Directory_and_Chronicle_1925 — Page 1490

NETHERLANDS-INDIA

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Netherlands-India is now governed in the name of the Queen of the Netherlands by a Governor-General, who is obliged to ask in some cases the advice of the Council of India, consisting of a Vice-President and four members, assisted by a secretary. Since the beginning of 1918 a representative college, called Volksraad, has been instituted, consisting of a President and 49 members, assisted by a secretary. The President is appointed by the Crown, half of the members are elected by the members of local boards and the other half are appointed by the Governor-General, who is obliged to ask in some cases the advice of the Volksraad. The Governor-General is Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, and is seconded by a Lieutenant- General, Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Chief of the War Department, and a Vice- Admiral or Rear-Admiral, Commandant of the Navy and Chief of the Marine Depart- ment, and further by the seven Directors of the Departments of the Home Government: Finance; Justice; Education and Public Worship; Agriculture, Industry and Commerce; Government Monopolies and Industrial Enterprises; and Public Works. The Department of Agriculture, established on 1st January, 1905, is a combination of the gardens (botanical and experimental), laboratories, musea, etc., known until that date as "Lands Plantentuin," with the Bureau of Forestry, the Veterinary Service and the Government Cinchona plantations.

Netherlands-India is divided into provinces, under the administration of Governors or Residents and their Assistant Residents, and "Controleurs." The direct government of the population is entrusted to natives with the titles of Regent, Wedono, and Assistant-Wedono in Java, and other titles in the other islands. In appointing the native officials it is considered a rule that the people in the different islands, residencies or districts must be governed, if possible, by their own chieftains. In Soerakarta and Djogjakarta (in Java) and in a great many residencies of other islands the native princes have still, to a certain degree, the rule of the country in their hands, but in fact their power is only nominal and they are dependent on the Government of Netherlands-India.

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The Supreme Court is located at Batavia, and Courts of Justice are established at Batavia, Samarang, Soerabaja, Padang, Medan, and Macasser; there are also Residential Courts in all the Residencies. The Courts of Justice for the natives are in the capitals of residencies, divisions, regencies and districts; they have different names, as landraad, rapat, regentschapsgerecht, districtsgerecht. Since 1914 a large number of inferior courts called "landgerecht" have been established for the trial of petty offences committed by Europeans as well as by natives and other Asiatics.

CLIMATE

The climate in general is fairly damp; the average relative humidity varies for different places between 80 and 90 per cent. The maximum temperature reaches about 36° Celsius, but in some mountainous regions the minimum temperature occasionally falls below freezing point, in the dry season. At Batavia the mean daily temperature is 26° Celsius. The mean temperature of other places may be deduced from the Batavia temperature by subtracting 0.6° for every 100 metres of height above sea level. The monsoons have a great influence on the climate. South of the equator from April to October the south-east monsoon, and from October to April the north-west monsoon, is blowing, while north of the equator the south-west monsoon blows from April to October and the north-east monsoon from October to April. The changes of the monsoons are marked by periods of three to four weeks, during which the wind blows from different directions and thunderstorms and calms are frequent. The day heat is fairly uniform during the whole year; the nights during the south-east monsoon are fairly cool. The west monsoon is the rainy season. The annual rainfall is above 3,000 millimetres in a great part of the high mountain regions. The smallest mean annual amount has been found in Paloe (Celebes), viz.:- 530 mm., the highest amount is 6,829 mm., at Kranggan in the mountain saddle west of M. Slamat.

PRODUCTS

The islands of the Indian Archipelago have generally a very fertile soil and are rich in useful products. The most important products of Java are: Rice, sugar, coffee, tea, tobacco, cinchona bark, rubber, copra, maize, ground nuts, indigo, kapok, tapioca produce, teak timber; of Sumatra: tobacco, coffee, pepper, rubber, gums; of Borneo and Celebes: copra, rubber, gums, rattans, maize, coffee, hides.