AREA AND POPULATION.
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Area and Population.
The area of Java, including Madura, embraces 51,330 English square miles, with a population, according to the census of 1861, of 13,019,108, or 253 per square mile. The population has trebled since the year 1810, when the British Government, after a temporary occupation extending over five years, restored the colony to the Netherlands.
Arabs and
Years
Europeans
Chinese
other foreign Orientals
Natives
Total
1795
—
—
—
3,559,611
1808
—
—
—
—
3,730,000
1815
—
—
—
—
4,615,270
1826
—
—
—
—
5,403,786
1836
—
—
—
—
7,861,551
1845
— ■
—
—
—
9,530,781
1849
16,409
119,481
27,687
9,420,553
9,584,130
1853
17,417
130,940
27,554
10,114,134
10,290,045
1854
18,471
129,262
29,209
10,404,948
10,581,890
1855
18,858
133,655
26,099
10,737,546
10,916,158
1856
19,431
135,649
24,903
11,110,467
11,290,450
1857
20,331
138,356
24,615
11,410,856
11,594,158
1861
20,523
139,960
24,451
12,834,174
13,019,108
The numbers of the population, as given for 1795 and 1808, are but estimates, but the rest are the result of official enumeration.
Slavery, so-called, was abolished in Java by a law which took effect on January 1, 1860. There were then 5,265 slaves in the colony, for each of whom, without regard to age or sex, the owner received 400 florins, or about 33/.. in compensation.
The greater part of the soil of Java is claimed as Government property, and it is only in the residencies in the north-western part of Java that there are private estates, chiefly owned by natives of the Netherlands. The bulk of the people are held in strict sub- jugation as agricultural labourers. The landlords, whether under Government or private landowners, enforce one day's gratuitous work out of seven from all the labourers on their estates, and they are besides entitled to as much work as they choose to claim, on the sole condition of paying each man the wages of the district. Great power is vested in the Kesident and his European and native officials to enforce a strict adherence to all the laws regulating labour.
The whole population of Java is legally divided into Europeans and persons assimilated with them, and natives. Christianity is the broad distinguishing feature ; all Christians, even those among the native population, being theoretically assimilated with Europeans, and
