The History of Java, v. 1-2

by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles

13. They are directed to keep a register of all persons under their authority, describing the name, age, country, occupation, size, and appearance of each individual, with any other remarks that may be deemed necessary. They will also, with the assistance of the village priest, form a register of the births, marriages, and deaths, which occur within their jurisdiction.

14. These will be drawn up every six months, according to forms to be furnished to them by the Resident. A copy of each will be retained in the village, and another will be forwarded to the police officer of the station, to be kept by him as records, and to furnish the grounds of such reports as he may be called on to give in.

15. Whenever a stranger arrives for the purpose of settling in a village, or any one of its former inhabitants absconds, the head of it is required to furnish immediately to the officer of the division a detailed account of the particulars relative to either circumstance, who will accordingly take such measures for the apprehension or pursuit of either, or forward such intelligence to his superiors, as the case may require.

16. Any person producing the express permission of the Resident, shall be allowed to settle in a village; but without this, or unless he can procure two respectable inhabitants to become securities for his good behaviour, he shall not be permitted to do so.

17. As well heads of villages as officers of divisions are required to keep a watchful eye upon all new settlers, to ascertain, if possible, their several characters, from their former places of abode; and to observe, most particularly, the conduct of such individuals as have no ostensible means of earning a livelihood. They will, too, follow vigilantly the motions of armed persons, preventing them, as much as they can, from travelling together in large bodies; and, as far as may be practicable, they ought to hinder individuals of every description, but most especially such as are armed with spears, swords, &c. from travelling at all after eight o'clock at night.

18. After this hour they are authorised to stop, and detain in their custody till the next morning, all such persons as may, by having with them more than usual property, or in any other way, justly give grounds for suspicion. But on a summary examination, should nothing further appear against them, they must, on no account, keep them detained beyond eight o'clock the next morning; nor ought detention at all to take place, if the account they first give of themselves be deemed satisfactory.

19. Should any thing further appear against them by complaint or otherwise, they will then be proceeded with as with other accused persons, relative to whom directions will be given in a subsequent section.

20. In the above case only, it is competent to the officers of police to apprehend any person of their own authority, unless detected in the actual perpetration of crime; or to release any person once apprehended.

21. It having been represented, that though when the inhabitants are settled in one place, in habitations contiguous to each other, the duty of the head of a village becomes easy of execution, yet that it is extremely difficult for him to perform it adequately, when, from caprice or other cause, any of its members are allowed to leave the main part, or désa, to go and reside in lonely and remote spots, forming thereby small settlements of two or three cottages only together, termed dukus, which being necessarily, from their distance, without the guard of night watches, &c. must frequently become liable to be attacked and plundered, or more often, perhaps, from the absence of all controul, will themselves form the resort and shelter of robbers and other abandoned characters; and, on the other hand, it not being wished to repress too much this out-settling, as by the creation of new villages (which must owe their formation to such small beginnings), a great part of the land, at present waste, may be brought into cultivation; it is ordered, that the following be the line of conduct to be observed in these cases.

22. The head of a village shall, in every instance, report to the officer of division when such an out-settlement takes place; who shall then proceed to the spot, and forming a committee of three heads of villages (not to include the one in which the circumstance occurred) shall judge whether or not it be expedient, for the benefit of agriculture, to permit its continuance, and measures shall be taken accordingly. If the new settlement be allowed to remain, a vigilant eye must be kept over its infant state, both by the officer of division and head of the neighbouring village; and when it shall have grown to a size that may admit of this, it ought to be separated from the authority of the mother village, and a similar constitution be bestowed on it.