1966.002 1966 RICS Presidential World Tour - FB's diary
ROYAL INSTITUTION OF CHARTERED SURVEYORS
Presidential World Tour 1966
THE SECRETARY’S DIARY (continued)
Thursday, 20 October 1966 (Singapore
– Kuala Lumpur)
We flew up to Kuala Lumpur in a Malaysian Airways plane, which
took about one hour. Each passenger was provided with a straw
fan, which was needed only when the aircraft was on the ground.
The airport at Kuala Lumpur is very modern and has fine new buildings
of distinction. We were met by R.I.C.S. members of the Committee
of the Institute of Surveyors (Malaysia). The road into the town
is also new and for the first part of the journey was free from
development, passing through rubber plantations. Later we noticed
a number of factories bearing familiar English names. Near the
centre of the town we passed a number of notable buildings, including
the railway station (which is one of the most picturesque in the
world) and several new mosques which were of very interesting
design.
After having coffee with the reception party at the hotel and
discussing the programme, we had a quiet lunch at the hotel (The
Merlin) and afterwards went to visit the Technical College where
most local surveyors are trained. It is expected that this will
shortly be upgraded to a College of Technology. At present it
has courses in quantity surveying, land surveying and town and
country planning. We met the Principal and Vice-Principal and
also the Head of the Quantity Surveying Department, Mr. G. Wood.
His course is entirely devoted to quantity surveying and is really
professional, according to his statement. It consists of three
years’ full-time training plus one year’s practical
training with an employer. He seeks exemption for diploma holders
from the College in respect of the R.I.C. S. Intermediate quantity
surveying examination. Particular difficulty is caused by the
fact that the examinations for both their diploma and the R.I.C.S.
Intermediate are held at the same time.
It was not clear why their examination time could not be altered.
They hope in August, 1967 to extend the syllabus to enable them
to teach to the Final, Part I level of the R.I.C.S. quantity surveying
examinations.
We found to our surprise that students’ tea party had been
laid on for us, organised by the student body known as the Survey
and Planning Society. There were about 50 students present. The
President of the R.I.C.S. was invited to address them, which he
did, and afterwards there was a question session. One of the questions
was whether the Survey and Planning Society could be affiliated
to the R.I.C.S.! It was explained that affiliation only took place
with professional bodies and that they had some way to go before
this would be possible.
(It occurs to me to remark that Mr. Stevenson, the Chairman of
the Singapore Branch, said that the Presidential visit had given
the Branch the first chance to talk to Government, the British
High Commissioner, etc., for several years and this alone made
the visit well worthwhile.)
In the evening there was a buffet dinner at the house of Mr.
Ung Cheng Pee. It was attended by most of the members of the Council
or the local Institution of Surveyors. The house is one storey
and built all round a grass compound, where tables were provided
for the actual meal. The meal was quite different from the Chinese
dinner of the previous night and I found it a good deal more palatable.
The main ingredients were chicken, beef kebab and rice pasta.
After the dinner we were taken to the Selangor Club for a night-cap.
The Club has an excellent band and dancing goes on very late.
We, however, excused ourselves at what the locals regard as an
unreasonably early hour (at about a quarter to twelve).
Friday, 21 October 1966 (Kuala Lumpur)
The morning was taken up with visits to various Government Departments.
We began with a visit to the Survey Department where we again
met the Surveyor General who had been present at last night’s
dinner. He rejoices in a name consisting of six words but this
can, I believe, be abbreviated to two: Haji Yatim (the Haji, of
course, meaning that he has made a pilgrimage to Mecca). He has
a very large and well-organised department employing 3,000 staff.
The Torrens system is in force here and the main function of the
Department is to provide title identification for land registration
and to provide mapping services.
We then went to the offices of the Treasury Valuation Division
which is equivalent to the Valuation Office of the Inland Revenue
in the U.K. We met the Chief Valuer, Mr. R. G. Fraser, MBE., FRICS.
He has twelve A.R.I.C.S. on his staff and no other qualification
is accepted. Many are sent to the U.K. on Government scholarships
for training, mostly with Gerald Eve & Co. This firm carried
out an entire revaluation of Kuala Lumpur some years ago and connection
with them has been maintained. This illustrates that one way of
overcoming the problem of finding training places for overseas
students in the U.K. is for the country concerned to employ a
firm as consultants and thus establish a connection which can
be maintained.
The last call was made on the Public Works Department where we
met the Minister in Charge, the Minister of Works, Posts and Telex-Communications.
He told us some entertaining stories about the political situation
and was very interested in the lessons we had drawn from the tour.
We also met the Director of the PWD and the Assistant Director
(Quantity Surveying). The latter, Mr. Lawrence Chin, is a Chartered
Surveyor of whom the Minister thinks very highly. Indeed, he remarked
‘nothing can go on without Chin’. The Minster said
he thought there should be more meetings of Commonwealth Ministers
concerned with particular subjects, e.g. works.
Officials do meet but more can be done with a Minister to push
the policy worked out by the officials. The PWD here is unusual
in that quantity surveying is a separate autonomous department
and all quantity surveyors are members of the R.I.C.S. The Department
will not accept any other qualification. All except Mr. Chin were
trained in the U.K. as Government scholars.
