5. In the Kuala Kangsar district the Chinese never attempted to cultivate padi 
until last year, when Kong Leng (the General Farmer's agent in Kuala Kangsar), by 
way of experiment, purchased a few acres of bendang land adjoining his pepper 
estate. He employed Chinese labour in planting it, and he says that, notwithstanding 
the damage done to the crops by the rats, which have been unusually numerous this 
year, the results are so satisfactory that he is convinced there is a large profit to be 
made here in the cultivation of padi. He is now trying to bring in Chinese agricul- 
turists, and has applied for an extensive area of forest land which he says can be easily 
irrigated and turned into padi land. He thinks that if he can get in one batch of 
Chinese rice planters he will have no difficulty in getting others to follow. I think 
that he, too, should be assisted by Government and given every encouragement. If 
he cultivates padi extensively and makes a large profit out of it, as he is convinced 
he will do, other Chinamen will follow his example, and when they have once made 
■their bendangs and expended a certain amount of capital on them they are not likely 
to abandon them as the Malays do. 
I have, &c M 
A. BUTLER, 
Collector and Magistrate , Kuala Kangsar. 
X. 
Indian Immigration Office, 
Taiping , 6 th February , 1892. 
To the Secretary to Government, 
Taiping. 
Sir, — I have the honour to forward my report on padi cultivation in the districts 
which I have visited. 
I left Taiping on the 9th ultimo for Parit Buntar, where the largest area of padi 
land is under cultivation in this State. I went to Mr. Brewster's, and he was very 
kind in giving me all the information he had with regard to padi cultivation. 
Qn the afternoon of the 10th ultimo we drove over a portion of his district and 
saw some exceedingly good padi growing, a good deal of it just coming into ear and 
giving promise of being likely to give a very heavy crop. On Monday, the nth ultimo, 
we went down the Krian boundary road, and almost the whole way down this, on the 
left-hand side, we saw very fine crops indeed. In this district the land is laid out very 
well indeed and systematically — that is, there are large drains cut, of about 15 feet in 
width, which run almost all round it and intersect it every 3000 feet or so, and other 
drains are cut at right angles to these again every here and there, and from off these 
again there are little drains which lead into the several fields, so that each planter can 
let in whatever water he may require. The large main drains have here and there 
got water-gates let into them, which is a great boon to the district, as they can be 
opened when there is too much rain, and again at tfie first approach of dry weather 
they can be closed up, and the water in this way kept on the land. 
The following day, Wednesday the 12th ultimo, we drove to Bagan Serai. From 
Simpang Lima to Bagan Serai there is only a very little of the ground planted. I 
believe the ground is not quite so good as that at Krian, but here and there I saw 
some very good-looking padi, and should think, if the land were laid out, that it 
would be taken up, especially after the good crop coming on this year. 
On Thursday morning, 13th ultimo, Mr. Brewster and I walked for about five miles 
up the Selama road, where we found only a small quantity of land that had been 
planted in padi — only, say, about 200 to 300 yards deep on either side of the road; 
this, I think, is because nothing has been done hardly in the way of making drains 
or footpaths into the jungle. Mr. Brewster says it is in this district that he wishes to 
open up the land, and that if the Government will allow him to dig drains and simply 
use the earth that comes out of them for making footpaths, that he can open up 
thousands of acres, and that, what is more to the point, he can get people to take up 
the land, and he would like to begin at once. I attach a map of this district showing 
this land, which Mr. Hill has made out for me* The jungle would have to be felled 
and burnt off, drains, &c., dug and water-gates erected; but I should think this would 
cost the Government very little, and the outlay would soon be recovered by the rents 
paid for the land when it was taken up. This ought to be done in a thorough way, 
# Not printed. 
