TI1E HISTORY AND PRESENT CONDITION OP MALACCA. 
The amount actually received from them during- two 
years was,... 1,237 
Sale of tenths on the uncommuted lands during the 
two years,... 5,884 
7,121 
Actual receipt per annum,. 3,560 
Shewing that up to the latest date, so far from any improvement 
having taken place in the dead loss to the state noted by Newbold 
in 1835-6 by the redemption of the Malacca lands, that loss has 
continued to increase, notwithstanding the well known increase in 
the quantity of land brought under cultivation. How far this dead 
loss may be considered unavoidable or to arise from mismanagement 
of some kind, may be judged of from the following facts. The last 
census gives a population exceeding 60,000, and the last returns 
give an Import of 2,500 coyans of rice. Now 60,000 souls, at a 
moderate calculation, will consume 5 millions gantangs of rice, per 
annum, from which deduct the Import (2,500 coyans or 2 millions 
gantangs) gives a local produce of 3 millions gantangs of rice, equal 
in value to a lac and a half of Dollars. A fair levy of the tenth on 
this produce, without including all other kinds of produce, ought to 
yield something far beyond the present nominal land revenue of 
Malacca, and quite enough to secure Mr. Fullarton’s name from the 
charge of reckless extravagance which it has been the fashion to 
attach to it on this subject. One important error however seems to 
have been committed in this redemption of the lands, that of not 
redeeming the whole of them. Whether those unredeemed, were 
left so by cliance or design, it is impossible to say, but the conse¬ 
quence is still farther to complicate the subject of the Malacca 
land. To a stranger visiting Malacca with a view of engaging in 
cultivation, the state of doubt and confusion pervading the whole 
question of the lands would prove very discouraging. One may 
imagine such a person travelling through the country in quest of an 
eligible spot for bis contemplated operations, and enquiring as he 
goes along “ This is a fine piece of land, I suppose I may take 
and clear it, if I wish it?” “ You must obtain the permission of so 
and so, because this is what is called unredeemed land, supposed to 
have been granted away by the Dutch government to private indi¬ 
viduals, and which was not redeemed by the English government 
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