Jan. t, 1895.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
48; 
COFFEE AND PEPPER PLANTING IN 
SELANGOR : 
LAND SALES AND REGULATIONS IN 
THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS. 
Before his departure for Europe, Mr. Hut- 
tenbach, — who is a cultivated and energetic 
German, or rather Anglo-German from his long 
residence in a British Colony and whospeaks English 
well, — laid before us a series of photographs he 
has had taken on his several plantation in 
Selangor, Straits Settlements. He has named 
the divisions or distinct plantations : — Selangor, 
Glen Mary and Butn, and the views shew a 
very desirable lay of land, both flat and undu- 
lating, in the several fields for Liberian Coffee 
and Pepper. Very line fields of both products 
were represented, and some coffee trees, live 
years old, topped and laden with fruit, specially 
excited our admiration. Mr. Huttenbach is evi- 
dently an enlightened cultivator and he is es- 
pecially fortunate in having been able to estab- 
lish plantations so close to the town and railway, 
so being able to manure freely for very little 
expense. We think he said each cartload of town 
manure only costs him 30 cents of a dollar 
(70 of a rupee?) laid down on the estate ; while 
the transport of his produce amounts to very little. 
Weeding on some of his fields is a heavy item, 
and Mr. Huttenbach confesses he and his brother 
planters could do with more labour, and are 
hoping to establish an agency of their own in 
Southern India to ensure _ a steady supply of 
coolies. Pepper cultivation is specially successful 
and profitable under his care. 
Mr. Huttenbach will not admit that the Straits 
authorities are unwilling or slow to welcome plant- 
ing capitalists and to give them land on easy terms. 
Very large expanses of good land are avail- 
able for selection and can be had, he thinks, in 
thousand-acre blocks, if so desired, beyond the 
limits of what has been surveyed and laid out. 
It is in the case of a series of lots carefully 
laid out in 320-acre blocks for the purpose of 
trying them at a sale by public auction, that a 
recent refusal to give one applicant (Mr. Fort) 
1,000 acres or three of such blocks, has occurred. 
At auction, however, anyone can bid for and 
purchase as many as he pleases ; while if in- 
tending planters go farther afield and select for 
themselves, Mr. Huttenbach does not think any 
obstacle would be offered to their taking up 1,000 or 
more acres in one place. Our visitor confessed, how- 
ever, that a change was gradually coming over the 
Land Policy of the Government. Governor Sir de- 
menti Smith (having profited by his experience in 
Ceylon) was very eager to add Agriculture and 
Planting to the Mining industries of the Straits 
Settlements and wisely encouraged free grants 
of land, subject to a 10-cents per ai re quit-rent. 
Naturally, as the value of the land is realized, 
administrators think the Government ought to 
get some more, and Governor Sir Charles Mit- 
chell is understood to share the views of .Mr. 
Maxwell, Colonial Secretary, now on leave, who 
is known to have a strong opinion as to the 
increasing value of land. The experimental sale 
by auction in February next will be a lair test 
of the demand and should guide the future 
policy of the Straits authorities. For, they must 
remember that there is abundant competition even 
in the Eastern world for planting capitalists to 
cultivate coffee and o1 her products. There is North 
Borneo on the one side of them, and Bast .lava 
(w here ) V\ Ion men ha\ e gone • on auol her : and >i ill, 
nearer home, there is Sumatra where it is reported 
attention is to be given, to uoll'ee and peppei EW 
well as to tobacco. Then, our Straits governing 
friends had better take warning by the flood oi 
light which Ceylon planters are likely to cast 
on the capabilities of the Shire Highlands, Cen- 
tral Africa, for the cultivation of coffee. Never ; 
theless, we quite recognise the fact that the Straits' 
Government will be merely following in the footsteps 
ot Ceylon in gradually raising the price of its 
forest land. Sir Edward Barnes began by giving 
free grants to would-be coffee planters in the 
Kandyan districts, the grantees only paying the 
cost of survey and stamps for title-deeds. In 
this way much land in Hantane, Kadugannawa, 
Nilambe and the Hewahetas was bestowed. 
Even the cost of survey and stamps prevented 
at least one colonist of the early "thirties" 
from applying for a large slice of the Hantane 
range ; and before he could decide, out came 
the edict fixing an upset price of 5s per acre j 
and he went olf to pick and choose in Hewaheta 
and Nitre-Cave ! Between 1828 and 1832, at 
least 13,000 acres were given in free grants around 
Kandy ; between 1833 and 1844 when the 5s an 
acre upset price ruled, no less than 267,373 acres 
were sold; while between 1844, and 1894 under 
the regime of £1 or 10 rupees per acre upset 
price, 1,150,000 acres have been disposed of. 
But _ then in Ceylon all such land has been sold 
outright ; while the rule in the Straits, as in 
India, is to have a perpetual rent, small enough 
in all conscience, but still liable to in- 
crease — thus it has risen from 10 cents to 
20 cents of a dollar, we believe. The facl 
of such a rent prevailing should, in our opinion, 
be a reason why the Straits authorities, 
with their vast reserves of land, ought to be 
specially liberal in encouraging moneyed settlers J 
and Mr. Huttenbach assures us that so keen 
are the planters to see more land opened and a 
strong community formed, that their local As- 
sociation, if written to, will give any intending 
applicant for land the fullest information ana 
help him to select the best available. Finally, 
it is a satisfaction to us to know that, profiting 
by ourwarning from Ceylon — often repeated in 
these columns— the Straits authorities have not 
allowed the proceeds of land-sales to be absorbed 
in current revenue, but that they separately fund 
these as capital available for railway and road ex« 
tensions. 
LIMITED COMPANIES REGISTERED 
RN CEYLON IN 1894. 
1. — The Tonaeornbe Estates Company of Ceylon, 
Limited, capital R600.000 of 1,200 sharesof K500 each. 
2. — The New Colombo Ice Company, Limited, capital 
R250,000 divided into 2,500 shares of R100 each. 
3. — Pallegama Grant Association of Ceylon, Ltd 
capital R200,000 divided into 2,000 shares of R100 each, 
4— The Hapugahalande Tea Company Limited, 
capital R170,000 divided into 850 shares of R200 each. 
5. — The NahavillB Estates Company, Ltd., capital 
FU50,000 divided into 300 shares of R500 each, (capital 
subsequently increased to R500.000). 
6. — The Putupaula Tea Estates Companv, Limited, 
capital R200,000 divided into 2,000 shares of R100 
each. Shares Nos. 1 to 2,000 shall be ordinary shares 
and on demand fully paid up. 
7. — Galle Face Hotel Company, Limited, nominal 
capital R500.000 of which R270,000 only now to bo 
called up divided into 2,700 shares of RICK) each with 
power to increase. 
8. — The Equitable Loan Company of Cevlon, Ltd., 
eapital R1.0<X),000 divided into 100 preference shares 
of R250 each, 800 intermediate shares of R125 each 
and 80,000 ordinary shares of 1U0 each. Object 
amongst others to carry on business of baukcr6. to 
nd moue y, &c. 
