RURAL SYSTEM IN BALI

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28104, 20 October 1956, Page 13

RURAL SYSTEM IN BALI

COMMUNAL FARM OPERATION

PROFESSOR MCCASKILL’S IMPRESSIONS

The farming of village land in Bali is controlled by a village council composed of every married man in the village, said Professor L. W. McCaskill, associate professor of rural education at Canterbury Agricultural College, Lincoln, in an interview. Professor M - Caskill has just returned from a month’s visit to Indonesia. Irrigation water was supplied from Government dams, or special inlets provided by the Government. said Professor McCaskill. It is distributed to the various farms by the village council. Work was done largely on a communal basis with everyone helping to plant the rice crops on the lower land, or the maize crops on the hills. Rice was the main crop. The crop was handled on a co-opera-tive rice floor, and the village council controlled the selection of rice. Although the farms were individually owned, failure to farm the land properly resulted in the offender being dispossessed of his land by the council, said Professor McCaskill. In addition to their skill as farmers. Lie villagers were highly skilled craftsmen producing work in bone, silver, and wo<)d which was probably unequalled anywhere else in the world, he said. A special evening of community entertainment was arranged for Professor McCaskill and staged in the village hall. An ancient drama was performed and the cast of 24—with an orchestra of 16 players— played roles ranging from dragons, to kings, queens, and soldiers, he said. The properties belonged to the village and the quality of the acting was equal to that of any professional company he had seen. Most of the cast were rice farmers, bu. when at the end I was introduced to the two leading plavers, I found they were servants who had waited on the table at dinner," said Professor McCaskill. “They didn’t tell me until afterwards that the evening had been specially arranged for me as they thought it might embarrass me.” Professor McCaskill also visited the Belgian painter Le Mayeur. who has been in Bali 27 years, and whose work is world famous.