Nee. From a quasi-military revolutionary brotherhood based in the rural settlement of Kangkar Tebrau, it became an organisation of kapitans and kangchus and revenue farmers based in the state capital of Johor Bahru. The expansion of pepper and gambier planting continued steadily as the cultivators pushed deeper and deeper into the jungle and plantations were established on more and more rivers. Since the Sultan required all Chinese to be members of the Ngee Heng, its influence spread all through the state wherever such settlements were formed, which at the same time, became a means by which the Sultan’s authority was carried to remote areas in Johor. In this way, the Sultan brought all Chinese under one system of political and economic control and extended his authority over his state. Secret societies during British Malaya Secret societies in Malaya were initially not illegal and the disturbances as they created were directed at each rather than against the government. In the beginning, they promoted co-operation between members, controlled investment and labour recruitment, maintained law and order and acted as intermediaries between Malay and British authorities thorough the Kapitan China system. But as their activities against law and order increased, the scale of their operations drew the concern of the British authorities. Officials in the Straits Settlements had long pressed for some measures to be taken for controlling the secret societies. In 1869, they succeeded in enacting the Dangerous Society Ordinance but it was limited in its effectiveness as it only gave the government powers to register but not to suppress the secret societies. However, it was only in 1890 that suppression came at last with the enactment of the Societies Ordinance after which similar legislation was adopted in the Malay states, except in Johor which had it delayed until 1916. When Governor Sir Cecil Clementi Smith asked Sultan Abu Bakar to follow suit, his reply in 1891 was a defence of the Ngee Heng and of his policy. Even though the Ngee Heng Kongsi first took root in Tebrau, it took the lead in providing for the welfare of the community; they built schools and temples, maintained cemeteries, provided for the sick and indigent and so on, and donated generously for these purposes. The first building the Ngee Heng constructed or helped to construct, was a temple to provide for the religious needs of the immigrants. This is the Johor Bahru Old