SOUTH AFRICA.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8082, 11 April 1906, Page 3

SOUTH AFRICA.

London, AprilO. THE TBANSVAAL CONSTITUTION. The Bight Hon. A, Lyttclton, in a letter to the Press in reply to Mr Churchill's speech, said that the edu.' rational test required at the Cape had been omitted for the Transvaal Constitution, as possibly prejudical to the Boers. The Burghers were entitled to vote for the first Volksraad and retain their suffrage without further < qualification, The constitution was one of manhood suffrage excluding only the indigent. The -projQrtion oi voters to population was on* third, compared with one-fourth in the Oape, and one-fifth in Natal,

IMPEBIAL INTEBFERENCE CONDEMNED,

The " Spestator," commenting on South African affairs, says: " l T n justified on facts, and whoUy unjustified by Imperial practice, Lord Elgin's interference has certainly done no good, and Mr Churchill's remark that autonomy was given too readily will not tend to soothe matters." The " Spectator" enlogises the attitude of the great self-governing colonies and the clear temperate tone of th<s colonial press in upholding the true doctrine of Imperial relations. Autonomy once given cannot be whittled away. It adds: " Lord * Elgin was not justified in interfering ifith the decision of the court-mar-tial." " The Times'" Johannesburg correspondent says the hands of the clock of conciliation havo been put back many years by the events of the last fewmonths. The Boer leaders have been encouraged in the belief that they can obtain political supremacy, and are unlikly to calmly watch hopes deliberately raised by a Liberal Government dashed to the ground at the eleventh hour. If the Government is resolved to uphold British interests it must expect a recrudescence of racial antagonism in the bitterest form. " The Times" says the British in Bonth Africa have welcomed Alp Churchill's admission that the distribution of electoril areas shall be by the voterg, not by population or on a scientific fair-working basis, and are not perturbed by his suggestion that tho existing franchise ought to be widened. Tho Government's attitude in the 'past has unnecessarily created a feeling of soreness among the British "while encouraging the Boers to proceed purely on racial linos.