The Sun.
London, England, 1849-02-08 00:00:00

EASTERN ARCHIPELAGO COM-

PANY,
A comdany has been recently incorporated under this
title by Royal chart( r, for acquiring, holding, settling,
and cultivating the land and the produce of the
island of Labuan, which has been fcrmaily taken
possession of by the Crown of Great Britain and lands
adjacent (Borneo), for working mines therein, and
raising coals, stones, ores, minerals, and metals.
The company is to be in every respect a trading com-
pany; and, by a treaty entered into by the British Go-
Government with the Sultan of Borneo, many highly
important advantages are permaaently secured to this
country. Labuan, now subject to British dominion,
forms an essential link in the chain of our eastern set-
tlements, from Penang, Malacca, and Singapore, to
Hong-Kong; and its proximity to Manilla, Siam, CoL hin-
China, Hainan, Java, Sumatra, Celebes, &c., renders
the discovery of an abundant supply of excellent
coal at Labuan, and on the mainland of
Borneo, in the immediate vicinity of Labuan, of great
importance to steam navigation in the eastern seas. The
expense of coaling steamers trading to the east is at
present very heavy, the average cost being 335. per ton,
while the 'mime cost of Borneo coal put on board vessels in
the Borneo river is estimated aticss than 3s. 6d. per ton. It
is stated that the directors of the Peninsular elm Oriental
Company are now willing to receive at Singapore or Hong
Kong supplies of Labuan coal; if at Singapore, at 31s. 3,1
per ton ; and if at Hong Kong, at 365. 3d. ; and there is
the strongest ground fur anticipating that the future
contracts with the Peninsular and Oriental Company
will be very extensive. The annual consumption of
Labuan coal, including supplies tor steam-vessels sta
in-
acre, and for the coal depots
at
touching
distant from Labuan, 707 miles ;
Hong Kong, 1,009 ; Manilla, 650, is estimated
toesdi n
gioar
op
ioigre, ,
to be, for the steam vessels of her Majesty's navy,
5,000 tons; East India Company, 5,000 tons; Peninsu-
lar and Oriental Company, 12,000 tons; India and
Australia Mail Steam Packet Company, 4,000 tons ;
Canton Steam Navigation Company, 4,000 tons ;
Philippine Spanish Government, 6,000 tors ;
Dutch navy, 5,000 tons ; British and foreign
merchant service, 6,000 tons e-atotal, 47,000 tons. Her
Majesty's Government have contracted to pay 13s. 6d.
per ton (including royalty) for coals supplied at La-
buan for her Majesty's navy. The offer of the Penin-
sular and Oriental Company, however, shows that far
more advantageous terms are obtainable from other
consumers of Labuan coal ; so that, taking the average
profit at only 7s, 6d. per ton on the above esti-
mated supply .(irrespective of any supply for
the coal depots at Malacca, Penang, Calcutta,
Madras, Ceylon, and Bombay) the promoters of ,the
company calculate that the clear annual gain on this
portion of the coal operations alone would exceed
17,0004 This working of coal, however, though an
essential part of the company's plans, as offering at
once a secure and sure return for the capital to be
invested, does not appear to be that which is likely
ultimately to be the most remunerative ; as, from a
work recently published by Mr. Low, formerly pri-
vate secretary to Sir James Brooke, K.C.8., and now
_colonial secretary of Labuan, it appears that Borneo pro-
duces antimony ore, iron; tin, nickel, quicksilver, and
gold, while " the diamonds of Burned have long been
celebrated as equal to or from India or Brazel in abund-
ance and beauty." As " run for gold " seems now
to be the motto of a large portion of the cemmu
ally in consequence of the recent discoveries in
Cafifornia, we may lay before our readers the fol-
lowing extract relative to the gold mines of Borneo
(which will now be easily accessible to our countrymen)
from the work of Sir Stamford Raffles on that coun-
try:—" From a calculation recently made, it appears
that the number of Chinese employed in the gold mines
at Montrada and other places on the western side of
Borneo amounts to not less than 32,000 working men.
When a mine affords no more than four bengkals
(weighing about two dollars each, or something less
than a tahil) per man in the year, it is reckoned a losing
concern, and abandoned accordingly. Valuing the
bengkal at eighteen Spanish dollars, which is a low rate
of estimation, and supposing only four bengkals pro-
duced in the year by the labour of each man, the total
produce is 128,000 beegkals, worth 2,224,000 Spanish
dollars, equal to 556,000 L, at the rate et five shillings
the dollar. But it is asserted that upon the general
run of the mines, seldrm less than six bengkals
per head has been obtained, and, in very
rainy seasons, seven. Taking the medium at six and
a-hal bengkals, the 32,000 Chinese will procure
208,000 bengkals, which, at eighteen Spanish dollars
the bengkal, is 3,744,000 Spanish dollars, equal to
936,000!. Such is the result of a very moderate calcu-
lation of the produce of these mines. According to an
estimate made in the year 1812, the annual produce of
the mines on the west coast of Borneo was esti-
mated at 4,744,000 Spanish dollars, being an ex-
cess of a million sterling. The quantity of gold pro-
cured in Sumatra, the supposed golden Cbersonesns
of the ancients, is, according to Mr. Marsden, about
30,800 ounces, which, at 4L sterling the ounce, is
worth 123,200/., equal to 492,800 Spanish dollars. It
is calculated that, one year with another, at least
500 Chinese return in the junks to their native
country with a competency. Several have been
known to take away 1,000 bongkals of gold, many
from 100 to 500 ; but very few return before
they have cleared a competency of 2,000 dollars, or
from 100 to 120 tahils of gold. This goes partly in
gold, though they prefer investing a part of it in tin
from Banks, opium, and other articles. Say, however,
that they remit one half in gold: 5,000 men, at 1,000
dollars each, will give 500,000 dollars, which, added
to small fatuity remittances, accounts for an amount
exceeding 1,000,000 dollars, or 250,000/. The cal-
culation, however, seems to be far within the mark,
and gives less by one-half than what is usually
stated to be remitted to China from the Bornean mines,
which has been estimated, at a loose guess, at 2,000,000
dollars, or 500,000/. A further amount of not less than
the value of 1,000,000 dollars, or 250,0001., is supposed to
find its way annually to 'Western India, and principally
to Bengal, via Batavia, Malacca, and Penang, for the
purchase of opium and piece-goods. The surplus en-
riches Java, and some of the other islands, in exchange
for salt, tobacco, coarse cloths, &v."
Mr. Macgregor, M.P., late Secretary of the Board of
Trade, is the chairman, and as it is incorporated under
royal charter, it is but fair to presume that every care
has been taken for the protection of the shareholders.

