102 MALAY LAND TENURE. 



" wax, etc., are taxed in a different manner. The inhabitants 

 " of the forest are required to work these articles ; the law 

 " prescribes what amount each family must furnish to the 

 " State annually, and everything exceeding this is for themselves. 

 " Timber is charged with a trifling duty when felled and after- 

 " wards with a tenth of its value on passing the custom 

 " house."* 



It is almost incredible that the Colonial Government has 

 not got proper powers for collecting the tenth, but native cus- 

 tom is hardly sufficient warrant to enable Courts governed by 

 English law and practice to punish by fine and imprisonment 

 breaches of a purely native revenue system, which has not been 

 specially adopted by the Legislature. Governor Fullerton, 

 in a minute dated the 18th May, 1829, asked : " How are we 

 " to regulate decisions at Malacca ? There the sovereign right 

 " is one-tenth of the produce ; the Dutch made over the right 

 "to certain of the inhabitants more than 100 years ago. This 

 " Government, by way of ensuring increase of cultivation and 

 " introduction of population, redeemed the right. How are 

 " we to levy the tenth if refused ? The land tenures at Ma- 

 " lacca bear no analogy or resemblance to any English tenure ; 

 " yet by such they must, in case of doubt, be tried. Eegula- 

 " tions adapted to the case have indeed been sent to England, 

 " but until local legislation is applied, and the mode of admi- 

 " nistering justice better adapted to the circumstances of the 

 u place, it seems to me quite useless to attempt the realisation 

 " of any revenue whatever.-^ 



The problem is still unsolved, as the following extract from 

 an official report laid before the Legislative Council of the 

 Colony last year shews : — 



" The valuation of padi before the assessment of the Govern- 

 " ment tenths seems to be carried on in a perfunctory way. 

 " The system is purely customary and its details have never 

 " been regulated by any law. When the padi in a district is 

 " ripe, a Clerk (Eurasian or Malay) is sent there. He visits 

 " the rice-fields with the Panghulu. A little of the padi is 

 " cut and examined, and an estimate is formed of the probable 



*M0UEA — Le Royauine de Canthodyc, I, 2(54. 



t House of Commoni> Pajjers, 320E., October, 1831. 



