142 MALAY LAND TENURE. 



" The first cultivator, however, and also his representatives, 

 " whether by purchase or descent, have, besides the land which 

 "is exclusively theirs, their share as householders in the vil- 

 " lage lands, so long as they choose to claim and cultivate such 

 " share, but no longer. Either the first cultivator or his dcs- 

 " cendants can sell any part of such their exclusive land, but 

 " only as a peasant holding to some other cultivator, and 

 " the purchaser stands in the seller's place, paying his one- 

 " fifth and one-seventh. When any holder of such exclusive 

 " land dies without heirs, his exclusive land reverts to the 

 te common lands of the village within whose boundaries it lies. 

 " In some districts, by custom, the first cultivator only holds 

 " the land exclusively rent and labour free for six years, when 

 it reverts to the common lands of the village.'''' 



" Such were the old land tenures and land rent to which the 

 i( Dutch reverted, with the modification of the old labour 

 " rent of one day in five being reduced to the lesser rate of 

 " one day in seven. The Java col tier would of course have 

 " preferred the reduction of the produce rent without the re- 

 " imposition of the labour rent ; but. much as the Oriental 

 " peasant hates labour, he still more hates parting with money. 

 •' The return to the old state of things was effected not only 

 " without disturbance, but, the Dutch say, without even any 

 " visible signs of dissatisfaction/'' 



■' Present Java Land Tenure. — This simple and well-defined 

 "system of land tenure has ever since obtained all through 

 " .lava, except in the Native states of Soerakaita and Djokjo- 

 " karta, districts on the Southern Coast of Java, which still 

 " maintain a kind of protected and controlled independence, 

 " like many of the Native states within our Indian territory. 

 " Theie the old one-fifth of produce in kind and one-fifth of 

 " lab ur are still received by the Native princes in the old 

 " manner, and applied generally to the old purposes/'' 



" The system which the Dutch substituted for our Ryot- 

 " warree not only applies to Government lands and to the 

 " Preariger, but also to private estates. The landlord's claim 

 " for rent, long limited by customs, was in 1833 expressly 

 '* limited by law to one- fifth of his tenant's produce, and to 

 " one day's gratuitous labour in seven. The produce rent on 



