Annual report on Brunei / Colonial Office.

  • Great Britain. Colonial Office.
Date:
[1948]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report on Brunei / Colonial Office. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    11/68 (page 5)
    Europeans Eurasians Arrivals 79 Departures 55 Malays Chinese Indians Other Races 1,018 3,441 170 927 887 2,829 136 426 Total 5,635 Total 4,333 Aliens, which term connotes persons other than subjects of His Highness the Sultan and British subjects (not including British protected persons), are required to register on arrival and to notify change of address and departure from the State. 4’hey may be, and in the case of the labouring classes generally are, required to furnish a guarantor for their repatriation expenses to the country from which they have arrived, should that become necessary. Little restriction is placed on the free movement of Aliens of Malaysian race. Immigrants of other races, however, are required to produce a Passport or similar document. There is no legislation regarding the volume of immigration. Chapter II. OCCUPATION, WAGES & LABOUR ORGANISATION The total population of the State is about 40,000 and of these approximately one-eighth are employed on the oilfield, so that though it is still correct to say that the majority of the inhabitants are kampong dwellers and fishermen, many have some member of the family working on the oilfield. This acquisition of cash wages and the appreciation of what money buys must perforce lead to a gradual breaking of a characteristic that has been commented on by successive British Residents, viz. a dis¬ regard for the acquisition of money and a system of barter to supply their simple needs. The principal employers of labour are the Government, the British Malayan Petroleum Company and four European owned estates. The oilfield at Seria is now one of the most important oil¬ fields in the world, producing more oil than the whole of the oilfields of Trinidad, and employing about 5,000 persons in all, over 50% of whom belong to one or other of the indigenous races of the country. Other races employed are Chinese, Indians and Dayaks. The Indians, who are largely from the west coast of India, make excellent drillers while the Dayaks are used for jungle felling and clearing. In addition to the rubber estates referred to above, there are a large number of small holdings planted with rubber. Estate labour is mostly drawn from surrounding villages.