In reading over the reports in the _North Borneo Herald_, I have noticed the tendency of the officers in charge of districts to interfere with the movements of traders. One will only allow certain men to go into the interior to collect jungle products, but they must not take with them merchandise to barter with the natives; another objects to traders going into the interior to buy produce there, as it prevents the aborigines coming down to have ‘a glimpse of civilisation’; a third charges for permits, which induces people to get into the Company’s interior districts from the Brunei territory, and to return that way, thus depriving the Government of its export duties (to this I notice Mr Maxwell objected); a fourth is afraid that the Chinaman will cheat the innocent Dusun, but after a very short time the latter becomes a very good match for the trader. I remember certain natives bringing hundreds of pikuls of worthless gutta, carefully coated over with the genuine article, to the bazaar in Sarawak. The Chinaman tested it, and finding no stones concealed inside the lumps, bought it at rather a high price, but was surprised to find on its being sent to Singapore that it was unsaleable. I do not think, therefore, that the officers of the State of North Borneo need trouble themselves about the trading incapacity of the Dusuns. But the scales and weights of the Chinese should be periodically tested, as this is their favourite method of cheating the unwary. I have always objected to these restrictions on trade, and to the free movements of traders, as they existed in Sarawak. They owed their origin there, as in North Borneo, to the jealousy of the native chiefs, who do their utmost to monopolise the trade themselves, and therefore counsel the English officers not to allow Chinamen to penetrate into the interior. I would give perfect liberty to everyone, and this would not only increase the number of traders, but add considerably to the exports.