MALAY LAND TENURE. 161 



this difficulty the Bill provided for a survey and a summary 

 settlement of the rights of parties, " which would put an end 

 to disputes/'* 



The Bill in due time became law and. as Act XXVI of 1861, 

 is still in force in the Colony. It settled summarily all diffi- 

 culties as to the title of the Government to the lands over 

 which the Dutch grantees had once had rights, by vesting the 

 lands in question in fee simple in Her Majesty and thus for 

 ever extinguished any hopes which the former grantees might 

 have entertained of regaining possession, at some future time, 

 of the surrendered rights. 



It also declared what was the legal status of certain classes 

 of native land-holders and provided a scheme of survey and 

 settlement, analogous to the Indian system, under which the 

 rights and liabilities of every one could be ascertained and 

 recorded. 



But thirty years had been lost and the lands taken up with 

 or without authority in that period were now not to be distin- 

 guished from the lands which were held under the local cus- 

 tomary tenure at the time when Regulation IX of 1830 was 

 passed.f The duty to be undertaken was a completely new 

 survey of the Settlement of Malacca, in the course of which 

 the status of every person claiming to have title to land was 

 to be ascertained and declared ; and this was not facilitated 

 by any earlier survey and settlement, for the provisions cf 

 Regulations IX of 1830 in this respect had been allowed to 

 remain a dead letter, J 



The Act contemplated (s. 1) two classes of native land-holders, 

 namely, (1) "cultivators and resident tenants " of the lands 

 redeemed from the Dutch grantees, and of lands in 1ST ailing 

 " who hold their lands by prescription ; § 



(2) "All other cultivators and under-tenants who now 

 occupy or hold, or shall occupy or hold, any of such lands as 

 aforesaid/'' Those who could prove a proprietary right under 



* Bengal Hurkaru, January 19th, 1861. 



f See p. 151. 



% See stqjra, p. 154, note.* 



§ i. e., by local custom, usage or law, Sahrlp v. Mitchell, Appendix III, p. 

 xli. 



