AGRICULTURE IN MALACCA.
BY F. L. BAUMGARTEN ESQ.
Land in Malacca is cultivated entirely by the native population. No Europeans, or their descendants, appear to be inclined to invest their capital in agricultural speculation: probably from the unfa-vorable terms upon which Leases are granted by Government, and the failure incurred more than twenty five years ago by parties who had undertaken the cultivation of Pepper and Coffee upon extensive scales.
By an order of Government, announced by a notification from Mr Bonham in 1840, the terms upon which lands were to be granted were, "rent free for two years; from the second to the fifth year at 4 annas per acre; from the fifth to the tenth year 8 annas per acre; from the tenth to the twentieth year one Rupee," and the lessee to have the option of renewal for thirty years, on payment of an annual rent for the additional period, at the rate of three rupees per acre! while at the sister settlement of Singapore land may be purchased from Government in fee at 5 rupees per acre. As a further clog, he is required to agree that if he should fail to pay his rent, or should abandon his ground for the space of one year, it shall, without any formal process, revert to the East India Company.
So unwilling have speculators been to take out clearance leases on these terms that, although eight years have elapsed since their promulgation, not a single lease had been taken for agricultural purposes, excepting for small patches of ground near the town and along the sea-shore, many, if not all of which, were no sooner taken than abandoned; such for instance are the patches of land between Klebang Besar and Tanjong Kling. This notification, although it had not the effect of deterring an increasing population from squatting on the land, had a different result from that intended. Extensive tracts have been cleared by Chinese and Malays without even obtaining permission from the superintendent and when called upon to pay rent after their plantations have become productive, have entered into an agreement with Government to pay a fixed rate per annum for a period of twenty years, commencing from the date of the agreement, at the end of which the tenants would have the option of paying tenth for ever, or entering into a fresh agreement with their Landlords, who acknowledge that they possess only "the right of taking for the use of Government one tenth part of the produce of all lands in the settlement of Malacca," so that the Notification of 1840, so far as it concerns the leasing out of land for agricultural purposes, has been a mere dead letter from the time of its promulgation up to this period. With respect to the cultivation of the sugar cane, however, grants upon better terms were applied for, and directed to be issued by the Bengal Government; these were to be rent free for five years, and thereafter to bear a rent of four annas per acre, so long as there existed a sugar estate upon the land, but even these were destined not to take effect -
