4 
The State Commissioner of Lands is opposed to this form of encouragement ; but, 
as the matter has recently been fully discussed in the correspondence respecting the 
incidence of taxation (t|~), I need not now further refer to it, beyond expressing my 
opinion that, though the concession has, without doubt, worked well in different parts 
of the State, yet, if irrigation works and roads are undertaken by the Government on 
a comprehensive and thorough basis, the inducement of free rents will probably be 
found to be unnecessary. 
7. The progress of padi cultivation in each district will depend, to a very great^ 
extent indeed, on the interest displayed by the District Magistrates, and I would 
suggest that they be called upon to furnish periodical returns shewing, amongst other 
things, the acreage of available bendang land, the acreage actually under cultivation 
at the time of return, and whether smaller or larger than at the corresponding pre- 
vious period, the state of irrigation works, crop prospects, with the addition of general 
remarks. Returns relating to the immigration and movements of foreign agricultural 
settlers would also be useful. The Malays of Perak are exceedingly indolent, 
contented and unambitious, but a good deal could be done towards increasing the 
area of padi cultivation with our present population by the judicious and persistent 
exercise of the personal influence and authority of the District Magistrates and Native 
Chiefs. Some of our best rice cultivators are Patani people, of whom considerable 
numbers have settled in the State. From a rough return I have had prepared, it 
appears that 2743 agricultural settlers (men and women) entered the country during 
1891, of which number all, save 152, are of Malay origin. A little more than half of 
the total number settled in the Krian district. 
8. The Superintendent of Government Plantations makes a suggestion that 
Government should itself open a large area of bendang. This, I think, is worthy of 
some consideration. The labour to be employed might be either Malay or Chinese, 
and, when once the experiment was proved a success, there would be no difficulty 
in finding some enterprising person to relieve the Government and take over the 
property on terms mutually advantageous. 
g. Could Chinese rice planters be introduced as settlers on a large scale, the 
problem would be in a fair way of solution. Their methods of cultivation are far 
superior to those of the Malays, and would probably admit of two crops being pro- 
duced annually, against one by the native method. Efforts have been made by Govern- 
ment to induce a flow of Chinese agricultural settlers, but hitherto little has been 
effected. The Resident approved of the following terms, which have been published 
in the form of a circular in Chinese — viz., the lease to each Chinese family of not 
more than five acres of ’and, free of rent for the first three years, and then subject to 
an annual quit-rent of sixty cents an acre, and if necessary, pecuniary assistance will 
be given on the security of a trustworthy Chinaman ; but to this circular there has 
been little or no response. Towards the end of 1891 a lengthy circular was drawn up 
in Chinese enumerating the advantages held out to Chinese immigrants by the State 
of Perak, both as a mining and as an agricultural field. In Larut there are some six 
Chinese families cultivating padi, having been induced to do so by the completion by 
Government of irrigation works in the direction of Ayer Kuning. 
The District Magistrate of Krian reports that there are some two hundred 
Chinese engaged in rice cultivation in his district, but that in bad seasons this number 
is reduced by one half, and he anticipates that in a few years a considerable acreage 
will be under padi cultivation by Chinese. I should, perhaps, remind His Excellency 
that Krian, and the same may almost be said of Matang, is exclusively an agricultural 
district, with an entire absence of mining. 
An experiment of planting padi, on quite a small scale, with Chinese labour, has 
been made by one Kong Lim, in the Kuala Kangsar collectorate, and the Collector 
reports that the result has been encouraging and that it is proposed to repeat opera- 
tions on a larger scale. 
The very influential Chinese gentleman referred to in the Acting Assistant Indian 
Immigration Agent’s report as having applied for a thousand acres of land in Lower 
Perak, to be brought under rice with Chinese labour, has discovered that he cannot 
raise the necessary capital, but he may yet do something on a smaller scale. 
I have t asked the opinion of the Bishop of Malacca, who numbers so many 
Chinese Christians amongst his flock, and he gives it as his conclusion that the 
“ Chinese will never take to padi fields. Hard labour is too highly remunerated to 
t 
