This right was not, however, recognised any more fully in the cultivators. It seems that all that they are recognised ashaving, is a usufructuary enjoyment, an emphyteusis or hereditary lease ( erfpacht ). The state renounced the right ofarbitrarily taking from the cultivators the soil which they tilled, but did not give up the eminent domain; and, at the sametime, claimed the right of disposing absolutely of unoccupied lands, whether by cultivating them immediately, by sellingthem, or by granting them on lease. In several parts of the colony, however, lands and houses are inscribed in the registers ofthe cadastre as the private property of the Javanese. (9)Under the British rule lands were sold to Europeans. But since Holland has recovered possession of the colony, they haveonly been granted leases for terms of greater or less duration, frequently of twenty-five years. The governor, Du Bus,thought that land should not be sold, for two reasons: -- first, to avoid introducing a principle borrowed from Europe, intothe midst of a totally different system; and secondly, to enable the leaseholder to expend in reclaiming the ground what hewould have had to employ as purchase-money. The government retained this system; and, under the new law, grants leases( erfpacht ) for seventy-five years, with exemption from land-tax during the first seven years, and of half the tax from then tillthe twelfth year.
This seems to be an excellent system, and very superior to that of perpetual grants, generally practised in English colonies,in Australia and America. A lease of seventy-five years is sufficiently long for the lessee to execute all the works ofcultivation which a proprietor would perform. On this point there can be no doubt, when we see magnificent buildings inEngland erected on lands leased for sixty or seventy years. The immense works of art required for the construction of arailway incomparably surpass those which must be executed to bring the productiveness of the soil to its highest pitch; andyet the millions necessary for these gigantic enterprises are never wanting. In Java, many lands have been cultivated at greatexpense, notably in the Residences of Cheribon, Tagal, Samarang, and Banjoemas, even with leases of twenty-five years. Itis by these means, especially, that tea plantations have been formed: and they have been so well worked, that, at theexpiration of the term, the lands could be re-let for an annual rent of 80, 100, and 130 francs the hectare. (10)The lease has a great advantage over perpetual grants, inasmuch as at the expiration of the term the land returns to thestate, which disposes of it again, to the profit of all. The revenue arising from the soil is the taxation. All the income can beapplied to purposes of general interest, instead of being employed to satisfy the fancies of a few wealthy families. It is anactual realization of the system, advocated by the "physiocrats," of a single tax on land.
During the session of 1866-7, a member of the Chamber of Representatives in Holland expounded the position of propertyin Java, according to Asiatic and Mahommedan ideas, in terms which it may be useful to summarize here: -- "The soilbelongs to the creator, God, and, in consequence, to his earthly representative, the Sovereign. The enjoyment of the soil isgranted to the commune in general, and in particular to him who has reclaimed it, for such time as he or his descendantsobserve the conditions determined by the adat , or custom. If he ceases to fulfil them, the right of enjoyment reverts to thecommunity, the dessa . If the soil has been reclaimed by the combined efforts of all, it is on the same principle common to all.
This common territory is divided annually among the members of the dessa . In making the allotment, regard is paid to thequality of the different parcels, and to the working strength and the number of draught beasts which each family has at itsdisposition, and also to rules consecrated by custom. A portion of the common domain is reserved for the chiefs and priests;but they are bound to support, out of the produce of this portion, the mosque ( mesdjid ), the sick and the aged. In certaindistricts it is the priests' duty to superintend the canals and the whole system of irrigation. Certain lands are an appanage ofthe sovereign for his support: these he may not alienate. The whole soil is granted out by him to tenants, a certain rent beingreserved in kind or in labour. The families, which have more land than they can cultivate, keep labourers, menoempangs ,who are their servants and form part of the domestic circle. When the communal domain is enlarged by new clearances, orwhen lots fall vacant, the menoempangs receive a share in turn.
"This agrarian system is in close harmony with the mode of cultivation. Rice, which forms the staple food of the Javanese,requires a general system of irrigation, which is impossible without association, and which leads to cultivation in common.
The system really establishes a kind of communism, but it secures to the cultivators their chief means of subsistence; and, asthey cannot alienate their right of enjoyment, they are preserved from pauperism.
