POSSESSION'S IN THE INDIAN ASCIIIPELAGO, 193 
Ills tjatjak the half of the harvest; if he performs work he is exempt 
from this tax. 
The old sovereigns of Java were masters of the whole soil, at least 
to the extent of the recognized right by which they had the power of 
levying on the cultivated land a tax consisting of a part of the 
crop, or they could exact personal service. Nevertheless the pro¬ 
prietor had the power of freeing himself from this tax by restoring 
the land to the commune, the latter appropriating to itself the profit 
under the burden of the charges. The tax as well as the forced la¬ 
bour were regulated by adat, and consisted as regarded the prince in 
the 5th part of the crop, or in labour calculated at the rate of 66 
days work per annum. During the English occupation they acted 
contrary to the adat, by exacting the half \ two fifths., or one third of 
the crop, instead of one fifth . 
Indolence is the supreme happiness of the Javanese, while he partakes 
with all men in the desire to augment his enjoyments at the expense of 
the labour which he believes obligatory upon him. According to this 
basis, it is established as a principle that a desa is freed from the land 
tax by relinquishing the fifth part of the rice fields for the cultivation 
of a product iu demand for the European Markets; that the desa 
should enjoy one part of the benefit whenever it is proved by estimate 
that the produce of the cultivation brings more that the amount of 
the land tax due by the village ; that in case of failure of the crop the 
loss should be borne by the Government, provided the carelessness 
or laziness of the cultivators were not the cause of this loss of the 
crop. 
Seeing that it is not sufficient to simply raise crops of these com¬ 
modities with the view to obtain a mass of produce for the European 
market but that this must be done with the necessary care, it was 
indispensibie to take means for satisfying all the exigencies of the 
trade. In order to arrive at this, capital was necessary as well 
as knowledge and care in matters of cultivation. The capital and 
the industry of Europeans and Chinese were so strongly bound by 
interest to these undertakings, that by their concurrence we were in a 
condition to obtain a careful manipulation of the principal articles. 
in order not to overburden a part of the native population with a 
too heavy corvee, care was taken to distribute the labour (for exam¬ 
ple in the cultivation of the sugar cane) so that one part of the inha¬ 
bitants of the desa were charged with bringing the cane to maturity; 
another had the reaping, and a third were charged with the transport; 
finally, whenever necessary, a fourth fulfilled the labour of manufacture, 
