the addition of Land Sales,
$14,505, a total of $157,192.

Expenditure in 1883, including expenditure on Capital Account,
$391,547.

Expenditure in 1887, including expenditure on Capital Account,
$209,862.

For reasons already mentioned, the revenue for 1888 is expected to
considerably exceed that of any previous year, while the expenditure
will probably not be more and may be less than that of 1887.[27]

The expenses of the London office average, I believe, about L3,000 a
year.

As Sir RUTHERFORD ALCOCK, their able and conscientious Chairman,
explained to the shareholders at a recent meeting, "with reference to
the important question of expenditure, the position of the Company was
that of a man coming into possession of a large estate which had been
long neglected, and which was little better than a wilderness. If any
rent roll was to be derived from such a property there must be, in the
first place, a large outlay in many ways before the land could be made
profitable, or indeed tenantable. That was what the Company had had to
do and what they had been doing; _and that had been the history of all
our Colonies_." I trust that the few observations I have offered will
have shewn my readers that, though British North Borneo might be
described as a wilderness so far as regards the absence of development
when the Company took possession of it, such a description is by no
means applicable to it when regard is had to its great and undoubted
natural resources.

British North Borneo not being a Crown Colony, it has to provide itself
for the maintenance of order, both ashore and afloat, without assistance
from the Imperial Army or Navy, except such temporary assistance as has
been on two occasions accorded by Her Majesty's vessels, under
circumstances which have been detailed. There are no Imperial Troops
stationed either in Labuan or in any portion of Borneo, and the Company
has organized an armed Police Force to act both in a military and in a
civil capacity.

The numbers of their Force do not much exceed two hundred of all ranks,
and are composed principally of Sikhs from the Punjaub and a few Dyaks
from Sarawak--an excellent mixture for fighting purposes, the Dyaks
being sufficiently courageous and expert in all the arts of jungle
warfare, while the pluck and cool steadiness under fire of the Sikhs is
too well-known to need comment here. The services of any number of Sikhs
can, it appears, be ea