Annual report on Sarawak.

Date:
[1950]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report on Sarawak. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    73/230 (page 41)
    During the year a small modern mechanised rubber processing factory was established by the Department of Agriculture in an important area of smallholding rubber about 1*2 miles from Kuching. The object of the project is to collect latex from the smallholder and take processing and market¬ ing entirely out of his hands. Factories of this nature should do a great deal to improve the generally poor quality of sheet exported from Sarawak and great importance is attached to this scheme. A Staff Training School has been established near Kuching and as further staff are trained the Department’s activities are gradually being extended in other parts of the country besides the First Division. Animal Husbandry. Animal husbandry at present plays but a small part in Sarawak’s rural economy. Bullocks are rarely seen. Some herds of buffaloes estimated at a total of 5,6-00 head are kept in the Fifth Division and are used for meat and for cultivating the wet padi fields, but in other parts of the country the number of buffaloes is negligible. iSmall herds of dairy cows are kept near the towns by Indians. Chinese smallholders keep pigs and poultry for their own use and for the supply of pork and eggs to local markets. Goats are kept to a small extent by the Malays. Poultry for home use are seen in the villages of both Malays and Dayaks. Pigs are always to be found in and around Dayak villages. Schemes for the development of animal husbandry in Sarawak with assistance from the Colonial Development and Welfare Fund are being prepared. Strict control is now exercised over the import of livestock into Sarawak under the Animal Health Ordinance and recently legislation has been introduced having as its object control of slaughter of cows and female buffaloes suit¬ able for breeding. Forestry. The Forest Department staff now consists of 113 officers of alDranks, including 4 members of the Colonial Forest Service. The administration is organised on a Divisional basis, with an Assistant Conservator, who is directly respon¬ sible to the Conservator, in charge. The Assistant Conservator in charge of the Fourth Division at present also supervises forestry in the State of Brunei.