6 4 
cessive estimate of the minimum rate which may be fixed for land-rent and district- 
cess (Municipal rates) combined. 
# # * * # 
1 would call attention to the following extract from a minute by Governor 
Fullerton, dated August 23rd, 1828, which seems to me to place the whole matter 
clearly and unanswerably:— 
“ That no Land Revenue can ever be raised in these Settlements is I am aware 
“ a received opinion, but it is the opinion of those who never saw a land revenue raised 
“ anywhere else, and who therefore do not understand the principle on which it must rest. 
“ All the lands of this Island (Penang) belonged of right to the Government and they 
" were free to grant or withhold and to dictate the terms on which they were to be held. 
“ Had the Government preserved that right and only issued the land gradually or in 
“ due proportion to the growing capital and increased population and labour of the 
“ country, there is no question that they might have had a land revenue, small indeed 
“ at first but growing with the wealth and demand of the people, though probably never 
“ reaching the extent it has done on the Continent of India. But, instead of following 
“ this course, they issued gratuitously all the lands of the Island at once, everyone that 
“ asked had a grant, many who never meant to settle but took the land for nothing in 
“ the hopes of selling it for something hereafter. The whole of the lands of the 
“ Island were at once thrown on the market and of course to an extent greater than 
“ there was or has ever been capital and labour to cultivate it. Land became worth 
“ nothing and would pay no revenue, for nobody would pay 2 \ rupees per acre for 
“land where they could get it for nothing. 
“ The same cause would have produced the same effect, the same course would 
“ have produced the same result, anywhere else on the Continent of India or else- 
“ where. If the w r aste land of many villages in the territory of Madras were at once 
“ thrown open and gratuitously given away, the cultivated land assessed would be 
“ abandoned and there would be no such thing then as land-revenue, until capital 
“ so far increased as to take up the whole in the market. 
# # # * # 
“ I am aware that it may be argued that the vast quantities of unoccupied pro- 
“ ductive lands under the neighbouring States might preclude the operation of the 
“ principles here laid down as the ground-work of land-revenue, but to this it may 
“ be answered that in no neighbouring States is land granted away free ; from all 
“ I can learn the lands are liable to the exaction of the tenth of the produce, and in 
“reality to whatever other exaction any Chief in power, or relation of a Chief, 
“ chooses to impose; the benefit of protection of person and property enjoyed under 
“ British rule is more than equivalent, I presume, to the payment of 2\ rupees per 
“ acre which is in fact The computed value of the tenth of one acre’s produce in 
“grain, the lowest species of cultivation. The aggregate assessment of the land in 
“ Kedah since the Siamese usurpation, I have heard computed at 40 per cent. 
“ of the produce. Province \yellesley has been peopled and cultivated by refugees 
“ from thence and although this Government have granted them lands at the old 
“ rate, 20 cents of a dollar per or/ong, I doubt not they would willingly have agreed 
“ to pay their tenth as in other Malay countries, and we must not here forget the 
“ very large sums it has cost this Government to settle the inhabitants, to main- 
“ tain and support establishments for their protection, for the increase of which there 
“ is a constant call without any adequate recompense to Government. ” 
27. Holding these views, 1 confess that I have no faith in colonisation 
schemes which begin with bribing Malays by advances and loans to take 
up land and, at the end of a few years, leave a deficit which has to be written 
off, while the new Malay community, if any is permanently established, be- 
comes a source of expense to the State, in respect of roads and police pro- 
tection, without making any adequate contribution to the revenue. Mr. 
DENISON’S report on the expenditure on account of the introduction of 
Malay settlers in Lower Perak can hardly be considered satisfactory from 
a financial point of view. And the various references to the subject scatter- 
ed through these reports shew, it is satisfactory to see, that the more 
thoughtful of the District Officers are alive to the impolicy of the .artificial 
creation of Malay settlements by such means. Mr. Butler ( supra , p. 12) 
says “ so far as my experience goes, I have found that the advancing of 
“ money to Malay settlers does more harm than good, for they generally 
“do no work so long as it lasts and, when it is all spent, try to get out of 
“ the place to avoid repayment,” This agrees with the description given 
