The History of Java, v. 1-2

by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles

1. It is the object of government to separate, in a great measure, the revenue from the judicial branches of the internal administration, it being deemed that a more lucid and simple arrangement of the public business will be formed thereby; and that the relieving the residents from a part of their at present too extensive and complicated duties, will ensure so much easier and better execution of the remainder, as fully to counterbalance any additional expense that may be incurred by the adoption of the measure.

2. For this purpose it has been resolved, that collectors shall be appointed immediately to the various districts, whose office shall consist in the sole and entire superintendance of the land revenue, and to whom therefore shall be made over by the Residents the complete charge of that department, with all such papers, documents, &c. as are in any way connected with it.

3. In some instances, however, from strong local, political, or other reasons, it is considered advisable, that several branches of the public duty remain still vested for a time in the Resident alone. As this necessity shall cease, care will be taken, by the introduction of separate collectors, to attain uniformity. But, in the mean time, it is particularly enjoined to such Residents as are continued in this double capacity of revenue and judicial superintendants, to take due care that these several branches be not blended in the execution, but that each part of their duty be discharged according to the department to which it belongs, and that their several proceedings be recorded in their proper departments only, distinct from all others.

4. A similar line of conduct will be observed in the maintenance of the establishments necessary for carrying on the business of these several departments; these establishments being kept as much apart, and as much confined to their distinct details, when the duties of collector and judge and magistrate are exercised by the same person, as when there are different officers appointed for the superintendance of each.

5. Those Residents, therefore, to whom will still be entrusted the collection of the land revenue, will consider the following instructions to collectors as addressed to themselves in that capacity. Each collector shall forward to government a list of such establishment (with the salaries to each individual that he would recommend) as he deems adequate to carrying on the business in his head office, where the general papers, accounts, &c. will be prepared, and which will be conducted under his own immediate inspection.

6. This establishment may consist of one native assistant and such number of writers (Javans and English) opasses, and other servants, as may be necessary. This native assistant ought to be a man of rank, respectability, and information, that he may be at once competent, by his knowledge of the manners, characters, and habits of the native inhabitants, to assist the collector in advising measures best suited to each occasion, and by the estimation in which he is held by the people, to lend a considerable aid in carrying those measures duly into execution.

7. His salary may amount to from one to two hundred rupees per month, or a quantity of land equal to such sum may be allowed him rent free.

8. It may be advisable to employ for this situation some of the Bopatis, Patehs, or Tumunggungs, who have been, but are not now, in the actual service of government. This, as salaries or pensions are, in many instances, already allowed in the manner of sinecures, may prove a considerable saving to government; and, at the same time, the having a duty annexed to their present receipts, which will carry with it a considerable degree of authority and consequence, may be more pleasing to many, than the idle enjoyment of a sum of money, for which they must feel that they are at present making no adequate return.

9. For the outer establishments, those necessary for carrying on the details in each village or division, it is not intended to create any new officers; those at present entertained, and who have as yet very well executed the double duties of police and revenue, being deemed the most competent and best fitted for continuing to manage the business of these several departments.

10. It is not the additional expense which would arise from the appointing a new description of revenue officers, that is alone considered in this arrangement. The formation of a distinct revenue establishment throughout the interior is, on many other accounts, deemed an innovation that would be attended with considerable trouble, that would prove less pleasing to the inhabitants themselves, and that would not be nearly so adequate to the management of the collections, as the collection of the combined establishment at present existing.