CO885-6 — Page 143

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

TELLICO. 882

6 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

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the hundred and elders of the tithing. All families are registered in the District Magistrates amen, also the chia chang and pao chung keep a register called ts.

In China all land is owned by the Emperor theoretically. In practice it is the private owner holds it as freehold as a tenant in perpetuity, and can sell, mortgage, or divide the land up as he likes. Land, according to Chinese tenure, descends in the male line only.

Waste and hill lands that have never been cultivated are all State or public property.

Lands deserted or forfeited for offences or belonging to extinct families are said to ju kuan, or be confiscated by the State. Lands reserved for Government purposes, e.g.

roads, beds of rivers, &c., are called kuan to.

Tien fu-land tax-demands for boats, carts, or coolies to convey officials or Government stores, &c., can be levied as personal service.

Anuual land tax was fixed in kang Hsu's reign some 800 years ago, and has remained the same since.

Mode of collecting land tax.—The magistrate has triplicate slips prepared, with names of all taxpayers, arranged according to their chia and pao.

One set is to be given as receipt for payment to taxpayers.

One set is for the person collecting.

One set is for the magistrate to check collections.

As cach payment is made the receipt is made out and given to the payer.

The slips remaining show at once who has not paid.

Special deputies and runners are sent out by the District Magistrate once a year to collect the land rents. These delegates are not usually paid, but receive presents from all landowners. They work through the village elders, or hsiang chang or hsiang lao. The medium of communication between the District Magistrate and his dele- gates and the village executive board is the head village constable, called the ti-pao or ti-fang. The villagers pay the land taxes quickly in order to get rid of the collectors as soon as possible, but when the delegates and runners suspect any landholder of having unregistered land they remain until it is made worth their while to move on.

All sales or mortgages of land must be recorded.

But most land is acquired, not by purchase, but by inheritance, and it is difficult often to fix the responsibility for payment. When land is divided up by a father it is

not entered under a new heading, but the son's lands are entered under the old heading as sat" families.

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In this way there is confusion. The land may be in one chia or pao or li, and the tax he payable in another, and the taxpayer may be living in another. The land tax has a legal addition of 19 per cent, on the original tax made, called “extra for waste," hao hsien. It was made to increase official salaries, as extortion allowance.

Tien mortgage is more like a sale than a mortgage. No interest is charged. The price is usually about the full value, and the mortgagee enters and takes full possession and rents and profits. If original price is paid he must re-convey,

Land that has been once registered must continue to pay land tax, even if it remains uncultivated. Otherwise the District Magistrate (who has to pay a definite fixed sum yearly to the Provincial Treasurers) would have to make good the land tax out of his own private resources.

LAND ADMINISTRATION.

Letters of administration. Are they to be enforced in Weihaiwei? If not, how is next-of-kin to obtain change of title?

Certificates of titles to be granted provisionally in the first intance, and to become absolute after twelve months if no dispute arises.

Often lands will have more than one title, both of which appear in order. The magistrate's office is a deed registry only, and does not register äll titles to land, and therefore there is no clue to some of the titles. Successive magistrates, after law disputes, vest land in both disputants, one magistrate reversing the vesting order of his After predecessor. The magistrates confiscate lands and sell them to purchasers. this many original owners pay a fine to the magistrate, and then claim to recover pos- session of the confiscated land. The District Magistrate is supposed to survey the area under cultivation, but the public frustrates this by making his officer furnish incorrect reports. If, however, such unsurveyed lands are not reported for registration, the District Magistrate confiscates the land if he finds it out.

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Agricultural land is divided into three classes, cach class paying a different rate according to its fertility, water supply, and proximity to the valleys.

Building lands and orchards pay very small taxes. There is no house assessment in China. The tenure of land is either that of the family in the name of its founder, or is held by a family or clan for the support of ancestral worship, or in the name of trustees by temple and various charitable associations for their maintenance. These forms of title are called tien, ancestral lands, miao pien, or church lands, and hui pien, or friendly societies lands. Land is chiefly acquired by inheritance. There is very little selling of land. It is mostly mortgaged. In mortgaging land no interest is charged and no period for redemption is fixed, but the mortgagee at once enters into possession, and receives all rents. It is practically, therefore, equivalent to a sale, but the mortgagee, even generations after, must give up possession as soon as the original price is paid up.

Nature of Chinese landlordship and tenancy.-The majority of Chinese landlords do not cultivate their own lands, but let them out to tenants for a fixed rate in kind or money payment yearly. This system has led, all over China, to confusion and mis- understandings as to the real ownership of the land, as the actual owners practically abandon all the rights and privileges of a landlord, and merely retain the right to receive a rent for it. In time this confusion leads to almost a double ownership, for everywhere the tenants unite against the landlords, e.g., if the landlords try to get new tenants the present holders combine to keep the new tenants out. In short, the tenants in some cases, where the landlords are ignorant of the history of the land, even go so far as to sell some of the land outright, retaining just sufficient to pay the rent due to the landlords. In some cases the landlords have been accustomed to pay their land taxes to the clan. The clan pays as much as is required to the magistrate, and retains the balance for the common interests of the clan. This has also led to a con- fusion of ownership, the clan in time looking upon itself as the real owner of the soil, on the ground that it pays the Government land taxes for it.

Enclosure H.

CIVIL ESTABLISHMENT proposed by Colonel Dorward, R.E. Commissioner's Civil Office :-

European Interpreter into Chinese Fuel and light allowance Native Interpreter, $48 per mensem Native Writer, $40 per mensem Orderly, $7 per mensem

District Office:-

£ s. d.

200 0 0 20 0 0 48 0 48 0 0

8 10

0

0

Native Writer, at $40 per mensem

450 0 0

28 0 0

48

0

Travelling Allowance :-

-----

**ogo

District Officer's salary

Fuel and light allowance

Three Orderlies, at $7 per mensem One mounted Orderly

25 10 0 10 0

0

་་་

District Officer, at $4 per diem, say $28 per

mensem

36 0 0

Native Writer, at 50 cents per diem, say $3 per

mensem

4 0 0

European Interpreter, at $2 per diem, say $10 per

12 0 0

District Officer, two ponies European Interpreter, one pony Mounted messenger, one pony

36 0 0

18 0 0

18 0 0

Contingencies

100

0 0

Total

£1,104 0 0

mensem

Forage Allowance :-

All Offices:-