CH. I] LAND AND SOIL 3 



in sections appropriated to each family, sometimes on a more 

 or less cooperative system ; but more often, within the tropics, 

 they are not such villages, but each family actually owns (or 

 leases) a piece of land. In the former case the village is 

 assessed as a whole for the payment of the Government tax ; 

 in the latter each proprietor is separately assessed. In both 

 cases the village artisans are often paid by a levy on the 

 produce. 



In the Federated Malay States, land is regarded as entirely 

 the property of the Government ; in fact, " land nationalisation," 

 so much discussed in Europe, is already an accomplished fact 

 in this country. Anyone may buy land from the Government 

 on payment of a premium of one dollar or so an acre, and an 

 annual quit-rent of one or more dollars an acre. Should he 

 cease to pay the rent, or abandon the land for three consecutive 

 years, the Government steps in and resumes possession of it. 

 The original grant of the land from the Government is for 

 999 years, so that there is no fear of the possessor being 

 disturbed, so long as he continues to work the land properly, 

 but the Government is entitled to revise the rate of quit-rent 

 payable every 30 years. In many ways this is perhaps the 

 best system of alienating land from the Government, for the 

 latter derive an annual income from it, and resume it if 

 abandoned, while the original buyer does not need to expend 

 so much capital on the actual purchase as he does for instance 

 in Ceylon, where he buys the land outright, and thus he has 

 more available for cultivation. 



In the West Indies, and in most of the modern British 

 tropical colonies, the land is freehold, and though at one time 

 in the former it was very largely held in big blocks for sugar 

 and other plantations, it is now passing to some extent into 

 the hands of small peasant proprietors. 



Except in the thinly peopled countries it is gradually 

 becoming more and more difficult to obtain considerable blocks 

 of land for the larger agricultural enterprises, for the small 

 proprietor usually sticks very closely to his own little patch of 

 land, and refuses to sell it, even if it be almost surrounded by 

 a large estate. 



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