GOVERNMENT 305 



for any criminal to conceal himself for any length of 

 time from the government ; and so sure is it of 

 effecting arrest, when necessary, that accused persons 

 are frequently allowed to attend to their farms and 

 follow their ordinary occupations pending the time 

 of their trial. Even when a man accused of a 

 serious offence flees across the border to Dutch 

 territory, he is generally apprehended by the Dutch 

 officers sooner or later and sent round to Kuching 

 by sea. 



The raising of the taxes from the people to 

 defray the expenses of government has raised no 

 difficulties. The door-tax of two dollars ^ per door 

 (i.e. per family or household) is the only direct tax 

 laid on the tribes. When once the initial reluctance 

 has been overcome, this has been collected and 

 regularly paid in by chiefs and Penghulus, including 

 the headmen of the nomad groups. In times of 

 misfortune, whether individual or collective, such as 

 the loss of crops or of a house by fire, the tax is 

 remitted ; and no tax is expected from men over 

 sixty years of age, from cripples or invalids, or from 

 widows. 



The Sea Dayaks alone pay a door-tax of one 

 dollar only, it having been understood from the 

 early days, when they were the only fighting tribe 

 with which the Rajah was intimately acquainted, 

 that they are liable at any time to be called upon 

 by the government to render assistance in punitive 

 expeditions or in other public works, such as 

 procuring timber for government buildings. But 

 this holds good only for those who remain in the 

 districts in which they have long been settled. 



The sum raised by direct taxation forms now but 

 a small part of the total revenue of the State of 

 Sarawak; for the development of trade and agri- 



^ The dollar is the Straits Settlements dollar ; its value in English money is 

 two shillings and fourpence. 



