CHAPTER VI – MINING | About Perak

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" And, as a miner delves.

For bidden treasure bedded deep in stone,

So seek ye and find the treasure patriotism In lands remote."

W. M. Sosietti.

The name of this State, that is the modern name, means silver, and though galena and silver have been found in Perak these minerals do not compare in frequency with the oxide of tin which, usually black, is as brilliantly white as silver when smelted. That is not the origin of the State's name given by Malays, but it is probably the correct one. Alluvial tin ore is so widely distributed that it is but little exaggeration to say it can be found anywhere within a few miles of the hills. Lodes have been discovered and prospected; but, so far, without favourable result, no well defined continuous vein of the metal having been met with.

It seems as though the main rock formations and disconnected boulders of the hills had contained the ore in greater or less quantity and that, by erosion and the ordinary action of sun and rain, the heavy mineral particles had found their way into mountain streams and so down into the valleys, where in the course of ages they had accumulated and been covered by an overburden of soil. Not infrequently, this process has taken place more than once and a first stratum of tin-bearing sand and gravel,—wash-dirt as it is called—is followed by a second overburden of earth and a second and richer deposit of tin ore, usually lying amongst waterworn boulders

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on a foundation of fine white clay and that on the bed rock. It is the unevenness of these deposits that makes alluvial tin mining so risky a venture. The risk of loss but possibility of large profit attracts the gambling instincts of the Chinese, but this insecurity deters Europeans whose ways are not the ways of the Celestial. It might naturally be thought that careful boring would show exactly where the tin is, how thick the wash-dirt and how extensive its area. Theoretically this is so, practically the opening of the ground alone gives certainty. The boring tools will not shew tin where there is none, but in this water-charged, gravelly soil, the instrument, in passing through a thin layer of wash-dirt, often carries down with it, to a considerable distance, the stones and heavy particles of ore, so that, when the tube is withdrawn, it shews traces of tin through a much greater depth than that of the actual tin-bearing stratum. European companies founded on the results given laboring tools have had occasion to regret the hopes built on the performances of this instrument. No doubt, careful handling will do much and the reverse is largely responsible for unreliable results, but the fact remains that boring alone is not a perfect test of the ground.

Now, this makes all the difference between the work of Chinese and Europeans. I do not wish to go into Chinese mining methods ; but, as the Malay Peninsula is, by far, the largest tin producer in the world, as labour is sufficiently cheap here to enable us to work for prices that would probably close all other mines except those in Netherlands India, and as in Singapore there are smelting works twice as large as any other such works in the world, there is a certain

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amount of interest attaching to this question. It is, however, enough to say that a Malay Pawang (medicine-man) has the same sort of nose for tin that a truffle dog has for truffles. At least that is so with the Perak Pawang and, what is of more importance, the Chinaman believes in him. Usually, too, the Malay proves his own confidence in his own powers by digging a small hole and shewing the ore. That is more than enough, for a Chinaman who straightway buys, or more commonly, agrees to take the land on tribute. He finds the capital and a palm shed where the labourers, who usually have an interest in the mine, live. Before any pumping machinery is necessary, it has usually been ascertained, by the removal of the overburden, what the wash-dirt is worth. If the whole thing is a failure the capitalist loses a little and the coolies make nothing ; if there is even a small quantity of ore, the capitalist loses nothing. But the total failures are very rare, and it mostly happens that, when the advancer has recovered all his expenses and his interest and his commission and his, the lion's share of the profits, there will still be a fair amount to divide amongst the labourers. Two very significant facts prove this ; one, that this form of work is mightily popular, and the other that disputes between advancer and coolies are very uncommon. That is Chinese tin mining; but the European, what of him and his methods?  Well it might not be altogether inexact to describe them as "contrariwise," except in the case of those who try to emulate the almond-eyed Celestial. The European first bores. I have said it is not an altogether reliable plan but it may, if carefully done, be almost as suc-

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cessful as complete trust in tlie Malay Pawaug. Then, usually, European mining is done by companies, and company's money is almost like Government money. It is not of too much account because it seems to belong to no one in particular, and is given by Providence for the support of deserving expert and often travelled individuals. Several of these are necessary to fairly start a European mining venture, and they are mostly engaged long before they are wanted. There is the manager and the sub-manager, the accountant, the engineer, the smelter—but do we not all know the oft told tale that never seems to point any moral at all. Machinery is bought, houses are built, in fact the capital of the company is spent—no doubt that is what it was subscribed for, and the shareholders shall not be disappointed if the management, the experts and the employes can help it. And then—if ever things get so far—some Chinese are employed on wages or contract, the former for choice, to remove the overburden. After possibly a series of great hardships to the staff and disasters to the company, it is found that the tin raised is infinitesimal in value when compared with the rate of expenditure, and that the longer the work goes on the greater will be the losses. This is usually discovered when the paid up capital is all but exhausted. The company is wound up and the State gets a bad name with investors, and the only people who really enjoy themselves are the neighbouring Chinese miners who buy the mine and plant for an old song and make several large fortunes out of working on their own ridiculous and primitive methods.

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This is a State where exactly such things have happened more than once and, however badly its name may smell in the nostrils of investors, it produces more tin than ever it did and more than any other State in the Peninsula.

The quantity exported in 1892 is given as 16,538 tons.

A little careful enquiry will satisfy the curious that the most successful Chinese miners—Capitan Ah Kwi for instance—do not owe the bulk of their wealth to tin, but to other adventitious circumstances, such as the holding of Revenue Farms and the various resources of that business which is covered by the term 'Thayke labour' or Mining Advancer. But even where a European will work intelligently, where he does not insist that which he has learnt elsewhere must be the only correct plan here, where his ground is good and he works skilfully, honestly, and economically, even should he be the only European on the mine, he is denied the avenues of profit open to the Chinese advancer, and his salary alone would mean a fair profit to a Chinaman.

Such men are also to be found in Perak and, under the most favourable circumstances, they have shewn that Europeans need not fail, but they do not properly belong to the family of Mining Experts. I say family, because they possess certain family characteristics and they have a habit of speaking despitefully of each other which is suggestive of near relationship. There are different types of the ' Expert," as they love to call themselves, but traits of resemblance are seldom wanting. There is the man who " knows what he wants and means to have it," and there is the man

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who knows what you want and means to let you have it,—as an extraordinary favour for a price you will some day regret. There is the man who will not open his lips till he has looked behind every door and out of every window to see if there is a possible listener, because he knows how reporters, hang upon his words and brokers seek to furtively surprise his secrets ; and there is tinman who has friends to tell you that, if you wish to see him, it is well to call before noon, for, after that, you are not likely to get anything out of him. So you hurry to him before noon and, if he is in a good humour, he will get something out of you. And then there are the men who know but would not sell their employers and the men who know their employers rather like being sold. There is the sanguine, jovial man, who. under the influence of your company, becomes extraordinarily communicative and then begs you earnestly to forget what he has said and, on no account, to tell your friends; while, on the other hand, there is the silent retiring pessimist who, when he murmurs a hint of possibilities, carries to your mind conviction more certain than Holy Writ. Lastly there are the 'honest men—but why speak of them ? Were not all the Cities of the Plain destroyed for the want of a few righteous persons!- Be satisfied that all those you will ever meet will surely be honest men and remember that, as a class, a deeply-interesting, much-trusted, mysterious class, the mining experts stand as Diplomacy's first line of Reserve and might be to the Foreign Office what the Mercantile Marine is to Her Majesty's Navy. I am certain that Pythagoras or poor tormented Malvolio would have said that the soul of a. mining expert might haply inhabit the body of an ambassador. Is it a questionable apotheosis ?