Annual report on Brunei / Colonial Office.

  • Colonial Office
Date:
[1949]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

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

    34/90 page 28
    staff may be sent there. This would be desirable as it is not feasible to send more than one Guard per year to the 9 month course at Kepong in Malaya and there are still several junior ■Guards as yet without systematic training. Administration and General. An officer seconded from the Malayan Forest Service—Mr. E. S. Erskine, Senior Assistant Conservator of Forests—was in charge of the Forest Department until his departure on leave on January 29th. The District Officer (Belait) acted as the Head of the Department until March 14th when Mr. J. Grant. Assistant Conservator of Forests, seconded from the Sarawak Forests Service assumed charge. The subordinate field staff consisted of two Foresters, twelve Forest Guards and one Boatman. Five Forest Labourers were regularly employed by the end of the year. Two Forest Guards ;and two Forest Labourers were recruited during the year. The clerical staff consisted of three clerks and a peon. From September to December the State Forest Officer was Commissioner for National Registration in the State and was made responsible for operating the scheme in Belait District. .All the Forest Department staff in the district were diverted to this work and forest operations were accordingly almost nil. The Forest Research Institute in Malaya continued to advise on all research queries. The expenses of this Institute receive :an annual contribution from the State of Brunei. (d) Mining. The British Malayan Petroleum Company Limited continued to expand their operations in the Seria area, where there are now 150 producing wells. The total production of crude oil in 1949 was 24,694,500 barrels, equivalent to 3,302,879 tons. The production of gas amounted to 580,018,000 cubic metres. 274 Europeans are employed on this field and over 5000 Asians. The Company was also operating under two Oil Exploration Licences, outside the area of their Lease, covering a total area of 816 square miles. Two applications for prospecting licences for coal were received during the year. A new industry was started with the establishment of pottery works at the 6th mile Tutong Road. Bricks, drain-pipes, latex flower-pots and numerous articles for domestic use are being manufactured there. (e) Cottage Industries. Mrs. E. E. F. Pretty was in charge of the Brunei Arts and 'Crafts for the greater part of the year and has succeeded in re¬ viving the weaving industry in the River Kampong, where they are now, as in pre-war days, making the beautiful gold-thread .sarongs for which Brunei was once famous.
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