Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1871.djvu/721

 AREA AND POPULATION.

685

Area and Population.

The area of Java, including Madura, embraces 51,330 English square miles, with a population, according to the census of 1861, of 13,019,108, or 253 per square mile. The population has trebled since the year 1810, when the British Government, after a temporary occupation extending over five years, restored the colony to the Netherlands.

Arabs and

Years

Europeans

Chinese

other foreign Orientals

Natives

Total

1795

—

—

—

3,559,611

1808

—

—

—

—

3,730,000

1815

—

—

—

—

4,615,270

1826

—

—

—

—

5,403,786

1836

—

—

—

—

7,861,551

1845

— ■

—

—

—

9,530,781

1849

16,409

119,481

27,687

9,420,553

9,584,130

1853

17,417

130,940

27,554

10,114,134

10,290,045

1854

18,471

129,262

29,209

10,404,948

10,581,890

1855

18,858

133,655

26,099

10,737,546

10,916,158

1856

19,431

135,649

24,903

11,110,467

11,290,450

1857

20,331

138,356

24,615

11,410,856

11,594,158

1861

20,523

139,960

24,451

12,834,174

13,019,108

The numbers of the population, as given for 1795 and 1808, are but estimates, but the rest are the result of official enumeration.

Slavery, so-called, was abolished in Java by a law which took effect on January 1, 1860. There were then 5,265 slaves in the colony, for each of whom, without regard to age or sex, the owner received 400 florins, or about 33/.. in compensation.

The greater part of the soil of Java is claimed as Government property, and it is only in the residencies in the north-western part of Java that there are private estates, chiefly owned by natives of the Netherlands. The bulk of the people are held in strict sub- jugation as agricultural labourers. The landlords, whether under Government or private landowners, enforce one day's gratuitous work out of seven from all the labourers on their estates, and they are besides entitled to as much work as they choose to claim, on the sole condition of paying each man the wages of the district. Great power is vested in the Kesident and his European and native officials to enforce a strict adherence to all the laws regulating labour.

The whole population of Java is legally divided into Europeans and persons assimilated with them, and natives. Christianity is the broad distinguishing feature ; all Christians, even those among the native population, being theoretically assimilated with Europeans, and