Area and Population.

The area of Java, including Madura, embraces 51,336 English square miles, with a population, according to the last census taken at the end of 1873, of 17,855,840, or 347 per square mile. The population, as will be seen from the subjoined table, nearly quadrupled since the year 1816, when the British Government, after a temporary occupation extending over five years, restored the colony to the Netherlands.

Slavery was abolished in Java by a law of the States-General of the Netherlands, passed in 1856, which took effect on January 1, 1860. There were at this date 5,265 slaves in the colony, for each of whom, without regard to age or sex, the owner received 400 florins, or about 331., 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 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; they were formerly also entitled to as much work as they choose to claim, on the sole condition of paying each man the wages of the district, but this was abolished in 1872. Great power is vested in the Resident 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 and persons assimilated with them. The former are generally under the laws of the

mother-country, while in the jurisdiction of the latter their own customs and institutions are considered. The division of the whole population into two classes is a fundamental principle in the policy of the administration, and enacted in the code specifying the limits and conditions for future legislation in Netherlands' India. It is thereby withdrawn from the competence of the Governor-General and all other local legislative powers, and entirely preserved from alteration, except by the paramount legislative authority of the King and States General of the Netherlands.-(Official Communication.)

Trade and Commerce.

Almost the entire trade of Java is with the Netherlands, and there is comparatively little commercial intercourse with other countries. The subjoined table gives the total value of merchandise and specie imported and exported at the Islands of Java and Madura, in each of the four years from 1870 to 1873 :

The principal articles of export from Java are sugar, coffee, rice, indigo, and tobacco. With the exception of rice, about one-half of which is shipped for Borneo and China, nearly four-fifths of these exports go to the Netherlands.

The subjoined table shows the value of the trade of Java with the United Kingdom in each of the five years 1871 to 1875:—

The chief and almost sole article of export from Java to the United Kingdom is sugar in an unrefined state. In the year 1873, the exports of sugar were of the value of 425,271l.; in 1874 they rose to 1,209,6107.; and in 1875 to 1,425,918. The chief article of British home produce imported into Java in the year 1875 was manufactured cotton, including cotton yarns, of the value of 1,171,459%.

The whole of the exports from Java to the Netherlands, on accouut of the government, are carried by the 'Nederlandsche Handel Maatschappij.' This trading society was established at Amsterdam in 1824, with a capital of 37,000,000 guilders, or upwards of three millions sterling, but which was subsequently reduced to 24,000,000 guilders, or 2,000,000l. The King of the Netherlands, Willem I., was one of the principal shareholders, and to create confidence in the company, he promised a guarantee of 4 per cent. per annum to his associates. His Majesty had to pay this interest from his own purse up to the year 1832, when the introduction of the 'culture system in Java laid the foundation for the prosperity of the company, which has since been uninterrupted. The capital to start and work the 'culture system' was advanced by the 'Nederlandsche Handel Maatschappij,' on an interest of 4 per cent. guaranteed by the State; and the company, at the same time, was appointed sole agent in buying and importing into Java all Government supplies, and in exporting the produce of the colony and selling it in Europe.-(Official Communication.)

The railways of Java consist of two lines, constructed under Government concessions, by the 'Netherland's Indian Railway Company,' formed in 1863. At the end of 1875, the total length of railways opened for traffic was 257 kilometres, or 160 Engl. miles, the total comprising a main line, 165 kilometres long, from the port of Samarang, on the northern coast of the Island, to Djokdjokarta, and a local railway, 55 kilometres in length, connecting Batavia, the capital, with Buitenzorg, the country seat of the Governor-General. A bill for the construction of a network of railways at the cost of the government was adopted in the session of 1875 by the StatesGeneral of the Netherlands.

Money, Weights, and Measures.

The money, weights, and measures of Java, and the British equivalents, are:

MONEY.

The Guilder, or Florin = 100 Centen 18. 8d.

The only legal coins, as well as weights and measures, of Java are those of the Netherlands.

Statistical and other Books of Reference concerning Java.

