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LANDS AND SURVEYS. 



The control of the Land and Revenue Survey Depart- 

 ments rests with the Resident of each State, who, subject 

 in certain cases to the approval of the Resident-General, 

 directs all business connected with the sale, leasing and dis- 

 posal of State lands, and all public surveys undertaken by 

 the Revenue Survey Department. 



To facilitate administration, each State is divided into 

 districts. In each district there are one or more Land 

 Offices, under the charge of the District Officer ; and in most 

 districts a Survey Office, under the management of a Dis- 

 trict Surveyor. 



The business of the Land and Survey Departments is 

 carried on under "The Land Enactment, 1903 ;" "The 

 Mining Code, 1904;" the "Registration of Titles Regu- 

 lation, 1891 ;" and the "Registration of Titles Enactment, 

 1897." 



According to the Malay theory of land tenure, all pro- 

 perty in land is vested in the Royal authority ; the subjects 

 of the King are permitted to clear and use such portions of 

 waste land as they may require, subject to the payment of a 

 tax more or jess regularly collected, and of a somewhat in- 

 definite character, and the performance of certain feudal 

 duties. 



This principle — the State ownership of all lands — has 

 been embodied in the Land Laws of the Federation. There 

 is consequently no such thing as freehold property in land 

 in the Native States: all land belongs to the State, and is 

 granted to individuals for their use for certain purposes 

 and under certain conditions. What these conditions 

 generally are will be set out later in detail ; it will be 

 enough to point out here that a breach of any of the con- 

 ditions renders the land liable to resumption. Whether 

 land is alienated on payment of premium or by sale at 

 auction, it is so alienated subject to conditions, some of 

 which are implied by the Enactment, and others expressed 

 in the document of title, and it is only subject to the pay- 

 ment of dues and compliance with conditions that any land 

 is secured to the use of a grantee in perpetuity. 



THE LAND LAWS OF THE FEDERATION. 



ABSTRACT OF "THE LAND ENACTMENT, 1903." 



State land is defined to mean all lands which have not 

 been or may not hereafter be reserved for a public purpose, 



