Annual report of the Sarawak Government Medical Department.

  • Sarawak. Medical Department.
Date:
[1949]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report of the Sarawak Government Medical Department. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The Colony of Sarawak, its shores washed by the China Sea, is a strip of territory from thirty to one hundred and sixty miles wide situated on the north coast of the Island of Borneo between, roughly, the 110th and 116th parrallels of longitude east of Greenwich, and betwen 1° and 5° north latitude. It has a coastline of some 500 miles and in area is about 50,000 square miles, roughly the size of England and Wales. In the north and east, its boundaries march with those of the State of Brunei and the Colony of North Borneo, while to the east, south and west it shares a common boundary with the former Dutch Borneo, now part of the United States of Indonesia. There is a wide, low-lying coastal plain which narrows towards the north of the territory. Through this plain wind innumerable rivers from their sources in the mountainous interior. These rivers are the main arteries of trade and, virtually, the only means of communication but they are not ideal for the purpose as rapids in the higher country of the interior and bars at the river mouths in certain cases render navi¬ gation hazardous and restrict usage. Nevertheless, fair sized vessels, up to about 2,000 tons, can ascend the Sarawak River as far as Kuching sixteen miles from the river mouth. The Rejang River, the largest and most important waterway in the Colony, can be used in its lower reaches by vessels of almorst unlimited tonnage and by fair sized vessels as far as, and beyond, Sibu which is some sixty miles from the sea. The estimated mid-year population in 1948 was 555,020 (Census 1947—546,385). There are three main population groups, namely, the Pagan Tribes, the Malays and the Chinese. The Pagan Tribes, which include Ibans or Sea Dayaks, Land Dayaks, Muruts, Kayans, Kenyahs, Punans and many others, constitute about fifty per cent of the Colony’s population. The other two groups, approximately equal, constitute the other fifty per cent. The population density throughout the territory as a whole is only approximately eleven per square mile but large tracts of country are uninhabited and the population is almost entirely concentrated in small settlements, on the coast and along the rivers and, in the case of the Pagan Tribes, in “Longhouses” on the banks of the upper reaches of the rivers. These longhouses are, in effect, villages under one roof and, in most instances, they are separated from each other by many miles. Roughly speaking the Malays and Melanos inhabit the coastal areas, the Chinese the towns and trading centres the Dayaks the interior of the country. Trade, wholesale end retail, is almost entirely in the hands of the Chinese. The Malays and Melanos are fisher folk and sago growers while the Dayaks engage in subsistence agriculture, and collect forest products for sale to the Chinese traders. The country’s most important export, to which its economy is closely linked, is rubber, which comes from small holdings, mainly owned by Chinese. There are only three large rubber estates in the country.