Gouverneursbesluit 12 April 1912 No. 247/18

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descriptionThe Governor's besluit of 12 April 1912 No. 247/18, by which the Civiele en Militair Gouverneur van Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden authorised the Kepala negeri Meulaboh to levy the Pantjang Alas tax on forest products — the foundational authorisation for the entire Pantjang Alas regime.
tagsdocument, besluit, colonial, dutch, atjeh, zelfbestuur, 20th-century, 1912, authorisation
aliasesBesluit of 12 April 1912 No. 247/18, the authorising besluit of 12 April 1912

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The Gouverneursbesluit of 12 April 1912 No. 247/18 — printed in the 1930 compilation of Zelfbestuursverordeningen Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden as Regulation No. 3 — is the besluit (decree) of the Civiel en Militair Gouverneur van Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden by which the Kepala negeri (head of the territory) Meulaboh was authorised to levy the Pantjang Alas tax on the boschproducten (forest products) of the landschap (territory) Meulaboh, and which simultaneously established the practical heffing- and innings-voorschriften (levy- and collection-instructions) for the Pantjang Alas across the entire Gouvernement Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden. Cited verbatim in the preamble of the originating Pantjang Alas verordening (ordinance) of 5 April 1912 — Reg. No. 2 of the same compilation — it is the foundational authorisation for the entire Pantjang Alas regime.

The besluit’s role as authorisation

The besluit occupies the third place in the compilation, immediately after the originating Meulaboh verordening of 5 April 1912 which it authorises. The preamble of that verordening, in the bilingual Malay-Dutch columns, names the besluit explicitly as the immediate authorising act:

“Overwegende, dat blijkens het besluit van den Civiel en Militair Gouverneur van Atjeh en Onder- hoorigheden ddo. 12 April 1912 No. 247/18 de Gonverneur-Generaa van vergunning Nederlandsch-India heeft verleend eene belasting te heffen van eenige van de in het landsehap Meulaboh gewonnen boschprodueten”

— “Whereas, by the besluit of the Civiel en Militair Gouverneur van Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden of 12 April 1912 No. 247/18, the Gouverneur-Generaal of Nederlandsch-Indië has granted vergunning (permission) to levy a tax on some of the boschproducten won in the landschap Meulaboh.” The Malay column renders the metropolitan grant as “jang maha moelia Tocan Besar Goonern tanah Hindia Belanda mengixinkan mendjalankan belusting” — “His Excellency the Governor-General of the Netherlands-Indies has granted permission to levy this tax.” The besluit of the Civiel en Militair Gouverneur thus functions as the local conduit through which the metropolitan authority of the Gouverneur-Generaal reached the *Zelfbestuur* (self-government) of the landschap Meulaboh; without it the Kepala negeri would have had no constitutional warrant to levy the tax.

The Governor-General’s prior permission

The besluit is itself an act of transmission. It records — and converts into local legal form — the prior vergunning (permission) granted by the Gouverneur-Generaal van Nederlandsch-Indië in response to a request transmitted by the 1ste Gouvernements Secretaris (First Government Secretary) via telegram of the same date. The full text of the besluit, on pages 19–24 of the compilation, opens with the recital:

“Gelezen het telegram van den 1sten Gonvernements Secretaris ddo. 12 April 1912, waarbij de mededeeling wordt gedaan, dat de [Gouverneur-Generaal] van Ned.- Indië vergund heeft, dat de Zelf- besturen in het Gouvernement Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden onder den naam ,,,antjang Alas” cene belas- ting heffen, ten bedrage van 10%”

— “Having read the telegram of the 1ste Gouvernements Secretaris of 12 April 1912, whereby the communication is made that the Gouverneur-Generaal of Ned.-Indië has granted that the Zelfbesturen (self-governments) in the Gouvernement Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden may levy, under the name ‘Pantjang Alas’, a tax to the amount of 10%.” The Gouverneur-Generaal’s vergunning — transmitted by the 1ste Gouvernements Secretaris — is thus the ultimate constitutional source of the Pantjang Alas; the Civiel en Militair Gouverneur’s besluit of the same date translates that metropolitan grant into local heffing-voorschriften (levy-instructions) binding on all the Zelfbesturen of the Gouvernement, not on the landschap Meulaboh alone.

Citation in the preamble of the Meulaboh verordening

The besluit is cited twice in close association with the originating Meulaboh verordening. First, in the preamble of Reg. No. 2, as the immediate authorising act (“blijkens het besluit van den Civiel en Militair Gouverneur van Atjeh en Onder- hoorigheden ddo. 12 April 1912 No. 247/18”). Second, in its own right as Reg. No. 3 of the compilation, where the full text is reproduced on pages 19–24 — including the recital of the Gouverneur-Generaal’s vergunning, the quarterly valuation mechanism (“De waarde der artikelen waar-voor de belasting wordt geheven, wordt elke drie maanden door het Hoofd van gewestelijk bestuur na overleg met het Zelfbestuur vast- gesteld.”), the kwitantie- (receipt-) and stortingsstaat- (deposit-statement-) procedure, and the quarterly Plaatselijk Besturende Ambtenaar (Local Administering Official) contrôle. The besluit was later modified by Gouverneursbesluit van 16 July 1925 No. 793/L.K., which is noted on the table of contents of the compilation as the standing modification of Reg. No. 3.

Significance

The Gouverneursbesluit van 12 April 1912 No. 247/18 is the foundational act of the Pantjang Alas regime. It converted the metropolitan vergunning of the Gouverneur-Generaal van Nederlandsch-Indië — itself communicated by telegram of the 1ste Gouvernements Secretaris on the very same day — into the local heffing-voorschriften that would govern the ten-per-cent levy on forest products across all the zelfbesturende landschappen of the Gouvernement. It is the immediate authorisation cited in the preamble of the originating Meulaboh verordening of 5 April 1912, and remained in force — as modified by the Gouverneursbesluit van 16 July 1925 No. 793/L.K. — throughout the period covered by the compilation. Every subsequent landschap-level Pantjang Alas verordening of the Gouvernement — the parallel regelingen of April 1912 for Idi, Langan, Tamiang, Tjulung, Tapaktoean, and the Zuidelijke Atjehsche landschappen; the comprehensive Pidië regeling of 27 July 1925 (Reg. No. 4a); and the parallel uitvoeringsbesluiten (implementing decisions) of 1925–1926 for the onderafdeelingen (subdivisions) of Pidië, Takingeun, Serbeudjadi, Gajo LoeBus, and the Alaslanden — is in constitutional terms an exercise of the authorisation embodied in this besluit.

See Also

Source

Zelfbestuursverordeningen Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden, Serie A No. 9 of the Mededeelingen van de Afdeeling Bestuurszaken der Buitengewesten van het Departement van Binnenlandsch Bestuur, Weltevreden: Landsdrukkerij, 1930, Reg. No. 3 (Gouverneursbesluit van 12 April 1912 No. 247/18), p. 3 (preamble of Reg. No. 2 citing the besluit) and pp. 19–24 (full text of the besluit). OCR-filename: 20260719_030404_DLP-112-Zelfbestuursverordeningen_Atjeh_en_onderhoorigheden_Nemotron-OCR-v2_OCR.txt.

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