This paper investigates the problems emerged from the land ownership
and official solution during the time when the Government-General of Taiwan
attempted to put the rinya (forest and wild land which were un-registered,
whether under reclamation or un-reclaimed) under control. The author considers
that the Qing Government held a very simple attitude by limiting the management
of territory to merely the idea of "reclamation" and "prohibit." The Qing
Government granted reclamation permits, which allowed people to actively
cultivate land. The government then classified the developed land into paddy
and dry fields so developers could take the land. On the other hand, The Qing
Government never minded those un-developed land and prohibited areas.
During the Japanese rule, the Government-General of Taiwan tried to put all
lands of Taiwan under control. On the one hand, the Government admitted
people's rights to use the land according to the types and proper registration.
On the other hand, it named the un-reclaimed and un-registered land as rinya.
Although under the land management during the Qing Dynasty, they were not
allowed to own rinya, people had obtained some kinds of legal rights to use
rinya under the reclamation permit system. Since their claims were not legally
strong enough to declare their ownership on rinya, the Government-General of
Taiwan worked out a unique system called engokanke-rinya (occupation
relationship) to classify and arrange these rinya land.
In conclusion, under the consideration of maintaining political stability
and satisfying people's demand in ownership, the Government-General of Taiwan
not only continuously adjusted its principles, trying to make all the rules
more flexible, but also used such a moral reason as "goodwill" to conclude a
very generous explanation to those illegal forest land occupants since the Qing
times. Through these, the government expected to control over rinya smoothly
and overwhelmingly.