In the various works of improvement the Government has more often found the natives a hindrance than a help, and the administration is necessarily of the paternal type, though it is modified by the presence of the European planters and the large class of Burghers, or people of Dutch descent, in the population of the towns.
Ceylon may be taken as a good specimen of the most highly developed Crown Colony. It is ruled, under the British Colonial Office, by the Governor and his Executive Council, consisting of a few high officials. There is also a Legislative Council made up partly of officials, partly of representatives of the various races and interests. As the official element is always in a majority, the Council is an advisory rather than a controlling body, and does not in any way compare with our Parliament. The unofficial members of the Legislature were formerly nominated by the Governor, but the principle of election has recently been introduced.
The island is divided into provinces, each under the charge of a Government agent; but the unit of life among the agricultural Sinhalese is still the village community, and the villages are largely controlled on the native system through their own councils and headmen. We have interfered as little as possible with native customs or religion, and in the country districts the people still keep to their old methods of life. In one respect they have changed, and not for the better. Now that there is a settled system of law and justice, they have discovered a great fondness for litigation; and the intricacies of land tenure offer fine opportunities for the display of this trait.
We can make part of our return journey to the coast by boat, though only a short length of the rivers of the southwest is of any use for navigation. Our boat is a 62 curious double canoe with an awning of palm leaves, and our boatmen are Sinhalese and Tamils. We move 63 slowly down the Kalu Ganga, past wooded banks and palm groves, with here and there water buffalo or elephants 64 bathing, or a native asleep in a curious shelter raised on poles above the ground; and so back again to Colombo and its cosmopolitan crowd.
[LECTURE V]
THE MALAY REGION
We now leave Ceylon, cross the eastern arm of the Indian Ocean, and turn southward through the Straits of Malacca. We shall find ourselves in a new world, among people very different from those that we have met in the earlier part of our voyage. The key to the understanding of the whole region is Singapore, a century ago an unimportant island, though even then a few far-seeing people realized its magnificent possibilities. The Dutch, at that time the chief commercial Power in the Malay Archipelago, were preparing to seize the island when they were anticipated by Sir Stamford Raffles, the East India Company’s representative at Bencoolen in Sumatra. He was the true founder of the modern city, and it does right to perpetuate his name in its streets and public buildings.
We may consider Singapore, on its little island, to be 1 the capital of the whole region of British Malaya. Of what does British Malaya consist? In the first place, in addition to Singapore, there are the British Possessions on the western side of the Malay Peninsula. In the north we have the island of Penang, with Province Wellesley on the mainland opposite; further south, but grouped with Penang for administrative purposes, are the Dindings and the island of Pangkor; further south still is the territory of Malacca.
