“I am sick of endless Sunshine, sick of blossom-burdened laugh,
Give me back the leafless woodlands when the winds of springtime
range.
Give me back one day in England, for it's spring in England
now."
Rudyard Kipling
[70]
European society in Perak is
composed of Government officials and a small proportion of men engaged in
planting, mining, banking, contracting and so on. There are also their wives
and families, for Perak, though so close to the equator, is a place where the
European woman can, with an occasional visit to a more temperate climate, exist
as well as the man. Comparing the climate of the Peninsula with that of the
islands of Singapore and Penang, it is generally agreed that while the sea
breezes make the islands cooler in the day, the nights there are very
noticeably hotter than in the Native States.
The number of Europeans in Perak
make, all-told, but a handful, and, as these are distributed throughout the
different stations, there are nowhere enough of them to induce the formation of
cliques. There is, however, another reason for this, and it is that each
station has its club which, formed under Government auspices, is more of a
public than a private institution and. as it is practically open to all, they
meet here on terms of equality and as often as they please. These Clubs, which
combine reading, billiard, and card rooms with cricket and lawn tennis grounds,
are frequented by the
EUROPEAN SOCIETY | About
Perak
[71]
ladies of the community as regularly as by men, and
are a feature of the Native States not found in the neighbouring colony.
Evening entertainments, concerts, dances, theatricals are also given in these
Clubs, and it will therefore be understood that they become centres of the
European social system.
In Taipeng and Kinta. there are
Sporting Clubs ; there is a good course with all the necessary buildings at the
former station and a less good one at Batu Gajah. The meetings are annual and
attract horses from Selangor and the Colony. There another avenues of amusement
open to men. big game shooting, elephant, rhinoceros, bison, tiger, black
leopard, sambur, pig, crocodile, and. in their season, most excellent snipe and
pigeon shooting is got in Perak. July and August are the best months for
elephant, rhinoceros, and bison, while the snipe season lasts from September to
April; and the Krian District yields the biggest bags though there is capital
shooting on the islands in the Perak river during November and December. March
and April are probably the best months for green pigeon and. though there is no
driving, the sport nearly resembles the shooting of driven partridges; pigeon
in flocks probably fly faster and are perhaps more difficult to stop.
Golf is played, but, while cricket
retains its present popularity, the game of weird terms and strange implements
is not. likely to take very strong hold in Perak. There is an impression,
outside the State, that proficiency in cricket is the surest road to Government
preferment, but that must be an exaggeration for, with very few ex-
EUROPEAN SOCIETY | About
Perak
[72]
ceptions, the heads of all Districts and Government
Departments, are non-cricketers. It is a fact, however, that the people of
Perak are proud of the success they have obtained in the cricket field. The
feeling is not unnatural.
Perak possesses some very enviable
health resorts, duly appreciated and patronised by the Europeans of the State,
but hardly ever visited by strangers. That is curious, for, on Gunong Ijau and
Arang Para (the Hermitage), will be found a climate, little if at all inferior
to that of the Riviera. The thermometer varies between 59° F. in the early
morning and about 73° F. in the heat of the day,—that is in the shade of
course,—quite cold enough for fires ; the scenery is magnificent, the air balmy
and heavy with the scent of roses and violets which, with many other flowers of
temperate climes, bloom here in profusion all the year round. From June to
August specially ; but, also in other months, the jungle about 3,000 f'eet
above sea level is carpeted with wild forest flowers, the harebell, anemone, and
primrose of the Malay jungle, while ground and tree orchids in great quantity
blossom at the same time, as well as the wonderful magnolia which grows wild in
the higher altitudes of Ijau. In the dark recesses of these hill forests are
silent birds of wonderful [plumage, troop of monkeys are also sometimes seen,
but they do not appear to appreciate the cold of these altitudes. In any open
sun-lit clearing, quantities of brilliant coloured butterflies are certain to
be found and if, on a still evening, a. lantern be put out on the top of Ijau,
immense numbers of rare moths and flying insects of all sorts will lie
attracted to the light.
EUROPEAN SOCIETY | About
Perak
[73]
There is a good mountain road,
nine or ten miles long to the top of either hill. On Gunong Ijau the Resident
has a cottage, and there are two bungalows at a lower elevation, one 3,400
and the other 2,100 feet above the sea.
In the Kinta District there is a
sanitorium on Gunong Kledang, and, with the completion of the railway, this
will be accessible also to the people of Batang Padang and Lower Perak.
There is a great
dearth of hotels in Perak. I believe there is one such establishment in
Taipeng, but the Government has built Rest Houses all over the State and they
offer better shelter to man and beast than the average Dak Bungalow of India.
Hospitality in the Native States is, however, proverbial, though it has been
often sorely tried, and no true sportsman or good fellow need hesitate to visit
Perak even without an introduction.
Perak is one of those places for the moral and religious
being of whose European society the S. P. G. has cared, It possesses a popular
English Church clergyman, a small Church, and a Parsonage—all mainly supported
by the voluntary contributions of the community. There are also at least two
Roman Catholic Chapels under the charge of devoted pastors. The graveyard is a
necessity, and you will find a lovingly cared for God's Acre at each station,
where already lie not a few of those who, like Henry Lawrence have, in their
more humble way, tried to do their duty, and can very badly be spared from the
email European society of this the land of their exile.
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