KUALA PILAH HISTORY -14 - THE VANISHING LANDMARKS OF KP

                                                  KUALA PILAH'S
              VANISHING LANDMARKS

 


The Bahau- KP line of FMS Railway  1 April 2010-2030

              

                     The 1910 -1920s  Kuala Pilah Railway station
 almost identical to the present Bahau Railway station that opened earlier but still functions

                   Proof that that there was a Bahau KP Rail Line

 

 This was a Railway shed  near the present market in KP ,built to cater for the 2010 line that carried goods such as the lucrative tin from Parit Tinggi to Bahau and south


                
The Railway shed in KPwas torn down in the 70s or so and a small shop built on the same site

 

   This was the rai over Sungai Muar demolished before the war and later replaced by a wooden bridge. There is a very narrow road bridge now on the same site linking KP, Sawah Lebar to Parit tinggi and the Bahau road

               
Presumably put up by bloggers to save this 100 plus  year old antique KP Railway station in a very state of repair
More to Come on other Vanishing Landmarks !
devamp@gmail .com 

KUALA PILAH HISTORY 12- TUANKU MUHAMMAD SCHOOL- PICTORIAL NOSTALGIA 3 1914-2013

 

1914-2014 CENTENNIAL

 

TUANKU MUHAMMAD SCHOOL NOSTALGIA

THE CHANGING PICTURES  OF TMS

 

 

 

These Pictures of TMS through the century do not tell the whole story. The structures merely refer to the bricks and mortar that made up the school  but the real story is that of thousands of the town's district's  state's and country's souls which have done TMS proud serving in the country and overseas who keep the flag of the school flying high.

 

 

 

1914-31 (Bahau Road )

 

 

 

1937

 

1946

 

    1985

 

    1990

                                                                                  
                                                                                   

 

    2013

 

 

 

School Gate and Science Labs 1985

 

 

 

TMS TEACHERS 1951 with Mr. Ogle Head Master

 

 

 

 

School Certificate Class 1953 with Headmaster  Mr Clarke

 

 

 

 

SCHOOL CERTIFICATE CLASS 1958 FORM 5 SCIENCE with Headmaster Mr  Mc Cumskey and Form 5 Teacher Mr Chelliah

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More to come

devamp@gmail.com 

 

 

 

 

KUALA PILAH HISTORY 10- PICTORIAL NOSTALGIA

 

SOME PICTURES OF EARY KP YEARS 

 

 

 

 

An old picture of TMS in thge early 1930s (From internet many thanks to author) soon after the new building was opened. Note that the hill behind the school, Bukit Temensu was a thick rubber estate used well into the 1960s as a cross country run path  including a swamp that grabbed your legs at the foot of the hill on the other side Note that the hostel is where itr still is now .

Below in the Centennial year is the very crowded hill as ot is now and includins a new 3 storey block near the Tampin road and front gate of TMS and the rubber estate is all but abandoned .

  

 

 

 

 

 

By the 1950s the opium shop on 198 Jalan Tung Yen  (see Blog 8 in this series on Kuala Pilah History) had long closed down and was the Seri Menanti Bus company offices. . Now a Singer Shop 

 

The old pre war club,  war time police station on Jalan Tung yen  had by the 1950s become government Dental Clinic (now a social welfare training centre)

 

Another landmark on the Seremban road entrance to KP was this dragon decorated functioning fountain (photo from rear) that stopped functioning in the 1950s and has been torn down. It was a gift by the same Towkay Tan Puan who has the most decorated house in KP opposite the Bus Stand in  commemoration  of the Coronation of King George the VI in 1937 (film of his life won awards  - King's Speech recently)

 

 

 

 

