Some quantity of this material is annually exported to China, and at Manilla a very delicate and beautiful fabric is made from the fibres of this plant. The aloes likewise yield a fine fibre applicable for various manufactures.[72] I am surprised that the New Zealand flax, the fibres from the foliage of the pine-apple plant, and others, are not used in our manufacturing kingdom, where, there is no doubt, they would form a valuable addition to our raw materials for use in various novel manufactures, either by themselves or in conjunction with other materials. The first appearance of the pine-apple fibre would not cause one to suppose it to be so remarkably fine as it really is; but, by taking one coarse fibre, it is found to be capable of being subdivided into threads of such delicacy as to be barely perceptible, and yet sufficiently strong for any purposes.[73] This plantation abounded in pepper plantations, as well as a great number of various kinds of fruit trees. Singapore is the principal, if not the only place in the East, where the refining or manufacturing of the pearl sago is carried on; the process is said to be a recent one, and the invention of the Chinese. According to Crawford, it was first practised in Malacca about twenty years ago, and was only introduced into Singapore in 1824. I availed myself of the establishment of many of the manufactories of this article, in and about the settlement, to visit one,[74] in which I found a number of Chinese, all of whom were busily occupied in different stages of the operation. The sago, or sagu, is imported in large quantities into Singapore from Sumatra in native boats, who bring it at all seasons of the year; and a few days since eighteen proas of different sizes arrived in the creek, laden with this article alone in its raw state. The tree from which the raw material is produced is named _Rumbiya_ by the Malays, and has been too often described to render an account necessary here.[75] The raw sago is imported in cone-shaped packages, each probably weighing about twenty pounds; the mass is of rather soft consistence, and of a dirty white colour, occasioned by being mingled with several impurities, and the whole is enveloped in the leaves of the _Pandanus_ tree.[76] It first undergoes several different washings in large wooden tubs, being also strained, after washing, through cloth-strainers. When the raw material has undergone sufficient ablutions, the masses which remain at the bottoms of the vessels are collected, broken into pieces, and placed upon platforms in the sun to dry; being broken into still smaller pieces as the drying proceeds.