The History of Java, v. 1-2

by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles

141. The rate of maintenance must depend on the general price of food in the district where the confinement takes place. It ought to be sufficiently ample to secure the necessaries of life, but by no means any thing further; it ought not, in short, to be higher than the price for which the lowest description of labour could be obtained. On this principle the Residents will regulate the allowance for prisoners, and when settled and approved of by government, it shall be considered as fixed, and be publicly made known.

142. The Residents finally shall see that the prisoners receive all the comforts compatible with their respective situations, and that the allowance granted by government, or others, for their support, be properly applied.

143. With respect to the authority of the Resident's Court over Europeans, Chinese, or other foreigners, though it has not heretofore been ordered that they be amenable to any but the courts of justice in Batavia, Semárang, and Surabáya; yet as great inconvenience may be, and has been experienced, from their being under a separate jurisdiction from their fellow-inhabitants, and as it is the wish of government that they be allowed to partake of every benefit afforded to its other subjects, of which a prompt and easy access to justice must be considered as the chief, the following orders are issued respecting them.

144. No Europeans, Chinese, or other foreigners, at present settled, or who, in future, may wish to settle in the interior, shall be allowed to reside in any part of the country without the immediate limits of the towns of Batavia, Semárang, and Surabáya, unless they present themselves to the Resident, to be regularly enrolled in a register to be kept for that purpose, and obtain from him a license for remaining. This license shall not be granted, unless each individual enter into a penalty-bond of five hundred rupees, that he will abide by the civil decisions of the Resident's Court to that amount; but if this be agreed to, the license shall on no account be withheld, unless the Resident can, and does, give such reasons for withholding it as the government shall approve of. No fee whatsoever shall be given for these licenses.

145. Should it, at any time, happen that a cause, in which more than five hundred rupees is at issue, should come before the Resident, wherein a foreigner living in the interior is concerned, the Resident shall call on him to execute a further bond, which may cover the amount of the suit; and in case of refusal to do so, he shall not be permitted any longer to reside within his jurisdiction.

146. After taking out these licenses, foreigners shall, in every respect, be considered in the same light as other inhabitants, and sue and be sued precisely in the same manner as the natives.

147. Should any foreigner, after these precautions, refuse to abide by the decision of the Resident, a report on his conduct shall be forwarded to government, and he shall instantly be made to leave the interior, and be prosecuted for the amount of the penalty he has incurred, in the established manner, in the courts of justice at Batavia, Semárang, and Surabáya.

148. In criminal cases, where a foreigner is charged with any offence, the Resident shall execute the duties of a justice of the peace, issuing a warrant for his apprehension, examining into the evidence adduced, and, according to circumstances, releasing him forthwith, or committing him to take his trial before the Court of Circuit.

149. It must be understood, that the term here of "foreigners" is intended only to include Europeans, Chinese, Arabs, Mussulmen from the various parts of India, or, in short, the natives of any country that is without the limits of the Malayan Archipelago. But as there will resort to the coasts of Java, in small trading vessels, very many of the inhabitants of the neighbouring islands, to whom the entering into bonds, or being subject to other such legal forms, would prove a serious inconvenience, serving perhaps eventually to discourage them considerably from engaging in such commercial adventures, which it is rather the wish of this government in every way to promote; and as by the religion, laws, and usages of this and the various islands in the vicinity, being, both in form and substance, nearly identified (differing only in some few instances in shades slight and of little moment), it cannot be considered as repugnant to the principles of justice, that they be at once held amenable to the jurisdiction established for this island, during their continuance on it; and it is therefore ordered, that they be looked on and proceeded with in manner no way differing from that prescribed for the actual natives of Java.

150. In the event of the death of any British inhabitant or passenger within his district, it is the duty of the Resident to place the seals of office immediately on the effects of the deceased, after defraying the expense of interment; and to report the same immediately for the further orders of government; and, in the event of the death of Burghers, Chinese, Mussulmen, or others, he will be guided by the laws and regulations existing on that head. In all cases, he will be careful that no injustice be practised in this important subject, and that where arrears are due to government, no property be transferred or sold until the same have been satisfied, or until the pleasure of government is known.