The large concrete building at the background is the KP  Post Office on Bahau Road and the lower smaller building was the JKR office . Note the large box like lorry on the road -the ubiquitious Ford Canada surplus WWII truck recycled to be timber trucks and even buses in the 1950s.They were familar sights in the morning and evenings fetching timber logs from Pahang via Menchis through Kuala Pilah to KL.  Long seen as workhorses of the timber and consrtuction trade they are now purpose built in Malaya as lori Hantu (Ghost Lorries) as they have no road worthiness certificatye and can only be used off road and in jungles and construction sites

 

More Pictures Later

devamp@gmail.com

 

 

 

KUALA PILAH HISTORY 9 -TUANKU MUHAMMAD SCHOOL CENTENARY HISTORY 2

 

 

TMS

THE EARLY POST WAR YEARS

 

 

(Acknowledgements with gratitude to authors of TMS Annuals 1951-57 and 1974 for pictues and captions printed herewith below and in other blogs on TMS by KP HISTORY Author)

 

 

 

The lost years of the 2nd World  War led to a scramble for English education  throughout Malaya. The return of Engish teachers such a Miss Lomas of pre war years to TMS was a big boost for Primary school education . The above is one of the early staff photos on TMS in perhaps (I stand corrected) its first post war School Magazine - The Annual with Mr Ogle the Headmaster . Most of the pre war pictures are lost as the school was looted and turned into a Kampetai (Japanese Military Police) interrogation centre. A rare picture that shows its age below  is a survivor from the 1937 or so era of school children performing a multi cutural dance on the padang - a forerunner of 1 Malaysia perhaps !

 

 

 

 

The rapid demand for space post war  in the then new  TMS building built in 1930, meant temporary use of wooden buildings that was next to the firts TMS a club pre war behind what was the present Police Station on Bahau Road (opposite the stadiumKP) for Primary 1 and 2 classes in 1948. But this was simply not enough. More wooden attap-thatched roofed buildings were built next the the Hostel in TMS (on grounds said to be the burial grounds for torture victims of the Kempetai) but by 1951 even these were insufficient. In a noble effort to provide education students teachers and people together built 4 classrooms on the rubber estate hillside opposite to TMS school hall. The picture above shows the completed block aptly named the Public Subscription Block.The block was built on the hillside after a large part of the hillside was levelled. That was done by schoolboys who instead of PT spent the morning hour cutting the hillside with cangkul (hoe) and filling in one of two wooden carts and dump the same at the far end, thus levelling the same little by little. one of the carts was an abandoned wooden hearse ! A list of donors too long to list here had some donating RM 5 and others 25 and a few 200, a  princely sum those days considering that  a junior teacher earned 160RM a month and a young doctor just 450RM a month.

 

More to come !

devamp@gmail.com 

 

 

 

KUALA PILAH HISTORY 8 - THE TUANKU MUHAMMAD SCHOOL CENTENARY SERIES 1

THE TUANKU MUHAMMAD SCHOOL CENTENARY SERIES 1

                                           Tuanku Muhammad School Kuala Pilah  in 2012

The premier School of Kuala Pilah Tuanku Muhammad School (TMS to KP -Philes) steeped in history and one of the premier schools in the country turns 100 years this year (2014). It was reportedly founded in 1914- according to an article in the TMS school magazine on the 60th year of the TMS . Prior to that the TMS called by other names was situated in different parts of the town (Kuala Pilah Village then). But even before that and very likely before 1900 there was a vernacular school near the Lister Memorial on Lister road then called Main street which itself was once Cart Road. This recorded on a marble plaque on the rear wall of the Memorial (picture above) There is no mention if the Vernacular school was a Malay, Chinese or Tamil School but more than likely it was not an English school.

 

I quote from the TMS Annual 1974,

 

Towkay Tung Yen began a Committee School under his leadership and in 1908 there were twenty eight pupils with a Mr. De Witt as Headmaster and Mr Eng Keng as his assistant. The School was abandoned due to financial troubles.

 

The Government School, the true forerunner of TMS Began in March 1914 with Mr J W Moore as Headmaster........

