The cutting and dragging of the timber delivered in contingent was performed by the inhabitants of the villages adjacent to the forests, and the buffaloes required were left to be provided by the regents. For this service, in the _Rembáng_ districts, four hundred cutters and labourers, and four hundred and twelve pair of buffaloes, were appropriated for the supply of three thousand one hundred beams annually, a proportion which varied in the other districts, only according to the distance of the forest from the timber yard on the coast, where payment was made for timber on delivery, at the rate of sixteen pence for cutting and conveying a beam of from eighteen to twenty feet long and from nine to ten inches broad, forty-eight stivers for a beam of from thirty-one to thirty-six feet long and from thirteen to fifteen inches broad, and for others in proportion. This was the regular and only payment made for the contingent timber; but when the demands of government exceeded the fixed contingent, which was generally the case, the excess was paid for at an advance of fifty per cent. on these prices. Crooked and other timber for ship-building was paid for at about the same rate, but calculated according to a fixed table by the weight. Under this system, the regents rented out many of the villages adjoining the forests to individuals, and sold, on their own account, such timber as was not of proper quality to be delivered to government. As the demands of government increased, as well as those of the European residents, who were many of them concerned in ship-building and in the sale of timber, the forests near the coast were soon exhausted of their best timber, and as it became necessary for the cutters to go further into the interior, the labour and expense increased, but without any corresponding recompense to them, for the government never raised the price. Individuals, however, did so; and the consequence was, that government finding no regulations they could make for the internal management of the forests sufficient to ensure them an adequate supply, were contented to believe that a greater quantity than was actually furnished could not be cut without injury to the forests; although, at that very time, the deliveries to individuals in the eastern districts were estimated at not less than fifty or sixty thousand beams per annum, the coast was lined with Java-built trading vessels of every description, and these, as well as the rough timber, were frequently sent for sale to a distant market.