6 2 
(6)— Cheapness of imported rice. — This is so closely connected 
with the subject of wayes (see (2) above* that it is difficult to treat the two 
subjects separately. When Colonel Low wrote (about 1833) the price of 
a koyan of paddy was estimated to be worth $35, and the retail price of 
rice was 3 cents a chupah. 
The present price of a koyan of paddy (January, 1893) of the first 
quality is $65, and the retail price of rice in S ngapore is 5 cents a chupah . 
But when Colonel Low wrote the wages earned by field labourers 
were : — 
Chinese, ... 9 sicca rupees = £4-36 
Tamils and Malays, 6 sicca rupees = $2.90 
The average wages at present in Singapore are: — 
Chinese, ... ... $7. 1 2 per mensem. 
Malays and Javanese, ... $ 4-75 do. 
The wages for Tamils (free labourers) in Penang are : — 
Province Wellesley Estate coolies, about 18 cents a day, 
say for 26 days = $468 in the month. 
It will appear from these figures that the price of paddy has risen 86 per 
cent., and that of rice 66 per cent., and that the wages of agricultural coolies 
have risen in the following proportion : — 
Chinese = 63 per cent. 
Malavs = 64 per cent. 
Tamils = 61 per cent. 
The price of rice and the rate of wages would thus seem to have 
risen pari fa^su, and it seems to he obvious that an immigrant population 
in a new country, wffth the boundless food-supplies of Burma and Siam 
on either hand, can import rice almost more cheaply than they can grow it. 
18. The measures proposed by British officers employed in the Native 
States, for the encouragement of the agricultural industry which is thus 
handicapped, may be considered under the beads: — 
(1) Exemption from land-revenue. 
(2) The development of rice districts by Government works. 
(3) Immigration schemes. 
(4) S'ate experiments (mills and farms). 
(5) Distribution of seed, or loans for the purchase of seed, buffaloes, etc. 
19. Exemption from land revenue for a limited period. — The best 
opinions are entirely opposed to this melhod of tempting settlers. There 
is nothing new in the proposal. Exemption of this nature for a period 
of from two to four years was allowed in Province Wellesley sixty years ago 
with the result that it was condemned by the Land Revenue officials of that 
day,® as abandonment, as soon as the rent-free period had expired, was 
common. 
Mr. C. Leech (Commissioner of Lands, Perak) is probably correct in 
the conclusion at which he arrives (sufira, p. 17J that “granting land rent 
free for three years for encouraging paddy-cultivation is a mistake and tends 
to pauperise the grantees." 
20. The development of rice districts by Government works. — Irriga- 
tion and drainage works might reasonably be undertaken in specially se- 
lected districts where the land-revenue system is sufficiently elastic to 
allow of a prospect of a sufficient return accruing to the State in considera- 
tion of the outlay- But Perak has unfortunateiv been saddled with the 
only system of tenure with which officers of this Colony were familiar ten 
years ago, namely, tenure by an English grant or lease with a small fixed 
quit-rent. I say “ unfortunately ’’ because the result in the Colony has been 
* Their opinions wi'l be found on p. 31 of Correspondence relating to the Land Revenue System of the 
Straits Settlements, 1837-1844, published in Singapore in 1883. 
