A436 OCCASIONAL NOTES. 
In fact, November was the only month of the year free 
from drought. It may be added that in January, March, and 
August the monthly fall was less than 2 inches, and in Octo- 
ber less than 3 inches. On the other hand, I registered rain 
in 1885 on 162 days, while in 1877 the number of days at the 
Kandang Kerbau Observatory was only 125. 
It is remarkable that, while the South-west monsoon of 
1885 was exceptionally hot, the nights in January and Feb- 
ruary were, I think, unprecedentedly cold, December, 1884, 
having also been remarkably cold, though the rain, after the 
12th of the month, was very scanty. 
A. KNIGHT. 
FEUDAL TENURE IN THE DUTCH EAST INDIES 
IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 
The practice followed in Malacca, during the time that 
that Settlement was a Dutch possession, of obtaining the 
sanction of the Court of Justice to every transfer or trans- 
mission, * was no doubt consequent upon the existence of a 
charge analogous to that made in Batavia, as to lands in the 
vicinity of that town, under a Proclamation of April Ist, 
1627. It will be seen from the annexed note, translated from 
the “ Plakaatboek” of Mr. Van pier CuiJs, that the tenure 
in Batavia was feudal, the Company being the lord, and that 
holders of fiefs originally had to pay one-quarter of the value 
of their holdings every time that the property changed hands. 
This was reduced in 1627 to one-tenth. 
PROCLAMATION ABOUT LANDED-PROPERTY AN: ESTATES. 
Ist April, 1627. All lands and estates both within and 
beyond the jurisdiction of Batavia, already held as fiefs or here- 
after to be granted as such, are declared to be “exempt from 
the name and servitude of fiefs and discharged from feudal ser- 
vices and to be personal, inheritable and allodial properties or 
lands.”’ 
* See Malay Land Tenure—Journal, Straits Branch R. A. 8., No. 13, p. 150. 
