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is not advisable to produce in Court the Rent books formerly issued to them by the tax lords. The original excuse was that the books had been burned in the operations following the "Battle of Taipo". As their experience increased they found it expedient to deny that they even had rent books: and gradually they hardened their hearts to the point of asserting that until they came into Court they had never seen or heard of the claimant.
When claims were first laid in the Land Court the cultivators were ingenious enough in most cases to fill out their old leases and to state on the claim form through what family they paid the tax.
Latterly they perceived the advantages of withholding their title-deeds and of reporting as tax lord some confederate of their own who would undertake not to claim against them.
14. In many cases the perpetual lessee has sold or sublet much of the land originally leased to him and collected from the present cultivators their share of the rent due to the tax lord. In such a case he will deny all knowledge of any other land than he himself has in cultivation and as this is the only land that appears on his claim form there are rarely any means of discovering what was the area originally leased: it will be seen that the chances of getting anywhere near the truth are somewhat problematical.
A further complication that should be mentioned occurs when the only tenant the tax lord can name is a man who has been dead some years.
If