GARVET.
After leaving the cottage on the estate X. started for Garvet. The view
from the train, as it reached its destination, was certainly one of the
most beautiful that could be imagined. Long reaches of padi fields,
backed by hills in a high state of cultivation, and the whole watered by
little gushing torrents that looked cool and refreshing in the
all-surrounding sun.
It is impossible to describe the scenery as it appeared to the
traveller, or in any way to do it justice. It is altogether new and
unlike anything seen in other countries, with the exception, perhaps, of
Ceylon or Japan, and it is worth a journey from Europe to see.
The hotel at Garvet proved to be a combination of little buildings,
scattered about in the gardens surrounding the main buildings, or across
the road in enclosures of their own. X. obtained one of these cottages,
and felt that he would be fairly comfortable, till an inspection of the
bathing arrangements made him shudder.
When dinner time arrived, _table d'hote_ also served to dispel
illusions. There was the same absence of punkah, the same glaring light,
and succession of half-cooked clammy dishes. There were only a few
diners, apparently mostly residents of the place who boarded at the
hotel. These gentlemen had put on black coats, and made a kind of toilet
for the evening meal. But the penance they thus endured was brief, as,
after hastily disposing of sufficient of the viands to satisfy their
individual wants, they retired to their verandahs, where X. soon saw
them reclining in all the comfort of pyjamas and bare feet. Apparently
the coating of civilization was not sufficiently thin to be congenial.
In the morning the traveller went to pay his respects to the
Assistant-Resident, who received him very kindly, and gave him all the
information he required. This rather interrupted the work of the office
as, whenever the Assistant-Resident turned to any employee to ask how
far such and such a place might be distant, or the tariff of carriages,
etc., the person so addressed, no matter how engaged, would, before
reply, immediately flop on to his knees. The Regent was also calling on
the representative of the Government, and to him the Englishman was
introduced. This native functionary was fat and well-looking, but did
not seem to exactly bristle with intelligence.
The Assistant-Resident very kindly conversed freely with his visitor
about matters affecting the natives, and gave him much information,
which, from the nature of his own work in Pura Pura, interested him
greatly. To those whom the subject interests, the land system in Java is
too well known to need comment here, but there were a few facts learnt
by X. which should remove any idea amongst those who have not studied
the question, that the laws were either harsh or intricate. Indeed, they
seem to attain that brevity and simplicity which are the great
desideratum when dealing with a native peasantry. Thus, a man need pay
no rent until his land is in bearing. Coffee is the only product whose
sale to Government is compulsory. All land is classified and subject to
a fixed rent, there is therefore a safeguard that the fruits of an
owner's industry will not be taxed. Anyone can complain if he thinks his
land is rated too high, and should be in a lower class, and the
complaint receives immediate attention. Though the population is large,
there is seldom any trouble about boundary marks in the padi fields.
Owners are content with long custom and local knowledge, and their
reliance on their host of native officials never fails. All new land
must be fenced round, if it is contiguous to Government land, and on all
plantations people must themselves plant trees as boundaries and upkeep
them. And one register of titles with columns filled in and signed,
according to its cultivation and classification, answers for all.
Lastly, let it be mentioned that there is a golden rule, that a native
cannot sell his land to anyone but his own countrymen, neither to
European, Arab or Chinese. Thus no individual, tempted by the
speculation, can by his selfish action, cause harm or annoyance to his
neighbours. This one register of titles, mentioned above, is gradually
filled in and signed as the land is brought into cultivation, and an
exact record is thus kept of the actual present condition of each native
holding. When finally signed, and the land yields produce, rent is
demanded. The advantage of simplicity can only be realized by those
whose lot it has been to pose as the bringer of glad tidings, and
expound the advantages of the last new land code with its many
paragraphs to an ignorant native population, who, unreasoning,
tenaciously cling to the title which they already hold and think they
understand, obstinately refusing, speak the speaker never so plausibly,
to exchange it for the very newest that can be given to them from the
most up-to-date land code in existence.
After his interview with the courteous official, X. departed, pondering
on all he had heard, and bearing with him a memo, on which was written
the various places of interest which he had been recommended to visit in
the neighbourhood. On his return to the hotel the traveller passed what
appeared to be the local club.
The first thing an English official in an outstation in India or the
Peninsula will do for a stranger arriving with introductions, is to
offer to put him up for the club, and unless there seem strong reason
against it, he will most probably ask him to dinner. Apparently this was
not the custom here, and so X. was free to wander about the little town
and explore, with nothing more exciting to look forward to than a
repetition of last night's gruesome meal in company with the suffering
tenants of the prandial coats.