POLICE 11•41'ELLIUENCE.
MARYLEBONE.
Robert Frost, a guard on the Great Western Railway,
was placed at the bar before Mr. Broughton, for final
examination, charged with having stolen a quantity of
haberdashery, &c., from a package which was left at the
Reading station on the 25th ult., and also with having
stolen valuable property belonging to the Earl of Craven
from a package which, amongst a number of others, was
on the 10th November last sent to the Shrivenham Sta•
tion, to be conveyed to his Lordship's seat, Combe
Abbey, near Coventry.
Mr. Justine, from the office of Maples and Co., solici-
tors, Old Jewry, and Mr. Collard, superintendent of the
railway company's police, attended as before on the part
of the prosecution.
Mr. Justins called additional witnesses in support of
the charge, and addressed the magistrate upon the whole
of the facts adduced in the course of the inquiries which
had been gone into, and he trusted that enough had been
shown against the prisoner to justify his worship in send-
ing him before a jury.
Mr. Collard remarked that four other trains, of
which prisoner was guard, had lately been robbed of
property.
The prisoner was asked if he had anything to say,
when a solicitor, by v. horn he was dt fended, said, " lie
has nothing to say in exculpation of himself as to what
he is charged •with now, but I am instructed by him to
state that he means to criminate another of the com-
pany's officers, who is not present."
Mr. BaoucwroN observed that he would have an op-
portunity of doing so at the Old Bailey, and committed
him for trial.

We have been requested to state that the prisoner is
not Robert Miles Frost, in the service of the Great
Western Railway: the latter bears a most excellent
character, is respectably connected in Devonshire, and is
now at the railway stati(n.
WORSHIP-STREET.

Anne Mallandine, a squalid and wretched-looking
young woman, in an advanced state of pregnancy, was
placed at the bar before Mr. Hammill, charged with
having attempted to murder her son, a boy seven years
of age, by throwing him into the Regent's Canal, and
also to destroy herself.
Mr. John Stoddart, a clerk in the service of an ex-
tensive builder, named Palmer, at Haggerstone, stated
that he was standing outside his employer's counting-
house, within a few yards of the canal, at four o'clock
on the preceding afternoon, when he observed the pri-
soner grasping her boy tightly by the hand and forcing
him across the towing-path in the direction of the
water. The little fellow, who was: evidently muck ter-
rified, appeared struggling to release himself, and re-
peatedly called out, " Don't, mother, don't," but the pri-
soner continued to drag him on till they reached the
edge of the bank, when she suddenly caught him up in
her arms, and flung him into the canal. The prisoner
then rapidly divested herself of her shawl, and was in
the act of untying her bonnet, when witness rushed for-
ward and seized her, and a friend having come up at the
moment, he consigned her to his charge. He then
hastened to the side of the canal, and finding that the
boy was completely exhausted with his struggles, which
had carried him some distance from the bank, witness
instantly plunged into the water, and having fortunately
reached him as he was on the point of sinking, succeeded in
getting him out, and directed his instant removal to an
adjoining public-house, where he speedily recovered
from the effects of the immersion. On questioning the
prisoner as to her motive for such an unnatural act, she
replied that her son and herself were both starving, and
had not broken their fast since the preceding morning.
The prisoner was thereupon given into custody, and the
poor boy was removed to the workhouse.
A lad named John Wilding corroborated the forego-
ing evidence, and added that the prisoner in the first
instance endeavoured to lure the boy to the bank, by
showing him some ducks that were swimming in the
water; but as be hung back in evident anticipation of
her design, she at once resorted to the forcible means
described by the last witness to effect her inhuman
object.
Police-constable Heath, N 428, stated that upon
taking her into custody, the prisoner expressed her re-
gret that the assistance afforded by the witnesses had
not arrived a few minutes later, as she wou:d then have
been spared the trouble of going before a magistrate or
anybody Else.
On being asked if she wished to say anything, the
prisoner, who was dreadfully agitated, replied in a faint
voice in the negative.
Mr. HAmme directed the depositions to be at once
made out, and after eulogising the intrepid and praise-
worthy conduct of Mr. Stoddart, which had been the
means of saving two lives, ordered the prisoner to be
committed to Newsgo le;