S6 
JAVA. 
Dutch I noticed was the love of large costly mirrors, splendid marble floors, and baths : 
nearly every hotel contained several of these costly mirrors in every room. 
Batavia, until the recent growth and competition of Singapore, was the chief trading 
centre of Eastern commerce; but now, owing to the more advantageous position of the 
latter place and also greatly to the lethargy of the Dutch themselves, it has lost most of its 
prosperity, and as a trading centre is second to its sister city Sourabaya, situated at the 
eastern extremity of the island. 
I remained in Batavia four days, and visited, amongst other places, the Museum, 
where a most interesting collection of ethnological objects collected from the various 
islands belonging to the Dutch may he seen. It also contains a large collection of relics of 
the ancient Hindu regime, consisting of silver and gold ornaments, idols, weapons, and 
hundreds of curious monoliths from the ruins of the numerous temples which are scattered 
throughout the island. 
The natives of this part of Java are known as Soendanese; they are a bright, cheery, 
willing race, dressed in Malay fashion, in neat bright-coloured cotton clothes. 
All the hotel servants are Javanese, and are no longer known as “boys” but as 
“ Spadah,” which is probably a corruption of the Malay words Si-apa ada, i. e. “ Who there 1 ” 
The calls for Spadah are frequent in all Javanese hotels, the luxurious Europeans requiring 
a great deal of waiting on. The Javanese “ Spadah ” is, when good, a decided improve¬ 
ment on the Chinese “ boy,” who in Dutch colonies is not allowed by law to compete in 
the native labour-market. So in Java we find the Chinaman in a very different position to 
that which he holds in our colonies. In Batavia he even departs from his conservative 
ideas of dress, and may be seen wearing European clothes, and is decidedly more courteous 
in his manner; so evidently John Chinaman knows that the Dutch do not consider his 
presence necessary to the welfare of their colonies. This is as it should be, Java having a 
large surplus population of its own, which the Government protect from being swamped by 
hordes of Chinese, who by their superior cunning would gradually oust all native labour 
from a market which is its birthright. It is also better for the country that its wealth 
should circulate amongst its natural population and not be decamped with by the more 
knowing Celestial. A few laws against using Old England as the “ dumping-ground ” for 
the scum of European populations would be attended with equally good results, and aid 
greatly the struggling poverty-stricken masses of the lower class. 
The system of forced labour which is carried on in the Dutch colonies is not so objection¬ 
able as it may at first seem to our ideas of freedom. The large Government coffee-planta¬ 
tions are worked by this method, the villagers living in the neighbourhood of these plantations 
having to devote so many days per annum to keeping them up, for which they receive a 
small wage and a bonus on the crop. The roads in country districts are worked on the 
same principle, and are certainly as beneficial to the Javanese as to their masters. While 
in Tosari I was somewhat amused by the “ Controlleur ” of the district ordering the Tosari 
villagers to pull down numbers of their houses and build them further apart; the work of 
demolition and reconstruction continued for several weeks, the Government labour-days 
being engaged for this purpose. The reason of this edict was the frequent village fires; 
but as there never had been a conflagration in Tosari, I should have thought it better to 
