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COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 
established the greater part of the numerous plantations 
of coffee, sugar, tobacco, tea, pepper, and other products 
which cover the island. Of these, coffee alone is now 
thus grown, and even here the “ system ” has been con¬ 
siderably modified, no person being required to plant 
more than fifty trees annually, and the labourers being 
no longer called out en masse as was formerly the case. 
The Government cultivation of sugar was given up in 
1890. In 1882 it was decided to commute part of the 
labour by the introduction of a capitation tax of one 
florin, and it was found that the sum thus obtained was 
larger than was required for carrying out the works pre¬ 
viously performed by corvee. For road repair, however, 
and various other minor duties, this system is still in 
force, and will probably remain so for some time. 
From a European point of view, the “ culture-system 55 
and its attendant corvee is no doubt indefensible. But 
it should be remembered that what is suitable among 
civilised nations is by no means always advisable in the 
case of a people who are socially and educationally im¬ 
mature. From time immemorial the natives of Java have 
been accustomed to render labour service to their chiefs 
and princes, and it is doubtful whether the substitution 
of money-taxes will be in any way more acceptable to 
them. The experiment of passing at one stride from 
the feudalism of the Middle Ages to the civilisation of the 
nineteenth century would not have been a wise one. 
The method of paternal government adopted by the 
Dutch has taught the people habits of steady industry 
and the art of scientific farming, and whether it be 
abolished now’ or retained for some years to come, it will 
still have served good purpose in bridging over this gulf, 
which with us has been filled up and effaced by many 
centuries of time. Taxation and the free admission of 
