s :i VXD LA HOUR* 



7 



doubled in praeii . wwl forced Bert ice iS imicn heavier 

 than 'amongst the Malays. Every house which lu d 

 a wooden door was taxed according to the dimensions 

 of the house, and wooden staireases half a dollar each. 

 Occasiqpal contributions, ot lot ted loans, were also 

 made or imposed on urgent occasion*, and these were 

 neve r repaid. Grain-holders, moreover, were forced 

 to deliver the rice into the Rajah's granaries at the 

 price* he chose to h\x on it, and which always left 

 him a profit of about 20 percent., nor could they sell 

 ^raiu w ithout special permission. Trade was mono- 

 polized by the Rajahs and his Chiefs, lire r\ot 

 was obliged also to pay for keeping- up bands* of 

 music and slate-elephants. Ilis children were liable 

 to be forcibly taken from him — the ^irls for the 

 seraglio, and the youths for public works or for Mar, 

 where they got no pay and but precarious supplier 

 of food. 



LABOR. 



If gfeod wa^es be indicative of the prosperity of a 

 community, then Penang and its dependency must 

 be flourishing-. Should this position lie questioned iu 

 a superlative sense, still the fact that such ua^esare 

 paid, may I>e considered as proving- the absence of 

 distress ; and it is, iu a philanthropise point of 

 view, satisfactory to think, that although the fixed 

 native population of the Maud now exceeds 4(>.000 

 and that of Province Wellesley is up wants of 47,000 

 souls, the rate of wages has not been so materially af- 

 firfed as to degrade lln: lain Hiring das*, while it has 

 been redueed in a decree sufficient to give a stimulus 

 to cultivation .arid encouragement to settlers. The 

 fed \< i1im( the hulk of the non-commercial native po- 

 pulaiiou is eomposL-d nf independent land-owners, and 

 that those who are not proprietors, are either farm- 

 |M flr landy <a persons engaged in various occupations, 



