erritory, but also in
Brunai and in the British Colony of Labuan, where it has been proclaimed
a legal tender on the condition of the Company, in return for the profit
which they reap by its issue in the island, contributing to the
impoverished Colonial Treasury the yearly sum of $3,000.

Trade, however, is still, to a great extent, carried on by a system of
barter with the Natives. The primitive currency medium in vogue under
the native regime has been described in the Chapters on Brunai.

The silver currency is the Mexican and Spanish Dollar and the Japanese
Yen, supplemented by the small silver coinage of the Straits
Settlements. The Company has not yet minted any silver coinage, as the
profit thereon is small, but in the absence of a bank, the Treasury, for
the convenience of traders and planters, carries on banking business to
a certain extent, and issues bank notes of the values of $1, $5 and $25,
cash reserves equal to one-third of the value of the notes in
circulation being maintained.[18]

Sir ALFRED DENT is taking steps to form a Banking Company at Sandakan,
the establishment of which would materially assist in the development of
the resources of the territory.

British North Borneo is not in telegraphic communication with any part
of the world, except of course through Singapore, nor are there any
local telegraphs. The question, however, of supplementing the existing
cable between the Straits Settlements and China by another touching at
British territory in Borneo has more than once been mooted, and may yet
become a _fait accompli_. The Spanish Government appear to have decided
to unite Sulu by telegraphic communication with the rest of the world,
_via_ Manila, and this will bring Sandakan within 180 miles of the
telegraphic station.

Footnotes:

[Footnote 18: Agencies of Singapore Banks have since been established at
Sandakan.]

CHAPTER IX.

In the eyes of the European planter, British North Borneo is chiefly
interesting as a field for the cultivation of tobacco, in rivalry to
Sumatra, and my readers may judge of the importance of this question
from a glance at the following figures, which shew the dividends
declared of late years by three of the principal Tobacco Planting
Companies in the latter island:--

Dividends paid by

The Deli The Tabak The Amsterdam
In Maatschappi. Maatschappi. Deli Co.

1882 65 per cent.