TA Neelakantan Iyer joined the Lands and Surveys Department during the Chartered Company administration in 1930 and spent 33 years before returning to India upon retiring as Chief Draughtsman in 1962. He was so fond of Sabah that he even named his house in Madras, “Borneo House”
Nov 4, 1899 (North Borneo Herald)
Mr Henry Walker, the Commissioner of Lands, recommended a narrow strip of coastal land between Tanjung Lipat and Tanjung Aru, to be the site for a deep water port on the mainland and a terminus for a railway line.
Walker was convinced it was a good place to start a town and the present proves him right – the strip of land became Jesselton, named after Sir Charles Jessel Bart, a vice chairman of the Chartered Company. Jesselton (now Kota Kinabalu) was directly opposite Gaya, an island on which a settlement was started in 1881 and by January 1884, had a population of 400.
Gaya was the Chartered Company’s administrative centre for the west coast but the island was abandoned for Jesselton. Rebel leader Mat Salleh looted and burnt Gaya to the ground in 1897.
Malaysian Scouts were
placed under one umbrella
Nov 3, 1964 (Daily Express)
The Malaysian Boy Scouts Federation (the term “Boy”
The Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Environment (KePKAS) is spending RM200,000 to beautify old buildings in the district.
Among being implemented is the Creative Lane project with the concept of “Bringing Memories Back” which would be made a new tourist attraction in Sandakan
The day after “Super Tuesday” 23 February 2021 when the BBI constitutional amendment bill achieved the minimum 24 counties needed to call for a referendum, I was at the famous Gikomba Market by 7 a.m. and as usual, the day’s business had already started well before the break of dawn. But a lot has changed at the market in recent times: the coronavirus pandemic has gravely affected the flow of business, the economic downturn that started in 2018 has hurt many traders and the midnight fires have returned.
“Those fires are set by arsonists,” said one of traders that I had gone to see. “They are meant to drive us out from this area, but we’ve been resilient because we’ve refused to give up the land and business.” The last fire that completely gutted the traders’ goods was on 25 June 2020. Two days later, just after the traders had finished rebuilding their semi-permanent structures that are constructed with timber and iron sheets, they were “welcomed very early