JAVA LABOUR LAW. 2G3 



only limited by the amount of available labour, which 

 accounts for more than one-half of the island being still 

 uncultivated. 



At first sight it may seem inexplicable that an entire 

 people should have quietly submitted to labour year 

 after year for the sole benefit of their great task- 

 master, nay, have done so even cheerfully, and in all 

 their relations showing the greatest respect for the 

 foreign conqueror. Two reasons exist for this apparent 

 phenomenon. In the first place, the character of the 

 native is naturally docileandsubmissive; the repeated in- 

 vasions of his country, first by the Hindus, then by the 

 Buddhists, and lastly by the Mahomedans, had tried 

 him severely, and had had the effect of gi-adually, but 

 completely subduing, if not extinguishing, every spark 

 of energy in him, and no wonder he values the peace- 

 ful existence his last conquerors guarantee to him. 

 He is now no more harassed by religious persecutions ; 

 is not made to fight against his inclination ; and in 

 return for his labour he enjoys the comforts of a neat 

 bamboo cottage, earns as much rice as he can eat, and 

 sufficient money to buy a new sarong. And, secondly, a 

 veryimportant factor is the manner in which the Govern- 

 ment carried out these new measures for the gradual de- 

 velopment of unlimited resources, such as the rich soil of 

 Java pre-eminently possesses, namely, by availing itself 



