Volume 14 Australasia - dana ward's homepage

180 AUSTRALASIA.these is the kapok or raudu [eriodendruii anfracluosum), the fruit of which yields adown utilised by the native weavers.The sarne plant is used for building purposes, but in this resj^eet a vastly more A'aluabletree is the teak the Jati of the Javanese, which still covers an extent of about2,500 square miles. Recently, also, some of the cleared spaces have been replantedwith the no less valuable cinchona, first introduced from Reunion in 1852, andagain directly from South America in 1854. Within nine years of that date, therewere already 1,140,000 cinchona plants either in the nursery-grounds or theforests of Java ; but the variety selected was one of the least valuable, and it hadeven to be replaced by others of more medicinal value, notably the calmnja, whichhad been successfully introduced into the uplands of British India. In 1888, theGovernment enclosui-es contained over 3,700,000 of the best varieties, growing atdifferent altitudes between 4,000 and G,500 feet. By careful selection and grafting,plants have been obtained whose bark 3'ields from 11 to 13 per cent, of quinine.Java lacks a suflScient number of domestic animals for agricultural operations.In the western province of Bantam, the proportion of horses, oxen, and buffaloes isonly 94 per thousand of the population, but this proportion increases somewhatsteadily eastwards until, in the extreme east, it rises to 830 per thousand. Buteverywhere the live stock has diminished during the second half of the presentcentury, while the popidation has rapiidly increased. The Javanese horses ofArab stock have diminished in size, but not in mettle and staying power. TheCheribon trotters and the Kedoc cart-horses are highly spoken of, although nonecan compare with the Sumatran ponies in form or vigour.The produce of the fisheries, which employ about fifty thousand hands, is allrequired for the local consumption, except the sea-slugs and sharks' fins exportedto China. Java also yields the very finest quality of edible birds' nests, also destinedfor the Chinese market.To the traditional industries, such as weaving, dj'eing, krisses, and other armsfor which the Javanese have always been famous, the manufacture of heavymachinery has recently been added for the sugar refineries, the harbour worksand railways. An ancient monopoly of the Jokjokarta regency are the gongsand musical instruments for the Gamclangs, or native bands, bells, cymbals, drums,and bars of copper or bamboo which the players strike with a hammer to accomjjanythe theatrical representations and native ballets. The most skilled craftsmen are theChinese, who are usually employed, especially by Europeans, wherever taste andexecution are objects of consideration.The carriage roads are well planned and kept in excellent repair, and areoften supplied with footpaths and supplementary avenues for heavy traffic,especially between the chief towns. The main artery is the great military route,780 miles long, running from Anjer, in the exti-eme west, to Banjuwangi, in theextreme east, and constructed by the terrible Daendels, still remembered by thenatives as the " Master of the Great Thunder." The torrents and even riversare crossed by ingeniously planned bamboo bridges, which, despite their frailappearance, are extremely solid works. The first railway, connecting Batavia