CHAPTER VII. JAVA.
I SPENT three months and a half in Java, from July 18th to October 31st,
1861, and shall briefly describe my own movements, and my observations of the
people and the natural history of the country. To all those who wish to
understand how the Dutch now govern Java, and how it is that they are enabled
to derive a large annual revenue from it, while the population increases, and the
inhabitants are contented, I recommend the study of Mr. Money's excellent and
interesting work, "How to Manage a Colony." The main facts and conclusions of
that work I most heartily concur in, and I believe that the Dutch system is the
very best that can be adopted, when a European nation conquers or otherwise
acquires possession of a country inhabited by an industrious but semi-barbarous
people. In my account of Northern Celebes, I shall show how successfully the
same system has been applied to a people in a very different state of civilization
from the Javanese; and in the meanwhile will state in the fewest words possible
what that system is.
The mode of government now adopted in Java is to retain the whole series of
native rulers, from the village chief up to princes, who, under the name of
Regents, are the heads of districts about the size of a small English county. With
each Regent is placed a Dutch Resident, or Assistant Resident, who is
considered to be his "elder brother," and whose "orders" take the form of
"recommendations," which are, however, implicitly obeyed. Along with each
Assistant Resident is a Controller, a kind of inspector of all the lower native
rulers, who periodically visits every village in the district, examines the
proceedings of the native courts, hears complaints against the head-men or other
native chiefs, and superintends the Government plantations. This brings us to the
"culture system," which is the source of all the wealth the Dutch derive from
Java, and is the subject of much abuse in this country because it is the reverse of
"free trade." To understand its uses and beneficial effects, it is necessary first to
sketch the common results of free European trade with uncivilized peoples.
Natives of tropical climates have few wants, and, when these are supplied, are
disinclined to work for superfluities without some strong incitement. With such a
people the introduction of any new or systematic cultivation is almost
impossible, except by the despotic orders of chiefs whom they have been
accustomed to obey, as children obey their parents. The free competition of