MALAY LAND TENURE. 133 



vinces what are the different degrees of right of occupants and 

 proprietors and each interest has received definition in the 

 Land Acts passed from time to time for particular provinces, 

 divisions or districts. In such Acts, the terminology used in 

 describing tenures, classes of proprietors, and occupants, docu- 

 ments evidencing title, and rents and other payments, is - 

 largely borrowed from the native languages. The use of 

 terms which have a technical meaning in English law is thus 

 avoided. 



Speaking generally, the ra'iyat is the owner of his holding, 

 subject to the payment of the assessed land revenue. No 

 documentary evidence of title is necessary, though in some 

 provinces he holds a patta, or official statement of the facts of 

 his holding or assessment. His rights are alienable and heri- 

 table, but all transfers have to be registered. 



Revenue systems vary in different parts of India ; there are 

 practically two. The first contemplates settlement with a mid- 

 dleman; and the second, dealing with the individual culti- 

 vator direct — ( the ra'iyat-wdri system ) . The Government 

 may, in point of fact, either deal with a whole village at once 

 through representative headmen, or may make a settlement 

 of each individual holding. 



In the latter case the settlement of a district is based 

 upon a survey, the soil of every field is classified with a view 

 to ascertaining the proper rate of assessment to be imposed, and 

 eventually settlement records are made up, which include a 

 register shewing the name of the occupant of every surveyed 

 allotment. 



In such a system, there is no place for English documents of 

 title, and the tenure is none the less certain and secure because 

 it is not supported by parchment and sealing-wax. The ra'iyatfs 

 name is down in the register of the village to which he be- 

 longs, and the extent of his land and the annual assessment 

 which he has to pay are there recorded. The village records 

 and the evidence of the headmen and villagers are at hand to 

 support him if his right of occupancy is impugned. 



" In Bombay (just as in Madras ) the occupant holds on 

 " the simple terms of paying the revenue ; if he admits that 

 " he is ( or is proved by a decree of a Court to be ) holding 



