Prosperous rubber plantations in Brunei
Tyring work: Brunei rubber plantations. With world demand for modern cars, the British introduced rubber planting into their tropical colonies and administrations including Brunei in the 1890s. Pictures: Rozan Yunos collection
Sunday, April 27, 2008
IN 1906, when the first British Resident instituted a new modern government in Brunei, he found that the government had very little revenues coming its way. In his bid to earn revenues to meet the expenditure of the new government, the Resident's first act was to take control of all unclaimed lands as State lands.
It was seen as a necessity since the Resident intended to redistribute state land to be parcelled out among prospective bidders, including the European concerns willing to invest in Brunei in large-scale plantations like rubber estates. In 1906, four European companies applied for huge tracts of land. However it took almost two years before the government was able to settle land ownership issues.
Prior to 1906, Brunei's property rights were closely linked to the feudal system and the Brunei adat or customs. The historian Hussainmiya has stated: "The incoming colonial administration decided to sweep them aside — perhaps for understandable reasons — because they were determined to reform Brunei Government which had become so weak on the eve of the British intervention. . . The British did not bother to understand or acknowledge the complexities of customary land laws in Brunei. They had one clear and an overriding policy."
From the very outset the new British administration moved towards the institution of property as they understood it; which meant rights of unqualified possession or freehold rights, permitting the holders to freely transfer and manipulate their properties and to use them according to the European ideology of land as an "estate to be managed".
All this required English legal forms of conveyancing and English laws which were needed to protect one's rights to land. Without that, the British reasoned that no one would be interested in investing in the development of land. Therefore the government considered that security of tenure was a prerequisite for capitalist enterprise. Under the new administration, all the traditional and customary Brunei rights were replaced by the Land Enacment of 1907.
Under that enactment, all personal income earned through payments on territories as well as revenues from farms or trading monopolies became state revenue. A system of land codes was introduced the following year where land was systematically transferred with proper land grants and titles. This allowed for the rubber estates to be formed with proper titles and ownership of the land.
But why rubber? In the 1890s, the world demand for modern cars increased the demand for rubber significantly. The British decided to introduce rubber planting into their tropical colonies and administrations including Brunei.
Throughout the region, especially in Malaya and Brunei, it was found that profits obtained from rubber were so lucrative that the locals ignore the cultivation of food crops such as fruit trees.
Rubber became Brunei's major agricultural crop and that rubber industry eventually overtook the cutch industry in employing the largest number of Brunei locals.
Rubber was grown in large estates of over 1,000 acres as well small holdings of about one acre. The largest were owned by European companies. These included the Brunei Estates Limited, the Liverpool (Brunei) Para Rubber Estates Limited which ran the Batu Apoi Estate in Temburong and the British (Borneo) Rubber and Land Company which ran the Labu Estate, also in Temburong.
There were other estates in Tutong, Gadong and Kumbang Pasang but the Tutong one was abandoned in 1908. Temburong was the major output before Brunei District became the major producer in 1919.
The government gave away 100-acre sites and 25 to 100- acre sites to Chinese with the local Malay owners mostly owning the tiny or small holdings. The total land areas allocated to the rubber plantations were about 4,000 acres by 1933. By 1938, it had reached about 5,000 acres.
The smallholders' interests in planting rubber led to a scramble for land applications. In 1938, it was the smallholders which owned the majority of the total areas planted for rubber.
The workers in the European estates were mostly Malays, Javanese and Chinese. Tamil workers were recruited in 1925 but by the time of the Depression in 1933, none was employed.
In 1918, the government also provided assistance to the local smallholders by appointing an Inspector of Agriculture to advise and to encourage varied cultivation.
Brunei first exported plantation rubber in 1914 to Great Britain and the United States. Brunei's export earnings rose during the rubber boom at the end of World War I, the mid-1920s and just before the outbreak of World War II.
Brunei also produced another type of latex from the wild Jelutong trees. However, it could not compare with the natural rubber. Wild Jelutong trees were mostly found in Belait and Tutong. Tapping these trees was mostly done by Iban tappers. Wild Jelutong was first exported in 1915, reaching a peak in 1925-1929.
To assist the development of rubber plantations, the government established an Agricultural Station in Kilanas in 1933. The station started a rubber nursery and distributed the rubber seedlings to small holders. In 1936, a Malaysian expatriate from Malaysia's Rubber Research Institute took charge of Brunei's Agriculture Department.
As plantations grew older, the government issued replanting permits in the 1940s. By 1941, there were more than 15,500 acres of which half were owned by the 12 large companies.
Just like any other commodity, rubber production had its ups and downs. In times of falling world rubber prices, to ensure that prices remained high, the government enacted laws controlling rubber output. One such law was the Export of Rubber (Restriction) in 1922, where the law allowed for fines to be imposed for tapping undersized trees or overtapping latex-producing trees. Controls were also imposed internationally. This included that of the 1934 International Rubber Regulations Agreement which fixed the amount to be produced by producing countries.
By the first quarter of the 20th century, Brunei's exports of rubber, cutch and coal had peaked to about two million dollars in 1925. The British Resident's report indicated that the trade was now "safely on a course of real prosperity".
But the discovery of commercial oil in 1929 and the subsequent growth of the oil industry meant that the other economic sectors — including rubber — could no longer compete.