 

It is not known where the original TMS was but 4 years after it began Mr Moore left in 1918 and the school moved to the Sekolah Kebangsaan opposite the KP Stadium  of today with Mr Nonis as Headmaster and Mr P K Raman as his assistant. The school progressed well .....The teachers wore white drill military style tunics and the puils wore their national dress and Chinese boys had their hair done in queues.... By 1924 the school's steady growth had the enrolmentraised above the 200 mark and there were 6 teachers. A few pupils were prepared for the Junior Cambridge Examination.

 

By 1929 the enrolment was331 and the school had outgrown a building originally designed to accomodate 100 pupils.The site of the present school was chosen by Mr Gordon Hall and the building with room for 500 pupils was completed in 1930 at a cost of $105,995.The School was occupied in 1031 under the Headmaster Mr Redfern and Miss Lomas the Primary supervisor with an enrolment of 327 pupils including 59 girls. The school was renamed Government English School Kuala Pilah  until after the death of His Late HighnessTuanku Muhammad , after whom the the school was then named as a token of esteem and gratitude in 1933. Out -of -school activities includedSxcout Troop. Sports, drama and an orchestra. The Present Malay Girls' School which was then the Scout Headquraters was turned into a hostel for 26 Boarders.

 

 

With the Japanese Occupation (see The War years under the Kuala Pilah History Series in same blog) the school ceased functioning , its furniture and fittings were stripped and looted, stocks of textbooks and library books stolen or burnt. It accomodated the Japanese Military Police who turned the playing field into a tapioca garden .When on September 7th 1945 TMS officially reopened  with Mr Francis as Headmaster fear or eveil spirits deterred many boys from living in the hostel because many victims of the Japanese atrocitieswere buried in the estate behind the hostel.

 

The post war demand for English Education raised the enrolment to 760 in 1948 and the primary section had to be housed temporarily in a club building near the old District Office

 

 

 

 

The new Police Station 1951 (above) -that replaced older wooden buildings in town, near  the old post office and then opposite to present one across the other side of the padang-  with the old  post war TMS Primary school,  near the District Office and Padang ( below). The Old TMS temporary Primary school was where I started schooling in TMS in 1949 , Index No. 1170. My first teacher was Mrs Paul Asirvatham .Miss Lomas was my Primary II teacher with Mr William Jesudason by then we had moved to the TMS school along Tampin Road and our class rooms were new  wooden buildings with thatched attap roofs. These were later changed to Asbestos roofs ! 

 

More on the history of TMS to follow !

devamp@gmail.com

 

KUALA PILAH HISTORY 7 - The KUALA PILAH Opium Shop Story

 

 

 

 

KUALA PILAH HISTORY 7

 

THE OPIUM SHOP STORY

 

 

 

 

 

KUALA PILAH Opium Shop on right 198 Jalan Tung Yen

 

Anyone wandering along Kuala Pilah's busy streets in 2014 would never imagine that this town or at least part of it on Jalan Tung Yen named after its illustrious mining pioneer  was crawling with British government  registered opium addicts restlessly waiting to buy legally imported opium from a Government Opium (candu) shop at 198 Jalan Tung Yen. In Fact in the 1920's the British Government was getting almost half its revenue from legal opium shops throughout Singapore and Malaya. The second shop from the left of the picture was Kuala Pilah's Candu shop .

 

 

    

 KUALA PILAH OPIUM SHOP SALES  WINDOW AND SHOP FRONT

run by pre-war  British Colonial Government

 

 



Opium was harvested from the dried sap of Paperver Sominiferum and  discovered centuries ago and used even in Roman times and even used for medicinal purposes . But in the 17th Century after it was already in use in Britain and Europe a lucrative commercial use related to its relaxing, sleep producing and addictive properties was found by colonial traders in India. Until then grown and used in small amounts colonial traders using their influence on India's rulers in Bihar obtained concessions to farm opium poppy on an industrial scale using Indian labour, warehousing the same in large warehouses filled with three-pound balls packed to the roof waiting for export - to lucrative Chinese markets on opium clipper ships.

