VOLUNTEER POLICE FOR PROVINCE WELLESLEY. 189. 
another, paid for the lands bought by them from Government much 
more than the amount that has actually been received by Govern- 
ment. As an illustration of the difficulty Government has in at 
once protecting its own rights and those of the more ignorant Na- 
tives, I may mention the case.of a sale by auction at the Land 
Office some time ago of a number of lots for non-payment of quit- 
rent. The rule was for the notice of sale to be signed by the Resi- 
dent Councillor himself, and to be entrusted to the Police to be 
published, thus attempting to provide against collusion by native 
subordinates in the Land or Surveyor’s Offices with purchasers. A 
few days after the sale [ was told that some lots held on permit, 
which I had some time previously bought from Malays, had been 
sold to a Malay, and on making enquiries it turned out that he was 
almost the only bidder at the auction and had bought up most of 
the lots at prices absurdly low. For the fruit trees on one of mine 
I had paid $25, and was still liable to Government for the price of 
the land. This lot was knocked down to the man at about $4— 
land and trees. The notice had been published by placarding it in 
a few places and by a Police peon beating a gong and proclaiming 
that certain lots were to be sold, but no special notices were given 
to the holders of these lots. So far there was ground for presum- 
ing collusion between the purchaser and some of the subordinates 
of Government. But on pushing my enquiries 1 found that the 
lot-holders had received notices to take out grants several years 
previously and had not come forward to do so, not considering 
the lands to be then worth the Government price, and I was led 
to infer that some of the more astute were themselves parties 
to the collusion, which had a double object, the more recondite 
one being to enable them to get grants at a lower rate than if 
they had to pay the fixed price as well as rent for these years. 
A case came before the court a few years ago in which it was 
proved that a Malay had obtained large sums from the ryots of 
some districts on the pretext that he was empowered to take a 
fee from each to get a survey made, and from what Malays have 
told me from time to time, I believe that such exactions have been 
common, and that it is seldom that a survey is made, or grant 
issued, for one of the more ignorant Malays, without some one 
or other persuading him into making irregular payments of the 
kind. The general Municipal Act provides an elaborate system 
of checks to protect the more ignorant rate-payers from wrong. 
They must have at least 15 days’ special notice of all first assess- 
ments and every subsequent increase of valuation, to enable them 
to get a review of oyer-valuations; a bill must be presented to 
