5 
make padi cultivation pay.' 1 ' I do not go all the way with the Bishop, though, naturally, 
agriculture finds itself handicapped by mining in Perak. 
10. In 1882 a Roman Catholic mission commenced a Tamil settlement on 
400 acres of land, granted on favourable terms, in the Krian District. The colony is 
fairly prosperous, and noW numbers 550 men, women, and children; the principal 
product cultivated by the community is padi. There are some Indian settlers in Teiuk 
Anson, but they have not turned their attention principally to rice. 
11. When I was in charge of British North Borneo, a settlement of Hakka 
Christian Chinese was inaugurated, with the assistance of one of the Basle Mission- 
aries in Hong Kong. It has proved a success, and though the settlers have chiefly 
occupied themselves with vegetable, garden and fruit cultivation, and not with padi, 
the experience there gained may be of interest, and I enclose a copy of the report 
with which Mr. L. P. Beaufort, the Acting Governor of North Borneo, has been so 
good as to furnish me. 
12. An effort Is being made to establish Siamese agriculturists in Larut ; a 
temple has been erected and a Siamese headman appointed. I consider the pros- 
pects are fairly good, but much depends upon the sympathy and interest displayed 
by the official whose duty it is to supervise the experiment. 
13. Not only would the introduction of Chinese and Siamese cultivators increase 
the area of padi cultivation, but it may be expected that the example of their superior 
modes of cultivation, resulting in increased production per acre, would in course of 
time be appreciated and gradually imitated by the natives, whom no amount of 
lecturing and advice would induce to depart from the practice of their forefathers. 
14. An impetus would be given to padi cultivation were husking machinery, 
which could be easily worked by water power (as in Japaij), erected in a suitable 
locality, and padi bought from the natives and advances given to cultivators to assist 
them in extending their operations, as in Siam. At present padi is husked by being 
laboriously pounded in large wooden mortars by the women, at a great expenditure 
of time and labour, which would be more profitably spent in increasing the acreage 
under cultivation. The crops of padi in any one district are probably, at the present 
time, insufficient to incite any private individual to undertake the venture, and the 
initiative in this also would rest with the Government. 
LADANG. 
15. The reports do not refer to dry rice cultivation, which is discouraged by 
Government owing to the destruction of valuable timber for which it is resposible, and 
to its being a temporary and not a permanent culture. Rich jungle is destroyed and 
one crop only taken off the land, which is then allowed tc? grow up in small jungle of 
valueless trees, knowm as bluker in Perak and as chena in Ceylon, and the land, if 
ever used again, cannot be re-cultivated until it has remained fallow some seven years. 
As is well known, European planters avoid bluker ^r chena, as they require untouched 
virgin soil. There is, however, no objection to bluker land being re-used for padi 
culture. One advantage of ladang is that the crops ripen quickly and are not liable 
to the attacks of the rats, which are such a destructive pest in the case of bendang. 
LEGISLATION. 
16. Special legislation affecting both bendang and ladang padi will be found 
in the following Orders of Council, copies of which are annexed : — ■ 
No. 17 of 1889, Bendang Land, Kuala Kangsar. 
No. 6 of 1890, Discouragement of Ladang Cultivation. 
No, 14 of 1890, Bendang Cultivation. 
Order No. 17 empowers the District Magistrate of Kuala Kangsar, “in cases 
where a sufficiently large community of natives are willing to open up a tract of forest 
for the cultivation of bendang, to release the land from quit-rent for three years.” 
Order No. 6 enacts that no jungle, except secondary growth of not more than 
six years’ standing, shall be felled for ladang cultivation, and the test of secondary 
growth of the specified age is its ability to be felled with a simple parang or golok, 
without the necessity for using axes or bliong. Persons offending against this order, 
or using for ladang land winch was granted for permanent agriculture, are liable to 
a penalty, as also are the Penghulus who may have connived at such offences. 
Order No. 14 enables industrious peasants whose crops are injured by fire or 
vermin, owing to the neglect of their neighbours to clear their land properly, to sue 
for and recover damages. 
xv. Mr. Beaufort, 
5 , 12 , ’ 91 . 
xvi. Mr. H. Walker, 
5 , 12 , ’ 91 . 
xvii. Mr. G. L. Davies, 
22 , 12 , ’ 91 . 
xviii. 
xix. 
XX. 
