Page:Max Havelaar Or The Coffee Sales of the Netherlands Trading Company Siebenhaar.djvu/212

 bers as now. The nature of snakes makes them prefer darkness and shelter to the light of open spaces; therefore, had Havelaar’s grounds been kept in proper order, these reptiles would only have left the scrub of the ravine unintentionally when losing their way. But Havelaar’s grounds were not kept in proper order, and I must give the reasons for this, as they afford a further insight into the abuses that prevail almost universally in Netherlands India.

The houses of the Commandants in the interior stand in grounds belonging to the community, in so far as one may speak of communal property in a country where the Government appropriates everything. Suffice it to say that these grounds do not belong to the official occupant himself. The latter would, if this were the case, be careful not to buy or hire grounds of which the maintenance exceeded his means. Now whenever the land belonging to the house reserved for him is too large to be kept in proper order, it is, in the midst of the luxurious vegetation of the tropics, liable in a short space of time to become a wilderness. And yet one rarely or never sees such land in a neglected condition. The traveller even is often amazed at the beautiful park around a Residency. No official in the interior has enough income to have the requisite labour performed for proper payment, and as nevertheless a dignified appearance is indispensable for the residence of the officer in authority, so that the population, so much impressed by external show, may not find in neglect a reason for contempt, the question arises: how then is the end achieved? In most places these officers have the use of a chain-gang, i.e., of criminals sentenced elsewhere; this form of labour, however, was, for more or less valid reasons of a political character, not available at Bantam. But even in places where there are such convicts, their number, especially in view of the need of labour for other purposes, is rarely proportionate to the work that would be required for the proper maintenance of large grounds. Other means, therefore, have to be devised, and the summoning of labourers for the performance of master-service lies at hand. The Regent or the Dhemang who receives a summons of this kind hastens to respond