J 38 MALAY LAND TENURE. 



Security of tenure and protection from unjust exactions are 

 the desiderata indicated in the eloquent passage which follows, 

 written with all the burning indignation with which Kaffles 

 avowed the tyranny and rapacity of the Dutch Colonial Offi- 

 cials of those days inspired him : — * 



" Can it, therefore, be a subject of surprise, that the arts of 

 " agriculture and the improvement of society have made no 

 (i greater advances in Java ? Need it excite wonder that the 

 " implements of husbandry are simple ; that the cultivation is 

 " unskilful and inartificial ; that the state of the roads, where 

 (( European convenience is not consulted, is bad ; that the 

 <c natural advantages of the country are neglected ; that so 

 <f little enterprise is displayed or capital employed ; that the 

 tC peasant's cottage is mean, and that so little wealth and know- 

 " ledge are among the agricultural population ; when it is 

 " considered that the occupant of land enjoys no security for 

 " reaping the fruits of his industry ; when his possession is 

 " liable to be taken away from him every season, or to suffer 

 " each an enhancement of rent as will drive him from it ; when 

 " such a small quantity of land only is allowed him as will 

 " yield him bare subsistence, and every ear of grain that can be 

 " spared from the supply of his immediate wants, is extorted 

 " from him in the shape of tribute ; when his personal ser- 

 " vices are required unpaid for, in the train of luxury or in the 

 " culture of articles of monopoly ; and when in addition to 

 " all these discouragements, he is subject to other heavy im- 

 " posts and impolitic restraints ? No man will exert himself, 

 " when acting for another, with so much zeal as when stimu- 

 " lated by his own immediate interest ; and under a system of 

 " government, where everything but the bare means of sub- 

 " sistence is liable to be seized, nothing but the bare means of 

 " subsistence will be sought to be attained.'-' f 



* "It is but right, however, to say that the Dutch, while admitting,' their 

 old Colonial rule to have been most objectionable in niany ways, deny the 

 systematic atrocities imputed to them by Raffles and Crawfurd, both of 

 whom, the Dutch say, distorted the facts and working of their old Colonial 

 Government, which was only known to these authors by hearsay." Money's 

 Java, I, 57, citing Temminck's Coup d' ceil general sur les Possessions Neerlan- 

 daises dans VInde Archipelagique, I, 13. 



f Raffles— Hist, of Java, Id. 



