One Hundred Years' History Of The Chinese In Singapore: The Annotated Edition. Ong Siang Song
Eu Chin71 and dealt with the annual remittances made to China by all classes of the immigrant [sic].
While the merchant sends his hundreds of dollars, the poor coolie sends his units or tens. The amount remitted each year varies considerably. … In some years the aggregate amount reaches as high perhaps as $70,000, while in other years it may fall as low as thirty or forty thousand dollars.72
In the following year appeared another paper from the same pen giving a general sketch of the numbers, tribes and occupations of the Chinese in Singapore:
The different trades and professions are schoolmasters, writers, cashiers, shopkeepers, apothecaries, coffin makers, grocers, goldsmiths, silversmiths, tinsmiths, dyers, tailors, barbers, shoemakers, basket makers, fishermen, sawyers, boat builders, cabinet makers, architects, masons, lime and brick burners, sailors, ferrymen, sago manufacturers, distillers of spirits, cultivators and manufacturers of gambier and of sugar, cultivators of pepper and nutmegs, vendors of cakes and [74] fruits, porters, play-actors, fortune-tellers, idle vagabonds – who have no work and of whom there are not a few – beggars, and, nightly, there are those villains, the thieves.73
The estimate given by Mr Eu Chin of the Chinese population was 40,000. This is incorrect, since the police census for 1849 showed only 24,700. The Chinese inhabitants were classified by Mr Eu Chin into six distinct groups as follows:74
1.Chinese from Hokien province: these come from the departments of Chiang-chiu, Chan-chiu and Engchun.
2.Malacca-born Chinese.
3.Chinese from the department of Tio-chiu, which is under the jurisdiction of Canton province.
4.Chinese from Canton – these men are here commonly called Macao Chinese.
5.Khek Chinese – these are men who come from the two provinces of Hokien and Canton.
6.Chinese from Hainan, which is also subject to the jurisdiction of Canton.
He thus writes of the labouring class:
They are mostly very poor. Originally, they come with the intention of returning to their native land after a sojourn of three or four years, but, out of ten, only one or two individuals are able to return after that time, and when they do retire, they do not take with them much wealth. … There are some who are able to go back after five or six years, and others after seven, eight or ten years. There are a great number who remain here upwards of ten and twenty years: and yet, unable to return, ultimately die and repose their ashes in this Settlement. Alas for those who originally intended to return to their native country after three years, and yet, after the lapse of more than nineteen years have not been able to fulfil their wish, but what is the reason of it? It is because they became addicted to the prevailing vice of opium smoking. After a continuous residence here they learn the habit [75] which afterwards becomes fixed. Many of the Chinese labourers, after having earned a little money, waste it upon opium or expend it in gambling. After a series of years they save nothing, and every day it becomes more and more difficult for them to return to their country.75
1Popularly known as the first White Rajah of Sarawak, James Brooke (1803– 1868) was a true colonialist. Born and raised in India, he was more at home in the Far East than he ever was in England. Attempts to educate him in England were unsuccessful and after a brief stint there, during which he ran away from school, he returned to India to join the British East India Company. He arrived in Kuching in 1838 during the Iban and Bidayuh revolt against the Sultan. Brooke helped to quell the rebellion and the Sultan gratefully bestowed upon him the position of Rajah of Sarawak. Brooke then set about quashing the piracy that plagued the region. Though hugely successful, he had to face a formal inquisition on charges that he used excessive force against the natives. The charges were dismissed and he continued to rule Sarawak until his death, with several of his descendants succeeding him as Rajah. See Bob Recce, The White Rajahs of Sarawak: A Borneo Dynasty (Singapore: Archipelago Press, 2004).
2See Sir James Brooke, Narrative of Events in Borneo and Celebes, Down to the Occupation of Labuan: From the Journals of James Brooke (London: John Murray, 1848) at 9–10.
