Rice in Malaya

7. The Southern Centre: Melaka and Negri Sembilan

Malacca and Negri Sembilan 135 7 The Southern Centre: Melaka and Negri Sembilan Ah, Sir… I am just out of Malacca jail. I had rumah tangah, harta banda, bindang dan kuboon (house, valuables, rice-fields and plantations); but I mortgaged them to a chitty to pay the expenses of my son’s wedding. Penghulu of S. Baru c.18351 If all the available padi-land were taken up and cultivated as the Chinese know how to do it, Malacca might be the granary of the Straits. D.F.A. Hervey, 1844, Malacca AR 1884, 962 Following the fertile valley of the Moar [sic] I passed through most picturesque country. Large rice-fields… studded with Malay huts and gardens, and flanked on either side by densely wooded ranges, extended for many miles… D.D. Daly, 18752 The southern centre of cultivation was separated from the northern centre by a large intervening tract of marchlands in which rice cultivation was of only local importance (see Chapter 8). Although the southern region comprises two political units, their boundaries do not coincide with geographical realities. Two sub-regions may be distinguished on the basis of distinctive landscapes and on occupance by contrastive social groups. The first may be denoted Malaccan and the second, Minangkabau. 135 1 Thomson 1865a, 319. “Harta banda[r]” is, correctly, “town property”, and “kuboon” [kebun], strictly, “garden” not plantation. 2 Daly, 1882, 399. 136 Rice in Malaya The Malaccan sub-region comprised the coastal plain flanking Malacca town on the south-east and north-west. Only a portion of the coastal tract, that lying within a mile or two of the coast, was cultivated, the lands further inland being fresh-water swamp. North-west and south-east of the town, the belt of contiguous cultivation extended for five or six miles in either direction and beyond this cultivation was patchy. The area was occupied by people of diverse origins, Malays, Chinese, people of mixed race.3 In the Minangkabau sub-region, cultivated areas were strip-like in form down the narrow, rectilinear valleys, each of which was separated from its neighbour by considerable tracts of steep hills which were cultivated only on their margins. This habitat was favoured by Minangkabau migrants, “mountaineers” in their homeland. The boundary between Malaccans and Minangkabau thus lay a little to the south of the southern boundary of Naning (see Figure 11). The drawing of comparisons between these two contrasting areas is somewhat complicated by the fact that for Malacca (the political unit) sources are richest for the period down to about 1870, whereas the Negri Sembilan4 were little-known to outsiders until the 1880s. The two areas will therefore be discussed separately before attempting to compare them. MALACCA (EXCLUDING NANING) TO c.1910 When the British took over the administration of Malacca from the Dutch in 1824, rice agriculture was, and had for some time been at a low ebb. Although the settlement had some export of fruits, Malacca produced sufficient rice for only six months’ consumption despite a seemingly favourable environment and a strong demand in the town (PWIGG 1.9.1810; 24.10.1812; Wurtzburg, 1954, 70). At Malacca, the country is for the most part low… About a mile inland it is swampy and covered with wood. The soil is a thick stiff clay, apparently very favourable for the cultivation of rice. There appears to be no want of water; yet with these advantages, the place does not raise rice for its own consumption. The Dutch… attribute this circumstance to the indolent habits of the Malayan race, who for the most part are cultivators of the 3 A census of 1881 reported some 6,000 Malay “padi-planters” and about 700 Chinese (SSGG 1881, 1367). 4 The political evolution of the Negri Sembilan is outlined in Sadka, 1968, 118. One of the constituent states, Sungei Ujong, which joined the confederation in 1895, lay within the “tin zone” and is discussed in Chapter 8. Malacca and Negri Sembilan 137 Note: Blank pages 137 and 138 to be replaced with fold-in Figure 11 138 Rice in Malaya Note: Blank pages 137 and 138 to be replaced with fold-in Figure 11 Malacca and Negri Sembilan 139 soil. The cause more probably arises from the want of due encouragement to agriculture; from unfavourable terms in the tenure of land; and in part perhaps from the existence of slavery among the Dutch...