SOUTH AFRICAN POLITICS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1698, 14 March 1913, Page 5

SOUTH AFRICAN POLITICS.

ANOTHER CRISIS PROBABLE. By Teleeraph.—Presa Association—OoDyrlcht Cape. Town, March 12. A' fresh crisis is developing over tho University Bill which General■■ Hertzog and some supporters of the Reformed Church strongly oppose. •

It is reported that General Smuts (Minister for' Finance and Defence) will resign if the Bill, is rejected.

THE UNIVERSITY BILL. ' At the opening session. Of the Union Parliament in November, 1910, the Address of the Governor-General intimated that "my Ministers are considering a; scheme for the establishment of a national South African University, which* will be submitted for your approval in duo course." Some months previously had come the intimation of .the magnificent' gift of half a million sterling by the late Sir Julius Wernher and Mr. Otto Beit. It seemed, therefore, with a willing Ministry and a fair amount | of money available a truly national teaching university on the slopes of Table. Mountain was at last in sight. Asa matter of fact (says "Thd Times" correspondent) the raain.'.provisions of the Bill were published In a Cape Town newspaper, and the criticism which some of tho clauses evoked throughout the country was so keen and shaTp that Mr. Malan dee.ned it prudent to delay the whole business for another year, the excuse given lo Parliament being that tho donors of the half-million and the Union Government had not vet been able to agree upon the conditions of the proposed measure. I understand that what wculd bo called in diplomatic parlance conversations are still in progress; and educationists are anxiously awaiting tho result.

Tho objections to the Malan Bill as originally drafted were mainly two. In tho first, place, one clause prescribed that it "shall be the duty of the council"— which was to contain no fewer than twelve nominated representatives of the Government—"to make provision for ilia carrying out of the principle of Section 137 of the Act of Union." Needless to say the proper business of a university council is not to interpret tho bilingual clauses of the Union Constitution, but to see that it.s students receive nil efficient university training. How far English is to bo used and how far Dutch ought clearly to have been left to the discretion of the governing body.

The second point in Mr. Mohan's draft Bill, to which serious objection has been taken, is tho restriction ,to postgraduates in the faculties of arts and science, Tho clause runs:—

"At the central seat of tho university there shall be established—(a) a faculty of arts and a facility of science, in each ease for persons who aro graduates of the University of the Cape of Good Hope or have passed an examination in a local faculty of tho University of South Africa equivalent to the examination for that degree; (b) such other faculties as the council may from time to time establish."