The lands in the District of Malacca in which certain fights and interests were surrendered to the East India Company in the years 1828 and 1829, on condition that a certain amount then settled and agreed upon should be paid by the Government annually, so long as the British rule in the said District continued, to every person making such surrender, and on condition also that every such person, in the event of the cessation of the British rule in the said District should resume the rights then conditionally surrendered to the British Government, are hereby declared to be vested in fee simple in Her Majesty the Queen, Her Heirs, and Successors (saving always any rights or interests lawfully vested in any under-tenants and cultivators holding or occupying any portion of such lands), and any conveyance which after the passing of this Act shall be made by Her Majesty, Her Heirs, and Successors of any of the said lands in fee simple or otherwise (not inconsistent with the rights or interests aforesaid of such under-tenants and cultivators) shall be good and valid for all intents and purposes whatsoever.

The annuities stipulated to be paid to the persons who surrendered the rights and interests aforesaid, shall be paid as a perpetual annuity to the said persons or their heirs or representatives by the Government, of India, but it shall be lawful for the Governor-General of India in Council to commute the perpetual annuity payable to any such annuitant, for such sum and on such terms as may with such annuitant be agreed upon in full discharge of the perpetual annuity so commuted and of all rights or obligations whatsoever connected therewith. In the event of a cessation of British rule in the said District, nothing in this Section shall interfere with the claim of any person, then enjoying an uncommuted annuity under this Section, to a money compensation from the Government equal to the then value of any right or interest in land surrendered by him as described in the last Section, which but for the passing of this Act would then have reverted to him. No such surrendered right or interest in such land shall then revert to or revive in any such annuitant, nor shall any such annuitant have a claim in connection with any such right or interest to aught but a money compensation from the Government.

All cultivators and resident tenants of the lands referred to in the first Section of this Act, as well as in the District of Naning who hold their lands by prescription, are hereby declared to be and shall be subject to a payment of one-tenth part of the produce thereof to Government; such payment to be made in kind or in the form of a sum of money fixed in commutation of the payment in kind; and all other cultivators and under-tenants who now occupy or hold or shall occupy or hold any of such lands as aforesaid, are hereby declared to have been and shall be liable, as directed in Section II of Act XVI of 1839 (relating to Prince of Wales' Island, Singapore, and the Malacca), to be assessed in such manner, at such rate, and under such conditions as the Resident Councillor of Malacca, with the authority of the Governor of the Settlement of Prince of Wales' Island, Singapore, and Malacca, may determine.

Proviso. Nothing in this Section shall be taken to effect any engagement entered into for a specific time of upon specific conditions between any cultivator or tenant and the Resident Councillor or other person acting on behalf of the local Government during the pendency thereof.

It shall be lawful for the Governor of Prince of Wales' Island, Singapore and Malacca to commute the payment, whether in kind or money, to which any person is liable under the last preceding. Section for a sum to be fixed at the discretion of the said Governor and for an annual quit-rent, and on the payment of the sum and quit-rent so fixed upon, the lands in respect of which such commutation is made shall be held subject to the terms of such commutation and free from liability to the payment provided for in the last preceding Section.

It shall be lawful for the Governor aforesaid, any provision in Section V of the said Act XVI of 1839 to the contrary notwithstanding, to direct any lease, granted or to be granted under that section, to be granted in perpetuity or tor such term as to such Governor may seem proper, and, subject to such quit-rent as may be agreed upon, to transfer to, and vest absolutely in, any person or persons any portion of the waste or forest land situated within the lands aforesaid or within the District of Naning, on the payment of a sum fixed as provided in the last foregoing Section, free of any liability for the payment of annual rent.

It shall not be competent to any party to claim, on the ground of prescriptive right, or of possession, any forest waste, or other uncultivated land situated within the lands, grants, or estates aforesaid or within the District of Naning, unless the same, having been before cultivated or occupied for some beneficial purpose, shall have fallen out of cultivation or use within three years from the passing of this Act; provided that any tenant, cultivator, or other occupier of cultivated land within the lands or District aforesaid, shall be permitted to engage for unoccupied, forest, waste, or other uncultivated land situated within or next adjoining the boundaries of the cultivated land held or occupied by him, to the extent of one-fourth there of and any order made in this matter by any person empowered in that behalf by the Governor of the Settlement of prince of Wales' Island, Singapore, and Malacca shall be final, subject only to revision by such Governor in any case in which he may think revision called for.

It shall be lawful for the Governor aforesaid to cause a survey or measurement to be made of all the land of the Settlement of Malacca and of the District of Naning or any portion thereof, at such time and by one or more persons as he may direct, and any person so empowered by the Governor of the Settlement of Prince of Wales' Island, Singapore, and Malacca may require by a summons under his hand any person resident within such Settlement or District to attend before him, and if necessary, to produce any document relating to the right to any land or interest in land situated within such Settlement or District; and the person empowered as aforesaid may examine upon oath or solemn affirmation having the force of an oath any person so summoned touching the right to any such land or interest in such land.

If any person, resident within the said Settlement of Malacca, who shall be required by a summons issued under the last preceding Section to appear at a certain place and time for the purpose of attending at a survey or measurement under the said Section, or to produce before any person empowered under the said Section any such document as is mentioned in the said Section, intentionally omits to attend at that place or time or departs from the place where he is bound to attend without the permission of the person so empowered, or intentionally omits to produce such document before such person, he shall, on summary conviction before any Criminal Court within whose jurisdiction the offence is committed, be liable to be punished with simple imprisonment in the Civil Jail for a term that may extend to one month, or with fine that may extend to one hundred Rupees, or with both.

Any person so empowered as aforesaid may define by such marks as he may think fit the boundaries of any land held or occupied by any tenant, cultivator, or other occupier; and if, in the course of survey or measurement or in the course of making any settlement, transfer, or assignment, any dispute shall arise as to the right of possession of any land between two or more persons claiming to possess the same as tenants, cultivators, or occupiers, or between one or more such persons and any grantee or proprietor of any lands in the Settlement of Malacca not surrendered in the manner recited in Section I of this Act, or any person holding under such grantee or proprietor, any person empowered as aforesaid shall after enquiry make an order in favor of the party who may appear to have the best title, and shall put in possession the party in whose favor an award is so made.

Any award made under the last foregoing Section shall be final, unless within two months from the date of the award any of the parties thereto shall move the Court of Judicature of Malacca to set it aside, and such Court may on such motion confirm, set aside, or modify such award.

Sections VII, VIII, IX, X, XIV, and XV of Act X of 1837 (relating to claims to lands in Prince of Wales' Island, Singapore, and Malacca) shall, so far as applicable, be read as part of this Act.

The Governor of the Settlement of Prince of Wales' Island Singapore, and Malacca, in the exercise of any authority nested in him by this Act, shall be guided by such instructions as he shall from time to time receive from the Governor-General of India in Council.

Nothing in this Act shall be held to warrant any exemption being granted or allowed in favor of any owner or occupier of land in respect of the Municipal rates and taxes levied under Act XXV of 1856 (to comprise in one Act the provisions necessary for the assessment and collection of Municipal rates and taxes in the Towns of Calcutta, Madras and Bombay, and the several Stations of the Settlement of Prince of Wales' Island, Singapore, and Malacca) or Act XXVII of 1856 (for appointing Municipal Commissioners, and for levying rates and taxes in the several Stations of the Settlement of Prince of Wales Island, Singapore, and Malacca).