 

British weighing and buying opium harvest from Indian farmers

 

 

 

                                                  British opium warehouse in Patna India

The Lucrative opium trade by the British in India (and several European powers) mainly in China and Java led to untold wealth by traders and the newly formed banks that financed them. But the Chinese eventually objected, resisted the trade and this led to two Opium Ward in the 1800s that ended with a treaty that allowed the British to occupy Hong Kong for 100 years on a lease  . This peace led to the eventual decline of the opium trade in China as the Chinese began growing their own opium in southern China.

                                                      Painting of Opium War


The colonial powers with huge colonies in south east Asia then started selling opium at first to overseas Chinese in the colonies and other locals - albeit with medical certificates required for sales. They even set up a refining factory in Singapore on Bukit Chandu and had shops selling opium in Singapore.

 The Chandu(opium) Hill in Pasir Panjang , Singapore became the site of an epic battle for Singapore where Lt Adnan of the Malay Regiment fought heroically against the Japanese  and was killed.

 

In Singapore The Joo Chiat Post Office was the  Opium Shop

 

 

Despite  all the sad tragedies of WW2 one good that came out of the war was the Japanese elimination of the opium trade legal and illegal that had provided lucrative income for the British at the expense of ruined lives. The return of the British in 1945 kept the opium shops closed as a more lucrative Rubber, Tin trade was more profitable. But the opium habit only went underground with opium dens and secret societies controlling them. When the Vietnam War came about the Opium trade was rapidly replaced by the Heroin trade - a more powerful and more addictive scourge took over. Like opium heroin (and cocaine) were once medicines used legally !

Below are some pictures of opium Pipe, opium pillow and the very ornate mother of pearl opium bed that opium spawned - and an opium smoker !

 

Opium Bed, opium pipe and opium Pillow

 

 

 

 

 

More to come for those who are KP-Philes !

devamp@gmail.com

 

KUALA PILAH HISTORY 6

 

                The Vanishing Valley Story             

                How Green was The Valley  - the 1950s  to the 2010s

                                                     

                           

                           KUALA PILAH VALLEY - from Bahau Road

            

                                                                                                                                                                                               

The view from Bahau Road of the town end of the valley with the wall of Lister memorial to the left and the old bus stand and toddy shop flanked by a huge Flame of the Forest tree, and coconut trees to the right  and the main range in the background.

The Bahau road end of the valley had a lower slip road that connected Lister with Hill Road. This was at such low level that the road was flooded when the valley was itself flooded as seen in the picture of such a 1958  flood . The old Post Office was a very solid brick building that housed the quarters of the postmaster. Mail was delivered by postmen on bicycle or on foot.

                                                    Kuala Pilah Valley in Flood - a 1958 photo 

 

  Rare photograph of 1958 Floods of the valley spreading into Sawah Lebar side across the elevated Bahau Road through two large diameter tunnel drains. All these have been since replaced with wider channels and most of the Sawah Lebar side of the valley is taken up by a slip road  joining the Bahau Road to the RTR to Sawah Lebar and on beyond to Bahau by the Railway Track Road .

 

KP POST OFFICEAND POLICE STATION - Picture 1 taken in 1937

 

 

                                         

                                         KP POST OFFICE AND JKR OFFICE -Picture 2 taken in 1957

 

 

Picture above 1(edited to remove colonial administrators not allowed in Japanese occupation) of old Post office on Bahau Road behind 3rd gentleman and commemorative arch in 1937 or so next to which was an identical building just visible in picture that was the pre war  police station. Reportedly it was blown up by guerrillas towards the end of the war and replaced by a wooden police station facing the town stadium  and padang – that was itself replaced by another concrete building in 1952 at the other end of the padang , that still stands.  Picture 2 taken a good 20 years later shows the old concrete post office but with the low wooden JKR Office next to it

  

