6 3 
disastrous, an expenditure being involved for survey which is wholly incom- 
mensurate with the land revenue to be collected. An experience similar 
to that of the Colony is in store for those whose duty it will be to admmis- 
ter the State of Perak in the future, unless the system be altered- Already 
in that State the expenditure in the Land Department exceeds the receipts. 
2 1 Private owners of land suitable for rice-cultivation m Penang 
have, to my knowledge, found it a paying speculation to fell the jungle and 
lay out the land in fields, providing necessary drainage, and then to let the 
land annually to Malay cultivators. 
22. A development scheme which would bring into cultivation swampy 
land fit for paddy cultivation, but now under forest or secondary jungle \e.g. 
see para. 9 of Mr. C. Leech’S report supra, p. 17) might well be under- 
taken by a Government, but it ought first to be clear that the revenue to 
be obtained from the cultivators who are put on to the land will justify the 
outlay. 
23. In this last respect the customary tenure of Selangor and Malac- 
ca (which ought to be copied throughout the Protected Native States) is 
more likely to facilitate the successful accomplishment of such schemes 
than the leasehold tenure of Perak and Penang, and the permanent charac- 
ter of the land-rents in the latter, seems to me to remove one great incentive 
to State action, while the technical nature of the documents put into the 
hands of the peasantry is likely to provide material for difficulty in carrying 
out works on lands already opened (see for instance the “ first considera- 
tion " on which Mr. Kho Bu Ann properly insists {supra, p. 19). 
24. I believe that a district suitable for a development scheme on a 
iaro-e scale, where the conditions are such that a financial success is fairly 
probable, will be found at Kuala Selangor. The experiment recommended 
by Mr. Denison {supra, p. 27E) in paras. 39-45 of Lis report of the 10th 
October, 1891, might also be tried, if the Malacca tenure is adopted in the 
district selected. 
25. Immigration schemes . — With the sight constantly before him of a 
practically unlimited extent of forest and waste land ^undeveloped for want 
of population, the administrator of a Malay State or district is tempted to 
recommend almost any scheme which will encourage settlers to come in on 
any terms. There is considerable danger, therefore, that economical princi- 
ples will not always be borne in mind. Immigration schemes may be con- 
sidered as they affect Malays, Tamils and Chinese respectively. 
26. Malays . — Writing to Government, as Commissioner of Lands 
Titles, on the. 14th December, 1885, I said: — 
“The Residents of Native States should set themselves to create a land-revenue. 
The mere importation into a district of a body of Malay settlers who, after the manner 
of Malays, may very possibly go somewhere else as soon as the term for which they 
enjoy exemption from taxation expires, does not afford much ground for exultation. 
On the contrary, the destruction of forest trees and the temporary cultivation of land 
will, if followed by abandonment, be productive of absolute damage without any 
return whatever. And even if cultivation be continuous, the presence of a popula- 
tion who, though contributing nothing, or an inadequate amount, to the State, require 
nevertheless police protection and in other ways add to the cost of the Government 
establishment, is a burden to the State rather than an advantage. 
It is very important, in order to understand the full bearing of this question, 
to study the early history of the Colony. It will be a permanent disgrace to this 
generation of public officers if we repeat in the Native States the blunders which our 
predecessors committed in Penang and Province Wellesley in the early part of 
the century. As long ago as 1828, when much of the mischief had been done, it was 
considered by Governor FULLERTON that a general land-tax of 2 \ rupees ($1,125) 
per acre (being a fair average equivalent of one-tenth of the grain produced on an 
acre of land) would not be an unfair impost. I do not consider this in any way an ex- 
