40. The assessment and collection of this shall form part of the collector's duty. The principle on which it must proceed will be to divide the houses into three classes, according to their size and the general circumstances of their owners.
41. These will be assessed according to the class, at three, two, or one Javan rupee per annum; and where, in any instance, from the indigence of the householder, even this small payment could become a hardship, the collector shall not include him at all in the assessment. This measure will secure a considerable revenue to government, and by experience in some districts already, it is known that it will not be considered as vexatious or unjust by the inhabitants: they will deem it no hardship to pay so small a sum annually, to be secured in the unmolested possession of the ground and enclosure in which their houses stand: more especially now that they are freed from all forced deliveries and services, without adequate payment either to government or to the native chiefs, and are left at liberty to enjoy the fruit of their labour.
42. The paper C. requires few observations: it explains itself. Every householder shall have a number given to him; for in registering names alone, very great confusion may arise, not only by the same being possessed by numerous individuals, but by the singular practice which frequently occurs among the Javans, of persons, from the most capricious motives, assuming new appellations. The number being once fixed on each, there will be no difficulty in always identifying them.
43. In the paper B., for the same reason above given, a number will be added to each individual cultivator's name; that is, to each who will, in the detailed system to be carried into effect, become an actual renter of land from government.
44. With respect to the quantity of land, of produce, or of money, as it is most desirable that there should be one uniform standard for the whole island, to which every other measurement, weight, or currency may be reduced, a circular letter has been written, dated 11th February, 1814, on the subject of currency, weights, and measures, and the collectors will be in future strictly guided by that, keeping their accounts only in the terms therein authorized.
45. In estimating the produce, the average of several former years will be the surest criterion. All sawah lands will be considered solely as to what quantity of paddy they might produce. Where other species of cultivation occurs, it shall nevertheless be estimated only with reference to this standard, or what might have been the value of the crop had the land been sown with rice.
46. In similar manner, the tegal lands (under which description are comprehended all lands not subject to irrigation) shall be estimated, in their produce, at what would be the quantity of maize from them were that the sole crop.
47. These two kinds of cultivation are the most usual throughout the island for these descriptions of land, and will be easy to form an assessment where these two are only considered. The profit or loss, in substituting other crops, must be the sole concern of the individual cultivators.
48. In the value of the produce, the prices for both the paddy and the maize must be taken as they exist in the cheapest season of the year, and actually procurable on the spot.
49. By assuming other rates than these, as for instance, the prices the articles may bear in periods of the year when a greater scarcity prevails, or at what they would sell were they disposed of in large towns, a false estimate will be taken; and depending on such contingencies, a failure in the realization of the assessed revenues might frequently occur.