Colony of North Borneo annual report.

  • British North Borneo
Date:
[1954]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Colony of North Borneo annual report. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    18/208 page 4
    over 100% from 5.2 million cubic feet (log and sawn) valued at $12.3 million in 1953 to 10.5 million cubic feet (log and sawn) valued at $17.4 million. Japan trebled her 1953 imports of timber from the Colony and took 36% of the total. The Australian and Hongkong markets were also expanded. The single big decline in exports was in the firewood trade to Hong¬ kong, which fell by over 50% in quantity and by almost 50% in value. Exports of tobacco by contrast went up by 137% and the market price by 138%. The increase in timber exports and a rise of over 4\ million cubic feet in total timber production lends support to the belief that it is principally in the timber resources of the Colony that there lies the best means of an early advance towards a more balanced economy. It was this belief that led the Government in 1952 to terminate by negotiation the timber monopoly granted by the British North Borneo (Chartered) Company to the British Borneo Timber Co., Ltd., three years before the earliest date upon which it would otherwise have been terminable. The emphasis on timber, and to a lesser extent on hemp, which is being grown on an increasing scale on the East Coast does not mean that the Colony can afford to neglect rubber. Costs of production, as reflected in current wage rates, are now nearly twice those prevailing in 1949, so that it is no longer economic to tap where yields are low. As by far the greater proportion of the rubber in the country is over 20 years of age, and of 120,400 acres, it is estimated that less than 10% is planted with high-yielding material, the need for an early and vigorous planting and replanting programme is self-evident and during the year the Rubber Fund Board, which is representative of all planting interests in the Colony devoted much time to the devising of a scheme to facilitate rubber planting and replanting. The scheme will be financed by a cess on rubber exported, imposed under the Rubber Industry Replanting Fund Ordinance, which was enacted in November. On the recommendation of the Rubber Fund Board, this Ordinance came into force on 1st January, 1955, and a cess of two cents a pound on all rubber exported was imposed as from 1st April, 1955. The burden of the cess is being offset by a reduction of at least two cents on the rubber export duty under a modified export duty formula.
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3