MALAY LAND TENURE. 121 



proprietary right to a transferee. It may be clearly laid down 

 that the Malay cultivator can transfer only the interest in the 

 land which he himself possesses ; that that interest, as already 

 shewn, is merely a permanent and inheritable right of occu- 

 pation, conditional on the continuous occupation of the land 

 on the payment of tenths and taxes, and on the rendering of 

 certain customary services ; and that the price to be paid has 

 no reference to the value of the land itself (for, in a primitive 

 state of society, that has little intrinsic value), but is calculated, 

 if garden land, by estimating the value of the fruit-trees, or, if 

 padi land, by assessing at a reasonable sum the probable value 

 of the labour bestowed by the first cultivator in clearing the 

 forest and bringing the field into cultivation. 



I have had opportunities of observing the Malay customs 

 relating to the sale and mortgage of land in operation in 

 purely native districts, having been deputed in 1874 to take 

 over the territory on the left bank of the Krian river, then 

 recently ceded by Perak to the British Government, and having 

 since then served for some years as Assistant Besident in the 

 Native State of Perak. I am, therefore, able to speak with 

 some confidence upon the laws and customs which have come 

 under my personal observation in actual practice. 



The technical term used in Perak for the transfer of land 

 by sale is pulang belanja (return of expenses), which sufficient- 

 ly indicates that the money paid is not a price set upon the 

 land itself, but the recoupment of the outlay incurred by the 

 vendor in bringing it into cultivation. The new proprietor, 

 in fact, does not buy the land ; he simply buys out the occupier 

 by compensating him for his labour, that being the factor 

 which originally created the tenancy, and thus obtains the 

 right to stand in his place. It is manifest that he will not 

 pay a long price for a mere right of occupancy weighted by 

 the incidents and liabilities above described; in Krian, in 

 1874, it was difficult to get ten dollars an or long for excellent 

 padi land by pulang belanja, but when security of tenure and 

 the full right of alienation of the soil were introduced in the 

 district by the British Government, it became possible to sell 

 the same land for $60 or $70 an orlong. 



So in the case of land on which fruit-trees are growing. 



