Kuching - Page 5

In Malaysian history class, we learned that rubber plantations in the country was promoted by an Englishman named Henry Nicholas Ridley (1855-1956).

He was a botanist, naturalist, and geologist who spent most of his time in Singapore.

His career on this side of the globe started in 1888. He applied and was selected the first director of Gardens and Forests in the Straits Settlements.

Before he made his way here, he was to meet Italian botanist Odoardo Beccari to prepare for his new job.

After reaching Singapore, Ridley was in charge of introducing new plants of economical value to the region. Against popular belief, he was not the first person to introduce rubber to this part of the world as it was already introduced 10 years earlier by Sir Hugh Low.

However, he did establish the taping method for harvesting latex. He was also the one who heavily promoted rubber plantations in Malaya.

He was so passionate in promoting rubber planting that he was always stuffing rubber seeds into the pockets of everyone he met, with hopes that they would plant the seeds. That was how he earned the nickname “Mad Ridley”.

The first rubber tree planted in Sarawak was in the Anglican bishop’s garden in Kuching

While we learned a lot of Malaysian history in school, we only know a little about Sarawak’s own history with the rubber tree.

Ridley might not have been the one who promoted rubber in Sarawak as vigorously as he did in Malaya, but he did provide a written account of rubber planting in the state.

In September 1905, Ridley wrote an article which was published in the Agricultural Bulletin of the Straits Settlements.

He stated, “It would now be interesting to hear from the present Custodians of the gardens mentioned if the trees are still in existence, and to what girth they have attained at the sere and yellow age of 39 years.”

According to Ridley’s account, the first rubber trees planted in Sarawak were from seeds imported from the Botanic Gardens, Singapore. Reverend Bishop George Frederick Hose brought them in 1881. Bishop Hose was the uncle of Marudi resident, ethnologist and botanist Charles Hose.

He further stated, “One of these trees is still standing in the Bishop’s garden at Kuching and two more in the garden of the Resident. The former measures 6 feet 4 inches in girth at three feet from the ground and the others are nearly as large. The remainder of the trees have disappeared.”

The first rubber plantation in Sarawak

Ridley actually visited Sarawak four times, in 1903, 1904, 1914 and 1915. During his visits, Mad Ridley could not help but go out and see the rubber plantations.

The first rubber plantation he visited was the Coffee Estate on the slopes of Mount Matang. There, they planted the rubber trees together with coffee, tea and Mauritius hemp.

However according to Ridley, the rubber trees were in bad condition. Although the trees were five years old, they looked like the size of two-year-old trees.

“Many of the trees had fallen, others remained as dead stumps, or if alive bore only a few struggling leafy branches. Round Kuching, in the cemetery and along the roads, a good many para rubber trees have been planted lately, and seem to be doing fairly well, though it is too soon yet to form an opinion of them.”

Based on Ridley’s observation of rubber planting in Sarawak, the soils were too sandy.

“The greater part of the hills of Sarawak, at least that portion which I have seen, are sandstone or limestone, and a great area of the diluvium of the lower country is therefore very sandy. But the Lundu hills which I visited are granite, compose of a fine-grained granite. The soil here is less sandy and more argillacuous, with sandy mounds or small hills scattered about it. This seemed to be the most suitable ground for para rubber I saw in Sarawak. Another likely spot is long the Kucing river near Santubong, I had not time to visit this, but head that somewhere here Chinese were planting para rubber.

The first rubber export in Sarawak and the Rubber Boom

Based on a report from 1962, the first rubber was exported from Sarawak in 1910.

When the world price of rubber hit historic highs during that decade (the first time in 1905-1906, followed by another boom in 1909-1910), Sarawak got hit by rubber fever.

Then Simanggang Resident AB Ward observed in his memoirs that 1911-1912 were the Planting Eras, as “Natives caught the rubber infection badly. Malays planted all the land they could. Dyaks followed suit, and rubber banished all thoughts of tribal warfare and headhunting.”

Professor Rob Cramb in Land and longhouse: Agrarian Transformation in the Uplands of Sarawak describes how the Saribas Iban took advantage of the money-making opportunity in rubber.

“Initially it was the wealthier Iban communities with a large land base and an accumulated surplus from the gutta and coffee booms which embarked on rubber planting.”

He also cites examples of early enterprising farmers like Tuai Rumah Budin in Stambak, who planted over 4,000 seedlings his son Lumpoh brought back from Singapore, and Penghulu Saang who planted his rubber in Pelandok in the Paku branch of the Saribas in 1912.

