WEALTH OF BORNEO.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18170, 16 August 1922, Page 6

WEALTH OF BORNEO.

AUSTRALIAN'S SUCCESS.

"IT IS MY LOTUS LAND."

Borneo has an enthusiastic champion in Commander J. E. Capstickdale, R.A.N.R; who after two and a-half years as a planter and logger on the island, has returned to Sydney. The story of his f success in that romantic region is interesting.

A naval reservist, ho was mobilised at the commencement of the war,.and while 1 on service be called at Borneo on ono or' 8 two occasions. He was struck by .its E beauty and possibilitr.es,. so that when h«. ' . M was released from his duty he decided to j§ risk there his all—a capital of a fewhundred pounds. His friends told him that he was "crazy," advised local invest- If ment, anything but that, hut he did M : heed them. He has more than trebled || his capital during the two ;ind a-hklf years he has been domiciled in Borneo, and has brought a quarter of a million w feet of mahogany and cedar and a little £ camphor wood to Sydney. , ■ W "I will never leave Borneo," ho re-' §L marked to an interviewer. "It is ray lotus land. Tawau, where I live, is oa the harbour of Cowie, sheltered from the || sea, without rocks, and deep and large enough to shelter the navies of the world; S It is the finest harbour in the world; we have the finest soil in the worldi it is the easiest place to make, money, and has a 1 beautiful climate without any trfcpical . i fever. Indeed Tawau is thai-' glonoos, i perfect place that evists in every mat's ' ; i imagination. As an evidence of the productivity of . the soil, Mr. Capstickdale* remarked that in a radius of 3Qft. he had cut 11; tree* from Bft. to 14ft. • in dreumfcrencd and from 120 ft. to 150 ft. high to tt* fiHsfc ;. branch. The visitor claims that b« country, which is quite mediocre, in his estimation, will yield one. and a-half million tons of commercial timber from #1 square miles. Cpcoanut plantations fere so prolifically, he said,' that there wjss"a ton of money in them"• even ;at;.tbe present low market value of copra,' aadiha troes reached maturity at between (lire* anfl a-half arid four years. ' j . *.. The social life of Boraeo. &,rayre* stricted, and'the amusements coTflttjrt .to the tocal equivalent of Austraßito "'ai homes," but that life is not chHtU*B there is evident from the anxiety ot Mr, Capstickdale and'his wife to got fconte Ths visitor explained that the trade of j Borneo was being fairly well exploftedliy j However, England and. $3' ' f Continent would certainly make a bid to 'c recapture the market. ■■■■.■ '•• . j