OCCASIONAL NOTES. 437 
Blocks of land and estates had frequently been granted to 
“residents and Company’s servants’’ under the title and in 
the form of “ fiefs” and on the following terms, namely, that 
with every “licensed alienation”? one-quarter of the value 
of the land had to be paid to the Company. 
This clause and another one which provided for “ certain 
special duties and liabilities’? were evidently found to be 
too severe and to retard the development of agriculture 
round Batavia, and for this reason the Government introduced 
the provision that as to those occupied lands and estates 
“both within and beyond the jurisdiction of this city,” and 
- also as to those lands, estates and gardens which might there- 
after be granted, no greater sum should in future be paid 
than one-tenth of their value, upon each sale or alienation, 
for “seignorial rights ’’ (just lke the house-property within 
the town itself), exclusive of the annual tithe of the fruit 
and crops of such estates and gardens, and that no other 
duties should be leviable. 
The above decree was promulgated in pursuance of a 
Resolution of the Supreme Government of Ist February, 
1627. 
RectLations apouT Estates anp Lanprep Properties, 
WITHIN AND BEYOND THE JURISDICTION OF BaTAvVIa. 
llth April, 1628. The intention of Government in its 
Proclamation of Ist April, 1627, was to bring about the 
amelioration and improvement ‘of landed properties and 
estates, ’’ buv instead of co-operating to obtain that end, many 
land-owners, “‘in order to nourish and satisfy their insatiable 
“ covetousness, had been so bold as to aggravate and to 
“make worse the condition of their lands, by excavating and 
“exhausting them for brick-kilns and otherwise, so much 
“so that, after a few years, the said estates would become 
“ waste, unproductive and useless.” Thence it was prohibited 
to do anything tending to the “ detriment or prejudice” of 
the said properties and estates, under penalty of,— 