Although the price of rubber fell sharply after 1910, it nonetheless became the main agricultural export of the country until the late 1960s.

Unlike Malaya and other rubber producing countries, the kingdom was relatively late in establishing rubber plantations, as the Brookes favoured smallholders and were reluctant to give indigenous farmland to European companies.

During Charles Brooke’s reign, only five large rubber estates were established.

By 1941 before the World War II, there were 236,557 acres of rubber plantations in Sarawak.

During World War II (WWII), Batu Lintang camp housed both Allied prisoners of war (POWs) and civilian internees.

The living conditions within the compounds were cramped. The occupants were separated into different compounds and groups, namely British officers and non-commissioned officers (NCOs), Australian officers and NCOs, Dutch officers and NCOs, British other ranks, British Indian Army, Indonesian soldiers, Roman Catholic priests and religious men, male civilian internees and female civilian internees.

There were altogether 110 priests and religious Catholics, including 44 Capuchin friars, five Mountfort missionaries, 22 Brothers of Huijbergen and 38 Mill Hill missionaries.

These priests and religious men who were mostly Dutch and Irish, had a large plot of land to grow vegetables and fruits in their compound.

Meanwhile, other compounds such as those that belonged to the Australian, Dutch and British officers had not enough land for cultivation.

Besides vegetables and fruits, the priests happened to be successful in growing papayas.

According to The Sarawak Gazette report (Apr 1, 1947), it was not a surprise to see a Japanese soldier came to their compound asking for papayas.

He said that his chief needed three papayas immediately and they must be large and fully ripe.

The priests then obeyed, giving the soldier the papayas that he demanded.

Lieutenant-Colonel Tatsuji Suga and ‘his papayas’

Then Lieutenant-Colonel Tatsuji Suga came into the picture. He was the commander of all Prisoner-of-War (POW) and civilian internment camps in Borneo .

Suga was believed to be a Christian. There were accounts of him attending church services at the internment camps during the war.

Within an hour after the three priests reluctantly surrendered their papayas to the Japanese, a messenger arrived from the camp commandment office.

He said that the Lieutenant-Colonel would like to see the three priests, whom he learned were all over 70 years of age.

So the priests quickly wore their best robes and proceeded to the office where they met with Suga.

Suga told the priests that while he treated all his prisoners sympathetically, he was particularly considerate of the aged.

“That being so he trusts his visitors will accept as a token of his respect and appreciation, a small gift.”

And guess what? He handed to each priest, one very succulent papaya.

If Sarawakians were to name one 19th century schooner that they may know, the answer would most probably be the Royalist.

(For Pirates of the Caribbean fans who said The Black Pearl, you’d be off by a century as the trilogy was set roughly in the mid-1700s.)

The Royalist itself was famously known to have played an important role in establishing British adventurer James Brooke’s foothold in Sarawak.

He bought the vessel in 1836 with money he had inherited from his father.

The Findlay

That being said, did you know that the Royalist was not Brooke’s first vessel?

Brooke always wanted to sail to this part of the globe. He was reportedly inspired by the book The Eastern Seas written by George Windsor Earl. According to Robert Payne in The White Rajahs of Sarawak, Brooke begged his father for a ship – any ship.

“At last, in February 1834, his father relented and promised to buy a ship for him and to furnish it with merchandise.”

Finally, he saw a ship he wanted in Liverpool. It was black, with a black hull and black mast.

Like any young man excited over a new ride, Brooke got excited and told his friend about it.

In a letter to Cruikshank, he wrote: “Me voila done! I have a vessel afloat, and nearly ready for sea- a rakish slaver brig, 290 tons burden- one that would fight or fly as occasion demanded, and made to pay her expenses The Indian Archipelago, the northeast coast of China, Japan, New Guinea and the Pacific is the unlimited sphere of our adventure.”

So, the ship (which was called The Findlay) sailed from England on May 6, 1834.

Unfortunately for Brooke, his captain (a friend named Kennedy) and first mate (Harry Wright) did not see eye to eye with each other.

Kennedy and Wright were constantly quarreling along the journey. Brooke then abruptly decided to sell The Findlay and its cargo.

The Royalist

Frustrated, Brooke returned to Bath, England where he spent his time fox-hunting and yachting. At this time, Payne stated that he “seemed to have no purpose in life.”

Finally, his purpose in life came in the form of a 142-ton topsail schooner.