We were given a curry lunch at the Bilal Restaurant and, on the
way there, our guide for the morning, Mr. Vargeson, told us how
he had left the PWD here some seven years ago and founded his
own firm which now had branches all over Malaya.
He made what seemed to us a very important suggestion as follows:
He feels that the R.I.C.S. should not merely be prepared to accept
reciprocal arrangements where appropriate, but should set out
with a determination to pursue this end. In other words, there
should be a positive drive by the R.I.C.S. towards reciprocal
arrangements. He does not, of course, mean that these should be
entered into without proper safeguards, but the advantage of reciprocal
arrangements is considerable. Such a policy by the R.I.C.S. would
encourage backward countries to raise and keep high standards
and they would be reluctant to depart from them for fear of losing
the reciprocal status. This policy could also help to promote
uniform practices and foster efficiency throughout the Commonwealth.
It would help to maintain R.I.C.S. influence and would make it
easier for R.I.C.S. members to find work abroad.
The afternoon was spent resting, and preparing reports.
The President’s cocktail party in the evening was held
at the Selangor Club, because the Merlin Hotel had not room of
sufficient size available. There were nearly 100 guests, mainly
Chartered Surveyors and their wives, but also including some members
of the Institution of Surveyors (Malaysia) who were not also Chartered
Surveyors. The Chief guests were the Permanent Secretary to the
Ministry of External Affairs, the Deputy British High Commissioner
and the President of the Malayan Society of Architects. One of
the Chartered Surveyors present was Mr. C. F. Light, a descendant
of the Colonel Light who designed Adelaide and whose father was
the first British settler in Penang. We found we had something
in common, because Mr. Light also flew Wellingtons in a Coastal
Command squadron. Another guest, also a Chartered Surveyor, was
Mr. A. J. Charlton who has come out here to reassess the Malaysian
railway system for rating purposes. Many stretches of the line,
particularly in the East, are inaccessible by road and he was
therefore given a special coach with which to explore the railway
system. This I must say made me rather envious.
After the cocktail party we evaded an invitation to stay and
dine at the Selangor Club and returned to the hotel where we had
a light meal and went to bed fairly early. The hotel was in some
disarray because of a huge banquet being given for the Vice-President
of India. We saw some colourfully dressed Indian dancers on their
way to given an entertainment at the dinner. For some reason,
the Malaysians seem to have thought it appropriate to entertain
the Vice President of India with Indian food and Indian dancers
rather than Malaysian. The craze for bowling alleys has hit Kuala
Lumpur and the hotel has one of its own which we inspected before
going to bed. We did not get a chance to have a go because there
was a large crowd of people playing.
Saturday, 22 October 1966 (Kuala Lumpur)
In the morning we were taken for two fascinating visits to see
how a rubber plantation and a tin dredge work.
The first visit was to see the Rubber Research Institute Experimental
Station at Sungei Bulch, about eight miles from Kuala Lumpur.
Here a Chinese assistant manager showed us around the station.
His English was extremely good and he explained matters in a most
lucid and fascinating way. He demonstrated how a rubber tree in
flower is pollinated so as to produce five times the natural amount
of seeding, and also demonstrated the process of grafting. Apparently,
all the rubber trees in production are grafted and much greater
success has been obtained since polythene tape has become available
to attach the graft to the parent stock. The advantage of polythene
is that it allows light to reach the grafted area. We were shown
the process of tapping the latex which is done every other day
in a manner which enables a tree to go on producing latex for
about 30 years. Our guide told us that in South America, where
rubber trees originated, they still tap the trees in a very crude
manner which means that they have a very short life. We were then
taken to the experimental factory where the first stage of processing
the latex is dealt with. One of the main recent advances has been
in devising a method of drying out the latex which takes a few
hours instead of nearly a week under the old method. By such improvements
as this, the rubber plantations are able to keep pace with the
competition of synthetic rubber.
The next visit was to the Kampon Lanjut Tin Dredging operations.
This again was a few miles out of the town and the place where
the dredge was working was reached by a laterite track, extremely
bumpy in places. We had to go in a Land Rover. The dredge has
excavated a large area now filled with water and we had to reach
it by a kind of boat which moved extremely slowly under the blazing
sun. The boat, which consisted entirely of metal, was very hot
indeed. The dredge cost about a million pounds sterling and really
consists of a kind of floating factory. There is an endless belt
with chairs which scoop up the tin-bearing mud. This is then subjected
to various crushing processes which produce in the end a fine
gravel consisting of about 75% tin. The price of tin is extremely
high and a handful of this gravel is worth over £1 sterling.
For this reason stringent precautions have to be taken against
theft.
Neither of these excursions have very much to do with surveying,
although valuers are concerned where rubber estates or tin bearing
areas change hands. We were told that there are no mining surveyors
as such employed in the tin mines. Most tin is obtained by dredging
but there are some mines in the country.
We scarcely had time for any lunch at the hotel before we were
due at a general meeting of the Institution of Surveyors (Malaysia).
This meeting was attended by 28 members of the Institution. The
total membership is 113 but many of these are out of the country
on leave or otherwise and others are in different parts of Malaysia.
