British North Borneo competes with Sumatra as the source of the best cigar wrappers.
In many parts of south-eastern Asia, in Mauritius, in North and South Africa, in Madagascar, in the Azores, it has become thoroughly acclimatized, and successfully competes with the indigenous fresh-water fishes.
It is the hardest known substance (though tantalum, or an alloy of tantalum now competes with it) and is chosen as io in the mineralogist's scale of hardness; but the difference in hardness between diamond (io) and corundum (9) is really greater than that between corundum (9) and talc (1); there is a difference in the hardness of the different faces; the Borneo stones are also said to be harder than those of Australia, and the Australian harder than the African, but this is by no means certain.
In 1891 he made some brief continental visits, one to Madrid, and in October he saw through the press his little monograph upon William Pitt, in the Twelve English Statesmen Series, of which it may be said that it competes in interest with Viscount Morley's Walpole.
The old gates have been somewhat ruthlessly cleared away, and the site of the town walls on the north and west competes with the park called the Prince's Garden as a public pleasure ground.
