THE BOER TRIUMP.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 59, 19 April 1907, Page 4

THE BOER TRIUMP.

POSITION IN THE TKAXSVAAL. j (Melbourne Age Correspondent.) •JOHANNKSIiL'KC, Ist March. ihe first llnti-di Parliament: in the Transwial has I ecu elected. And the Boers have a majority of one over all the other parties comb ned. And with their allie, (hey iiave a majority of twemy-one over tile Progressives,' who may be roughly, and not ijuili- accurately, t.'lined the British parly. This is the all-important central fact. U'hai. it may mean it is impossible to say. The Hand, exhausted and limp after three months of furious electioneering makes no attempt to prophecv. It simply accepts it. Judging from t!io eaiiled comments of the London papers, the real position in the Transvaai is not understood. The victory of Sir Percy Fitz Patrick oven' Sir liicliai.l Solomon, who was marked out as the first Het Vnlk-eum Nationalist Premier, and the return of capitalists George Farrar, Mr Abe Bailev, and Mr F. j). P. Chaplin, have given rise to a false optimism. It seeme to lie supposed that the I'rokrc-sives have ''one rather well; that they are strong enough to check extreme measures, and are certain of a victory in three or four years - time. 1 fail ;o find the slightest support for such confidence. Sir Percy Fitz Patrick's victory was an undoubted triumph. But it is openly stated here that it was gained for him by the head committee of Het Volk. the Boer organisation which answer to the Bond in the Cape and the Unie in the Orange River Colony. The theory is that the Boer leaders, whilst glad of tiie co-operation of the smaller fry of the British Nationalist party and welcoming the moral support conferred by Sir Richard Solomon's presence in their ranks, had no intention of allowing him to take the Premiership. Their majority was certain enough to make the loss of one seat a small matter. So the word was sent forth. Sir Richard Solomon helped the Boers to power. But in fioutliCentraii Pretoria the Dutch voto went largely to Sir Percy Fitzpatrick. And the Premiership is open for General Botha. (General Botha now fills the office of Premier.) Whether the plot has any foundation in truth no one can say. Probably it would be vigorously denied. But it explains the only Progressive victory in Pretoria. THE POSITION. However, leaving this aside, what is the position ? The polling emphasised one fact more than any other. It was the tremendous hold Het Volk has upon the country vote. Every country district and every country 'town (save Barberton, which is a mining centre) went Boer—not by ordinary majorities, hut by huge ones. In several eases the majority was over 1000 in an electorate of 1500. Over 80 per cent of the voters in many of the scattered rural area s went to the poll. The solid silent vote of the burghers of the old republic was never shaken. Popular Brit shers stood; fanners, men well known in their district, friendly with the Dutch, helping) them in their pursuits, speaking their language. The Boers were pleasant; thev attended meetings" and listened; Het Volk. But on the day of the poll they went solid for the Boer candidate. I was talking only yesterday with a candidate wlro had fought a country constituency—an Independent. "If I had been there a year, talking and holding meetings," ha said ruefully, "it would have been the same. They won't vote for you." My own opinion is that is that if the Archangel Gabriel himself opposed Het Voik he. would be badly beaten. Nothing can make the country British as far as polities are concerned. Five years hence or fifteen years bene# it will be just as hopeless a battle. Thi« gives the Hoofd Komite about thirty absolutely safe seats in a campaign. Suppose that the Progressives can win over the entire Reef—a task not with better management than was displayed in the recent contest—then Pretoria holds the balance of power, and in the capital the Dutch element is too strong for the Progressives. In five years of government the Boers will so. identify themselves w'tli the interests of Pretoria that Johannesburg influence will never oust t!i"m. The attitude Sydney adopts towards Melbourne is effusive friendship compared with the view Pretoria takes of Johannesburg. It suspects the mining centre wants to become the seat of the Government, it imagines it has all kinds of schemes for minimising the importance of the capital. And' it hates Johannesburg with a steady hatred based upon jealousy.

REMARKABLE ORGANISATION. Thus the Boers have won back thvl' Transvaal with the assistance of the Imperal Government. "The composition of the majority," write- the Jo/iannesburg Star, "is nearly as remarkable! a f"Jlt of organisation as 'h ' majority itself. The whole of the Hoofdk-omite will have seats in the first Parliament. Among the other Hot. Volk members the generals and commandants preponderate. The Government benches will be an almost exact replica of the staff of the burgher army." What their policy will be it is Impossible to say. If words are not meaningless and political pledges not mere pie crust, their programme will be a moderate one. Generai Smuts has time and again declared that the Dutch have learnt their lesson and realise their errors. General Botha has often spoke in a similar strain. But there is a large section of back-veldt Boers who have not spoken at all—or if they have it was when there were no reporters present. What will they demand when they take their scat in the Raadzaal at Pretoria Will the more enlightened Boers he abie to control the extremists, who claimed support at the poll because they would "win the country back'"/

It is useless to follow the example of two of the Johannesburg papers, anil at once to proceed to erect a scarecrow to frighten the world, a political bogeyman of Boer domination. Time alone can show whether the teachings of history have really sunk deep into the Dutch mind. Anxiety at present is centred in two or three subjects. The civil servants fear drastic retrenchment; the South African constabulary are nervous about dismissal; the financial people dread that the establishment of a Land Bank may be used for party purposes, and to fill the pockets of the farmers, who are still grumbling about the small percentage of their compensation claims passed by the commission: the mining houses tremble lest the profits tax be raised to coiintoriiahmc.* the reduction of railway rates in Uo interests of the farmers. The man in the street, how- j ever, cheerfully declares that no harm : w!ll come to the country, and the Dutch 1 rule, again may after all be a blessing ; in disguise. WTTIIOt T PA RALLK L. j Still the position is without parallel in the history of the Empire. It is not yet live years since th« peace of Vereeniging was signed, and the losers rule the country again today. Remarkable people the British! The future of South Africa will be full of interest. It is difficult to a>>ign her a place amongst the daughter nations of the Empire. With the Bond dominating the Cape—as it w'll, according to nil accounts. at the next election—the t'nie ruling the Orange River Colony, and Het Yolk, with a permanent majority in the Transvaal, what form will the growth of colonial nationalism assume? Will it be colonial nationalism aj; all? ! South Africa has long been in leading' strings. What wili she do with her liberty? The only thing the Progressives ran do is to broaden the basis of th/»ir* party, to make t appeal to the country j as well as to tli" Rand, to remove on<v 'and for all th" impression that it is' j governed solely by mining magnates. it j must be popularised with the peop:<? ! generally: it must appeal boldly to, democracy—the Labor vote was very solid at the elections, and will grow—• and show that it realty the party of progress and reform. By hard effort it may reduce the Boer major'fv. to «»rh proportions n* to inn l -*- extreme measure- dangerous. I#»st a sudden reaction in some of the more enlightened Dutch constituencies throw [hem out of power. But a Progressive Ministry can onlr be secured by a. political miracle. And five years ago war was still raginor. Wei! may the Boulevards ejaculate. Ces Anglais!