                 KUALA PILAH POLICE STATION AFTER OPENING 1952 with old TMS Primary school



                                                                      

   The Kuala Pilah Valley was not just an open space . The Valley was a low land that started getting smaller long before 1930s when the KP town was extended from the hill rise in what is now the Melang road. As the town expanded the valley became what it was in 1950s. This narrowed natural valley  acted as a retention pond for the occasional heavy rains of December although Kuala Pilah was long recognised as the driest town in Malaya. In fact recognising this the valley had several wells which in particularly dry spells provided the townspeople with life saving water. One such was below the level of the toddy shop next to the bus stand and   a local cherry tree. The slopes by the side of Hill road and facing the Government Toddy shop, bus stand and the Lister memorial were natural slides for children using long full coconut  leaves and the occasional daredevil boys coiled inside the inner part of used car tyres and rolled down the slopes. The valley was a short cut to the hill road, Bahau Road and for Fijian and  Gurkha soldiers based at the padang opposite Majestic Cinema to reach their camp for meals in the camp based next to the District Offices. The valley stretched from near the old Rest House on Seremban road all the way  to Sawah Lebar. The Rest house portion has now been swallowed up by a new housing estate, and shops, below, and replaced by a new rest house on Hill road  where the wooden Bungalow of the Executive Engineer’s house used to stand . The Tan Puan Fountain that was donated to commemorate the Jubilee of King George V in 1936(below) is long gone. Site of old Rest House and the new Rest House on Hill road.

           
A Kuala Pilah landmark the Towkay Tan Puan Fountain stood in front of the old rest house on Seremban Road (where a small bush on a divider stands in front of the eating stalls ) today  The fountain stopped functioning long ago and is no more. It was built to commemorate the coronation of King George and Queen Elizabeth on 5^th May 1937 by Towkay Tan Puan of 165 Jalan Yam Tuan who in 1927  built  the most decorated shop house in Kuala Pilah that stands opposite the new Bus Station. Well maintained it is an attractive addition to  history. Fortunately it has been restored and is well maintained.   Clearly the Pangung Wayang of Jalan Yam Tuan was built a good 11 years earlier and probably the town developed from the direction of the Jalan Seremban that and its junction with Jalan Lister with the shops being built after Pangung Wayang (1916) in stages to reach the 1927 building of the fabulous house of Towkay Tan Puan. 

 

         The King George the sixth Coronation Commemorative Fountain on Seremban Road near old Rest House . This has long been demolished but was there till 1970 or so although the fountain had stopped functioning

                   

 

 

 

The old Rest House of KP was a large wooden building on stilts and similar to ones in other towns nearby such as Tampin.  The Government Rest Housein Kuala Pilah  built in 1891  . It served as a gathering place for the colonial gentry of the time and place for the visiting government officials of the day to stay on their inspections of the district. . The first Rest House was  built in 1891 by Singhalese workers and had 4 bed rooms. It was the only hotel in town and used for functions, meetings and celebrations. Rest houses were integral parts of smaller towns that had no hotels and run traditionally by Singhalese Rest House keepers. The Kuala Pilah Rest House was contracted to one Mr Janis De Silva a long time resident of Kuala Pilah and Tampin (Straits Times 1891 January). Much later Rest Houses almost exclusively were contracted to Chinese of  Hainanese origin .

 A much larger two storey building was the Rest House in the Seremban lake gardens that served a similar function. In those days when there were few “coffee shop hotels” or no hotels at all the Rest Houses served the  function of providing clean, standard accommodation and food. Most Rest Houses have since been re-built and are less important with the rise of hotels even in Kuala Pilah. In 2012 KP boasts at least 3 modern albeit small  hotels. The new KP rest house is where the old wooden bungalow of the British Engineer's  was further up the Hill Road near the present  magistrate's court. .

 

 More to Come !!

do look upother earlier  Kuala Pilah History Blogs by same author 

Deva Mp