DRAWING-ROOM, ASTANA.
DINING-ROOM, ASTANA.
The well-laid-out gardens are extensive, and contain many beautiful tropical plants. Behind the Astana is the old graveyard of the former Malay Rajahs, in which are some well-carved monuments of iron-wood. Beyond the gardens are grazing lands. The Rajah has two cattle farms, and he takes a great interest in rearing cattle, importing pedigree bulls from England to improve the stock in the country. Kuching is almost wholly supplied with milk and butter from the Astana dairies.
Above the Astana are Malay Kampongs, below, the fort and barracks, and beyond these more Malay Kampongs. On the opposite side of the river is the town, the upper part of which is comprised of the principal Malay Kampongs, where reside the datus; and these stretch along the river for a mile on each side of the road which runs parallel with it down to the Malay Mosque. This is a square building of some dignity, with a pyramidical roof supported inside by noble pillars, and near the mosque is the Datus' Court-house, and one of the Government schools for Malays. Adjoining this is the business portion of the town, substantially built of brick, whitewashed and clean, which extends down to the creek, from which the town takes its name, in two long streets with cross-connecting streets. In the centre is the Court-house with the Government offices; the markets are on one side, and the jail on the other; behind are the Police Station and the Government Dispensary. Beyond the Kuching creek are the Borneo Company's offices and godowns, above which, on the hill behind, are the houses of the manager and his assistants. Beyond again another Kampong, in which there are a good many houses of foreign Malays and some Chinese, and this portion of the town extends to the race-course. Between these and the river are the sago factories.
Behind the central portion of the town is the S.P.G. Mission ground, upon which are the church, Bishop's House, and Vicarage, the Boys' and Girls' Schools, and the Public Library. On the opposite side of the road is the esplanade with the band-stand, and beyond the police barracks. Then, landwards, are bungalows, club-houses, the Museum, and the Residency, behind which is another Malay Kampong, and farther on the Roman Catholic church, convent, and schools, and beyond these the golf links. The town reservoirs and the General Hospital are beyond the S.P.G. Mission ground. Dotted about in the suburbs are the houses and bungalows of Europeans and well-to-do Chinese, standing in pleasant gardens, and intermingled with these are the humbler homes of Chinese and Malay gardeners.
THE ESPLANADE, KUCHING.
Kuching is well supplied with roads, and is the only town in Borneo in which wheel-traffic is general. It has practically an inexhaustible water-supply, the water being brought down in pipes a distance of 11 miles from Matang mountain, a work lately completed at great cost. It has a telephone service, which extends to upper Sarawak, and which will be gradually extended along the coast to all the principal out-stations. The town is lighted with Lux lamps. Its public buildings are well constructed and adequate for their purposes. In addition to the Mission schools are three Government schools, of which notice shall be made in a following chapter. The Museum is a handsome building, and contains both an ethnographical and a natural history collection, which have gained a wide reputation.
In 1839, Kuching was nothing but a small collection of wooden thatched hovels, now it is one of the largest towns in Borneo, if not the largest, and is commercially the most important. On pages [61] and [91] will be found illustrations showing what Kuching was then, and what it is now. Then, Bruni, though fast declining from its former prosperous state, was in a far more flourishing condition than Kuching, which had been reduced to desolation by oppression. Fifty years later an anonymous writer, evidently a naval officer, after giving a good account of Bruni and its circumstances, wrote:—