty in
Borneo, and these tropical countries are not quite the earthly
paradises which some old writers would have us believe. For our poor
British "unemploye