1. OFFICIAL PUBLICATIONS.

Koloniaal Verslag van 1875. 8. Batavia, 1875.

1875.

Jaarboek van het mijnwezen in Nederlandsch Oost-Indie. Uitgegeven op last van Z. Exc. den Minister van Koloniën. 8. Amsterdam, 1875. Jaarboek van Naamregister van Nederlandsch-Indië voor 1875. Batavia, 1875.

Regerings Almanak voor Nederlandsch-Indië. 1875. 8. Gravenhage, 1874. Statistick van den Handel, de Scheepvaart en de inkomende en uitgaande Regten op Java en Madura, over het jaar 1873. Batavia, 1875.

Verslag van den staat van het schoolwezen in Nederlandsch-Indië, afgesloten onder ultimo 1869. 8. Batavia, 1870.

Verslag over het jaar 1872, zamengesteld door de Kamer van koophandel en nijverheid te Batavia. 8. Batavia, 1873.

Report by Mr. Ward, British Secretary of Legation, on the Progress of the Netherlands' East India possessions since 1857, dated January 17, 1863; in 'Reports of H. M.'s Secretaries of Embassy and Legation.' No. VI. London, 1863.

Report by Mr. T. J. Hovel Thurlow, British Secretary of Legation, ‘on Java and its Dependencies,' dated the Hague, July 1, 1868; in Reports of H. M.'s Secretaries of Embassy and Legation.' Nos. V. and VI. 1868. London, 1869.

Report by H. P. Fenton, British Secretary of Legation, on the railways of Netherland's India, dated The Hague, January 1875; in Reports by H. M.'s Secretaries of Embassy and Legation.' Part I. 1875. 8. London, 1875.

Report by Mr. Consul M'Lean, on the trade, commerce, shipping, and population of Java, for the year 1873; in 'Reports from H. M.'s Consuls.' Part I. 1875. 8. London, 1875.

Trade of Java with Great Britain; in ‘Annual Statement of the Trade of the United Kingdom for the year 1875.' Imp. 5. London, 1876.

2. NON-OFFICIAL PUBLICATIONS.

Bleeker (P.), Nieuwe bijdragen tot de kennis der bevolkingstatistiek van Java. Uitgegeven door het koninklijk instituut voor taal-, land- en volkenkunde van Nederlandsch Indië. 8. s' Gravenhage, 1870.

De Tonge (Thr. M. T. K. T.), De Opkomst van het Nederlandsch gezag over Java. II-VII. The Hague, 1869-75.

Deventer (JSz., S. van), Bijdragen tot de kennis van het Landelijk Stelsel op Java, op last van Z. Exc. den Minister van Kolonien J. D Fransen van de Putte, bijeenverzameld. 8. Zalt-Bommel, 1865.

Goeverneur (J. J. A.), Nederlandsch Indië of de bewoners dezer streken, geschetst in tafereelen uit hun dagelijks leven, zeden en gebruiken. 8. Leiden, 1870.

Hellwald (Fr. Von), Das Colonialsystem der Niederländer in Ostindien. 8. Leipzig, 1873.

Money (J. W. B.), Java, or, How to Manage a Colony; showing a practical solution of the questions now affecting British India. 2 vols. 8. London, 1861.

Müller (Joh.), Beschreibung der Insel Java. 8. Berlin, 1860.

Rütte (J. M. C. E. le), Moko-Moko. Eene bijdrage tot de land en volkenkunde van Neêrlandsch Indië. 8. Gravenhage, 1870.

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Vliet (L.van Woudrichem van), Over Grondeigendom en heeredienstpligtigheid Java. 8. Amsterdam, 1864.

Wallace (Alfred Russel), The Malay Archipelago. 8. London, 1869. Wenzelburger (Theodor), Niederländisch-Ostindien. In 'Unsere Zeit.' Vol IX. 8. Leipzig, 1873.

Wullings (H. E.), Neêrlandsch Indië, met een kort overzicht onzer bezittingen in andere werelddeelen. 8. Zalt-Bommel, 1870.