3Tan Tock Seng (1798–1850) was one of Singapore’s earliest pioneers and success stories. Born in Malacca to humble Hokkien-Peranakan parentage, he moved to Singapore in 1819 to sell fruit, vegetables and poultry on Boat Quay. His business did well and he went on to acquire land, property and plantations. He is best remembered for his contribution to the hospital that bears his name. Tan Tock Seng Hospital served the poor Chinese community, with Tan often personally paying the expenses of patients there. His wife, and later one of his sons, continued to support the hospital after his death. See, Kamala Devi Dhoraisingham & Dhoraisingham S Samuel, Tan Tock Seng: Pioneer – His Life, Times, Contributions & Legacy (Kota Kinabalu: Natural History Publications (Borneo), 2003).
4Thomas Church (1798–1860) served throughout the Straits Settlements’ administrations. He was Deputy Resident Councillor in Penang in the early 1830s, becoming full Resident Councillor in 1834, and in the 1840s became Assistant Resident Councillor in Malacca. He then moved to Singapore in 1842 as Resident Councillor, a post he held for almost 20 years. He was known as a conscientious public servant who genuinely cared for the welfare and advancement of the people. See Walter Makepeace, Gilbert Edward Brooke and Roland St John Braddell (eds), One Hundred Years of Singapore, Vol 1 (London: John Murray, 1921), at 86.
5James Augustus St John, ‘A Chinaman’s Ball’ (1852) 5 Household Word 331.
6Edmund Augustus Blundell was born in England in 1804. His career in Southeast Asia began in Burma, where he was Commissioner of Tenasserim from 1833 to 1843. He then became Resident Councillor of Malacca and later Penang, before assuming the position of Governor of the Straits Settlements from 1855 to 1859. He married an English lady, but it is believed his heart remained in Burma, where he had 11 children with a long-standing mistress. He died in England in 1868. See Justin Corfield, Historical Dictionary of Singapore (Lanham, Toronto & Plymouth: The Scarecrow Press, 2011), at 39; see also, Walter Makepeace, Gilbert Edward Brooke and Roland St John Braddell (eds), One Hundred Years of Singapore, Vol 1 (London: John Murray, 1921), at 87.
7One of the earlier editors of The Straits Times, John Cameron (1835–1881) lived in Singapore for about 30 years, during which he was a prominent and popular resident. He moved to Singapore in 1861, and with some friends, bought over The Straits Times. He became editor, growing interested in Malayan history and society. Soon he began writing his own book, Our Tropical Possessions in Malayan India, which was published in 1865. Active in Singapore society, he was proprietor of trading firm John Cameron & Co, sat on a committee to establish the Raffles Library and Museum (precursor of the National Museum), was Honorary Secretary of the Singapore Sporting Club and otherwise aided in the expansion and development of the Straits Settlements. See Walter Makepeace, Gilbert Edward Brooke and Roland St. John Braddell (eds), One Hundred Years of Singapore, Vols 1 (London: John Murray, 1921), at 92–94.
8[Song: Our Tropical Possessions in Malayan India (1865)].
9John Cameron, Our Tropical Possessions in Malayan India (London: Smith, Elder & Co, 1865), at 139, footnote.
10CB Buckley, An Anecdotal History of Old Times in Singapore (Singapore: Fraser & Neave, 1902), at 345–346.
11We are unable to ascertain the source of this quote.
12Born in the Shetland Islands, Scotland, Gilbert Angus (1815-1887) moved to Bencoolen, Java, with his parents before arriving in Singapore in the 1840s. Initially a bookkeeper with the firm Shaw, Whitehead & Co, he soon left to go into business with Whampoa. Both parties prospered, and Angus went on to own nutmeg plantations and numerous other pieces of land in Singapore, including the hills of Tanglin. He also acted as a Municipal Commissioner. He died in his home on Armenian Street on 24 March 1887, leaving a large family. See CB Buckley, An Anecdotal History of Old Times in Singapore (Singapore: Fraser & Neave, 1902), at 658; and See Walter Makepeace, Gilbert Edward Brooke and Roland St. John Braddell (eds), One Hundred Years of Singapore, Vol 1 (London: John