When Brooke’s father died in December 1835, he inherited £30,000 (about £3,780,000 in 2019). He immediately bought a yacht, The Royalist. She was believed to be built in Cowes in 1834 as a gentleman’s yacht for Rev T.L Lane.

It was “armed with six six-pounders, a number of swivel guns, and every kind of small arms.”

The Royalist was a vessel of the Royal Yacht Squadron, one of the most prestigious yacht clubs in the world that still exists to this day.

Due to this, she could fly The White Ensign. This was a flag flown on British Royal Navy ships and shore establishments.

In other words, the Royalist was accorded the same right as ships of the Royal Navy.

This time, Brooke had learned his lesson from The Findlay, so he chose his officers wisely. For his first journey on the Royalist, he took some of his relatives and friends to the Mediterranean.

During this journey, he even brought along his nephew John Brooke Johnson Brooke who later became Rajah Muda, his heir to the Kingdom of Sarawak. This was before Brooke disinherited him in favour of his younger brother, Charles.

They travelled to Malta, Bosporus, Halicarnassus (now Bodrum) and Rhodes. Then, they returned home in June, 1837.

For 18 months, Brooke studied where he was going and charted his journey.

In fact, his initial plan was to establish a settlement at Malludu Bay (now Kota Marudu, Sabah).

The Royalist sets sail to the Far East

After that long and studious period of planning, he was ready to sail the Royalist by the end of 1838.

He was famously quoted from his diary stating, “Could I carry my vessel to places where the keel of European ship never before played the waters, could I plant my foot where white man’s foot has never been before – could I gaze upon scenes which educated eyes have never looked on – see man in the rudest state of nature – I should be content without looking to further rewards.”

Finally, the Royalist sailed from Devonport on Dec 16, 1838 with 19 crew members.

On June 1, 1839, Brooke arrived in Singapore where he remained for a few weeks. It was here that Brooke finally heard about Sarawak.

Payne wrote, “He learned that the antimony ore, which gleamed with a dull silvery gleam and which he could see being unloaded in Singapore harbour, came from Sarawak. He learned, too, that the Rajah (Pangeran Muda Hashim) was fighting some obscure rebels in the interior. There had been no mention of Sarawak in his prospectus. Now he was on fire to enter Sarawak.”

At that time, the future king never thought he would became the first White Rajah of Sarawak.

The Royalist arrives in Sarawak

So Brooke made his preparation, readying gifts such as silk, cloth, sweets, preserved ginger, gunpowder to present to Pangeran Muda Hashim.

Even during the 19th century Made-in-China items were famous as Brooke prepared a huge box of toys from China for Pangeran’s children.

On July 27, the Royalist left Singapore and heading toward Borneo. Then on Aug 11, they laid eyes on Mount Santubong for the first time.

Three days later on Aug 14, the Royalist sailed slowly up Sarawak river passing through mangroves and nipah palms along the riverbank.

“At night, less than two miles from Kuching, he dropped anchor. At first dawn the Royalist rounded a bend in the river, and at seven o’clock came in sight of Kuching,” Payne wrote.

And the rest is history.

The royal shipwreck

Two years after Brooke became the first White Rajah of Sarawak on September, 1843, the Royalist was recorded in Brunei.

Then, it was reported that the Royalist was sold as a trading vessel early in 1844 but still retained her name.

On Dec 11, 1854, the schooner was wrecked near Kawhia, New Zealand. Her captain then, a man named Tavernor wrote a letter on Dec 12, 1854 to Charles Davis reporting on the wreck.

“I had done my best to save the vessel from destruction; but afterwards my whole thought was how to save our own lives, but fortunately the tide and serf left us sufficiently for us to get onshore safe. We then commenced to get everything from the wreck that we possibly could, it then being 6 o’clock, and the tide making fast, this morning we cut her fore-mast and main-mast away, saved them with sails and yards, and a little timber, whether we shall save more I cannot say all the timber and most part of the wheat, the vessel is now a total wreck.

The Royalist was 86 tons register, and had on board 1,700 bushels wheat, and 14,000 feet sawn timber, at the time she went ashore.”

Captain Tavernor (Dec 12, 1854)

The Resurrection of the Royalist

In September 2018, the Royalist made headlines as it would make a return to Kuching after 180 years.

Sarawak Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg announced that the replica of the Royalist, with the exact scale of the original vessel will be placed at the Brooke Dockyard.

This would be after The Brooke Trust and Hollywood were done using it for their shoot in the upcoming White Rajah film.