What is left of the rubber industry are two wooden houses in Batu Apoi and in the Berakas area where the managers used to stay.
The writer runs a website on Brunei at bruneiresources.com.
The Brunei Times
It was seen as a necessity since the Resident intended to redistribute state land to be parcelled out among prospective bidders, including the European concerns willing to invest in Brunei in large-scale plantations like rubber estates. In 1906, four European companies applied for huge tracts of land. However it took almost two years before the government was able to settle land ownership issues.
Prior to 1906, Brunei's property rights were closely linked to the feudal system and the Brunei adat or customs. The historian Hussainmiya has stated: "The incoming colonial administration decided to sweep them aside — perhaps for understandable reasons — because they were determined to reform Brunei Government which had become so weak on the eve of the British intervention. . . The British did not bother to understand or acknowledge the complexities of customary land laws in Brunei. They had one clear and an overriding policy."
From the very outset the new British administration moved towards the institution of property as they understood it; which meant rights of unqualified possession or freehold rights, permitting the holders to freely transfer and manipulate their properties and to use them according to the European ideology of land as an "estate to be managed".
All this required English legal forms of conveyancing and English laws which were needed to protect one's rights to land. Without that, the British reasoned that no one would be interested in investing in the development of land. Therefore the government considered that security of tenure was a prerequisite for capitalist enterprise. Under the new administration, all the traditional and customary Brunei rights were replaced by the Land Enacment of 1907.
Under that enactment, all personal income earned through payments on territories as well as revenues from farms or trading monopolies became state revenue. A system of land codes was introduced the following year where land was systematically transferred with proper land grants and titles. This allowed for the rubber estates to be formed with proper titles and ownership of the land.
But why rubber? In the 1890s, the world demand for modern cars increased the demand for rubber significantly. The British decided to introduce rubber planting into their tropical colonies and administrations including Brunei.
Throughout the region, especially in Malaya and Brunei, it was found that profits obtained from rubber were so lucrative that the locals ignore the cultivation of food crops such as fruit trees.
Rubber became Brunei's major agricultural crop and that rubber industry eventually overtook the cutch industry in employing the largest number of Brunei locals.
Rubber was grown in large estates of over 1,000 acres as well small holdings of about one acre. The largest were owned by European companies. These included the Brunei Estates Limited, the Liverpool (Brunei) Para Rubber Estates Limited which ran the Batu Apoi Estate in Temburong and the British (Borneo) Rubber and Land Company which ran the Labu Estate, also in Temburong.
There were other estates in Tutong, Gadong and Kumbang Pasang but the Tutong one was abandoned in 1908. Temburong was the major output before Brunei District became the major producer in 1919.
The government gave away 100-acre sites and 25 to 100- acre sites to Chinese with the local Malay owners mostly owning the tiny or small holdings. The total land areas allocated to the rubber plantations were about 4,000 acres by 1933. By 1938, it had reached about 5,000 acres.
The smallholders' interests in planting rubber led to a scramble for land applications. In 1938, it was the smallholders which owned the majority of the total areas planted for rubber.
The workers in the European estates were mostly Malays, Javanese and Chinese. Tamil workers were recruited in 1925 but by the time of the Depression in 1933, none was employed.
In 1918, the government also provided assistance to the local smallholders by appointing an Inspector of Agriculture to advise and to encourage varied cultivation.
Brunei first exported plantation rubber in 1914 to Great Britain and the United States. Brunei's export earnings rose during the rubber boom at the end of World War I, the mid-1920s and just before the outbreak of World War II.
Brunei also produced another type of latex from the wild Jelutong trees. However, it could not compare with the natural rubber. Wild Jelutong trees were mostly found in Belait and Tutong. Tapping these trees was mostly done by Iban tappers. Wild Jelutong was first exported in 1915, reaching a peak in 1925-1929.
To assist the development of rubber plantations, the government established an Agricultural Station in Kilanas in 1933. The station started a rubber nursery and distributed the rubber seedlings to small holders. In 1936, a Malaysian expatriate from Malaysia's Rubber Research Institute took charge of Brunei's Agriculture Department.
As plantations grew older, the government issued replanting permits in the 1940s. By 1941, there were more than 15,500 acres of which half were owned by the 12 large companies.
Just like any other commodity, rubber production had its ups and downs. In times of falling world rubber prices, to ensure that prices remained high, the government enacted laws controlling rubber output. One such law was the Export of Rubber (Restriction) in 1922, where the law allowed for fines to be imposed for tapping undersized trees or overtapping latex-producing trees. Controls were also imposed internationally. This included that of the 1934 International Rubber Regulations Agreement which fixed the amount to be produced by producing countries.
By the first quarter of the 20th century, Brunei's exports of rubber, cutch and coal had peaked to about two million dollars in 1925. The British Resident's report indicated that the trade was now "safely on a course of real prosperity".
But the discovery of commercial oil in 1929 and the subsequent growth of the oil industry meant that the other economic sectors — including rubber — could no longer compete.
What is left of the rubber industry are two wooden houses in Batu Apoi and in the Berakas area where the managers used to stay.
The writer runs a website on Brunei at bruneiresources.com.
The Brunei Times
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