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Administration

On 1st December 1894, there was a declaration ceremony to name the town, ‘Bandar Penggaram' in blessing with the name ‘Kampung Penggaram', which was already there all the while and had been the home for Penghulu Rahmat.Other than creating a modern administration system with certain administrative officers to replace the traditional system, Batu Pahat started to develop rapidly to whom Dato' Muhamad Salleh bin Perang represented the King to rule Batu Pahat, who later became government commissioner, and had played an active role.

The villagers were encouraged and urged to open a farm for farming and build irrigation and at the same time foreign investors started to come and open farms, plantations and do business at Batu Pahat. Dato' Bentara Luar's ability to speak Chinese language was a factor that made him liked by the Chinese and a factor that brought prosperity to the economy and harmony to this district.Batu Pahat's administration under Dato' Bentara Luar's ruling ran smoothly and impressive, this was stated by Ungku Sulaiman bin Daud, Johor's General Commissioner during his official visit to Batu Pahat from 21st until 24th December 1896.

Batu Pahat's economic development can be measured based on district income collected for the whole year. When the town was developed in 1893, the district administrations managed to collect a total of $15,000.00 only but in the year 1910 the annual income reached a total of $55,375.00.Dato's Bentara Luar's period ended in the mid of 1911 when Ungku Ahmad bin Ungku Muhamad Khalid was appointed  as Batu Pahat government commissioner replacing Dato' Bentara Luar.  Batu Pahat underwent a new period when a new administrations system was introduced moving together where government district commissioner collaborate with English assistant advisor to run the administration.Now Batu Pahat continues to develop and has now become one of the developed districts in the state of Johor Darul Takzim and has big potential to keep progressing in the future.