146 MALAY LAND TENURE. 



The mode of collecting the tax was, in 1841, described as 

 follows, by one who had held high office in Ceylon and whose 

 unfavourable opinion of this system of collecting a land reve- 

 nue was formed, therefore, after some experience : — 



" When the crop is sufficiently advanced to enable an esti- 

 " mate to be formed of its possible produce, the Government 

 " Assessors proceed to calculate its probable value, and a 

 ei return is made to the Government Agent of the amount 

 " leviable upon every field. The farm of the tax of each district 

 " is then sold by public auction • and, as the harvest approaches, 

 "the cultivator is obliged to give five days' notice to the pur- 

 " chaser of his intention to cut ; two days' notice if he finds it 

 " necessary to postpone ; if the crop be not threshed imme.ii- 

 " ately, the renter is entitled to a further notice of the day 

 " fixed for that purpose ; and for any omission or irregularity 

 " he has a remedy by suing for a penalty in the District 

 "Court." 



" It would be difficult to devise a system more pregnant 

 " with oppression, extortion, and demoralisation than the one 

 " here detailed. The cultivator is handed over helplessly to 

 " two successive sets of inquisitorial officers - the assessors and 

 " the renters ; whose acts are so uncontrolled that abuses are 

 " inevitable, and the intercourse of the two parties is charac- 

 Ci terised by vigour and extortion on the one side, and cunning 

 " and subterfuges of every description on the other. Every 

 " artifice and disingenuous device is put in practice to deceive 

 " the headmen and assessors as to the extent and fertility of 

 " the land and the actual value of the crop ; and they, in 

 "return, resort to the most inquisitorial and vexatious inter- 

 ference, either to protect the interest of the Government, or 

 " privately to further their own. Between these demoralising 

 " influences, the character and industry of the rural popula- 

 " tion are deteriorated and destroyed. The extention of culti- 

 " ration by reclaiming a portion of waste land only exposes 

 "the harassed proprietor to fresh visits from the headmen, and 

 " a new valuation by the Government Assessor, and where 

 " annoyance is not the leading object, recourse is had to cor- 

 " ruption, in order to keep down the valuation." 



