do as
well here as in Sumatra. When this fact becomes known, I presume there
will be quite a small rush to the country, as the Dutch Government, I
hear, is not popular in Sumatra, and land available for tobacco there
is becoming scarcer."

My anticipations have been verified, and the rush is already taking
place.

The localities at present in favour with tobacco planters are Marudu Bay
and Banguey Island in the North, Labuk Bay and Darvel Bay in the
neighbourhood of the Silam Station, and the Kinabatangan River on the
East.

The firstcomers obtained their land on very easy terms, some of them at
30 cents an acre, but the Court has now issued an order that in future
no planting land is to be disposed of for a less sum than $1[21] per
acre, free of quit-rent and on a lease for 999 years, with clauses
providing that a certain proportion be brought under cultivation.

At present no export duty is levied on tobacco shipped from North
Borneo, and the Company has engaged that no such duty shall be imposed
before the 1st January, 1892, after which date it will be optional with
them to levy an export royalty at the rate of one dollar cent, or a
halfpenny, per lb., which rate, they promise, shall not be exceeded
during the succeeding twenty years.

The tobacco cultivated in Sumatra and British North Borneo is used
chiefly for wrappers for cigars, for which purpose a very fine, thin,
elastic leaf is required and one that has a good colour and will burn
well and evenly, with a fine white ash. This quality of leaf commands a
much higher price than ordinary kinds, and, as stated, Count
GELOES'trial crop, from the Ranan Estate in Marudu Bay, averaged 1.83
guilders, or about $1 (3/2) per lb. It is said that 2 lbs. or 2-1/2 lbs.
weight of Bornean tobacco will cover 1,000 cigars.

Tobacco is not a new culture in Borneo, as some of the hill natives on
the West Coast of North Borneo have grown it in a rough and ready way
for years past, supplying the population of Brunai and surrounding
districts with a sun-dried article, which used to be preferred to that
produced in Java. The Malay name for tobacco is _tambako_, a corruption
of the Spanish and Portuguese term, but the Brunai people also know it
as _sigup_.

It was probably introduced into Malay countries by the Portuguese, who
conquered Malacca in 1511, and by the Spanish, who settled in the
Philippines in 1565. Its use has become universal with men, women and
children, of all