90 MALAY LAND TENURE. 



land-holder has thus grown up in some districts. It was 

 explained just now that his right, which was based upon ori- 

 ginal occupation, is absolute as long as that occupation 

 continues ; to this must now be added, " and as long as a pro- 

 portion of the grain is paid to the Raja or Chiefs." 



The rate of oue-tenth of the produce thus leviable by Malay 

 custom is, it should be observed, the same as the rate still 

 collected under a law based upon native custom, in Ceylon. 

 So, in China, " the land is held as a freehold as long as the 

 " sovereign receives his rent, which is estimated at about one- 

 " tenth of the produce, and the proprietors record their names 

 " in the District Magistrate's Office as responsible for the tax, 

 " feeling themselves secure in the possession while that is paid.'"'* 

 In Cambodia, too, the share of the sovereign is one-tenth of 

 gross produce, f Low, speaking of Siamese rule in Kedah, says : 

 " The Siamese, following the code of Menu, affect to exact only 

 " one-tenth of the gross produce value, but the tax is more than 

 " doubled in practice."* 



The right of the Raja to dispose of waste land cannot have 

 been seriously exerted in Malay States in respect of forest 

 land. The old Malay custom which permitted the free selec- 

 tion and appropriation of forest land for the purposes of cul- 

 tivation was not interfered with, the adoption of any other 

 course being almost impossible in countries the greater part of 

 which was under forest. As regards abandoned land, or land 

 to which there was no heir, it was, no doubt, different, and the 

 rights of the Raja were often duly enforced. It is not diffi- 

 cult to see how the rights of the Raja to demand a proportion 

 of the produce, on pain of forfeiture of the holding, and to 

 dispose of waste land, tended by degrees to create the doctrine 

 that the right to the soil was in the Raja. Such a doctrine 

 did in fact grow up, and being, to all appearance, consistent 

 with the rights exercised by the Raj.'., and not incompatible 

 with the proprietary rights claimed by the Malay land-holder, 

 it has received complete acceptance in Malay States. It was 



* The Middle Kingdom— Williams, II, 100. 

 + Le Royavme de Cambodge — Moura, I, 264. 



X Dissertation on Penang and Province Wcllesley, 6. Jovrti. Ind. Arch., I 

 336. 



