MALAY LAND TENURE. Ill 



punishment or disgrace if he does not do so. He fines those 

 who disobey, and takes money from those who are able to pur- 

 chase exemption, so he contrives usually to make the incident 

 profitable to himself. The cultivator who has to leave his house 

 and his fields at this bidding, has to find his own tools and 

 food, which may involve the carrying of a heavy load to the 

 place of work, and a good deal of expense or privation. The 

 abolition of the cultivator's liability for personal service in 

 Java"* was one of the facts which Kaffles took into consi- 

 deration in deciding what proportion of his crop the cultivator 

 should pay to the State by way of land-revenue. f That 

 enlightened administrator was very far from thinking that 

 forced service, as one of the incidents of native tenure, was to 

 be abolished simply, without any consideration given to Gov- 

 ernment for the concession. It was never for a moment 

 doubted that the right of the Government to exact personal 

 service from the cultivator was inherent in the system under 

 which he held his lands, and the same holds good in Malay 

 countries also. The right of a Malay Raja or Chief to order his 

 feudal inferior to perform reasonable services is indisputable, 

 and the surrender of such a right is a perfectly legitimate 

 consideration for demanding au enhanced land revenue or 

 other equivalent. 



*"The system of vassalage and forced deliveries has been abolished gene- 

 " rally throughout the Island." Proclamation by Lieut.- Governor of Java, 

 October 15th, 1813. 



f " On mature consideration, and the best advice within my reach, I con- 

 " ceived that a fair equivalent for them, including the acknowledged Govern - 

 " ment share of the crop, the amount paid in personal taxes and on the inter- 

 " nal trade, and the valve of forced services, might be found, one district with 

 " another, in establishing the Government share, at about two-fifths of the 

 " rice-crop, leaving the second crop and the fruit-trees and gardens attached to 

 "the villages, free from assessment, the cultivator free from per Bonal taxes, 

 " and the inland trade unrestricted and untaxed." Raffles' Minute on Java, 

 137. 



" The peasant was subject to gross oppression and undefined exaction ; our 

 " object was to remove his oppressor, and to limit demand to a fixed and rea- 

 " sonable rate of contribution. He was liable to restraints on the freedom of 

 " inland trade, to personal services and forced contingents : our object was to 

 " commute them all for a fixed and well-known contribution." History of 

 Ja^a, I, 154. 



