The Daily News MONDAY, MARCH 9. SOUTH AFRICA.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 36, 8 March 1909, Page 2

The Daily News MONDAY, MARCH 9. SOUTH AFRICA.

Ike cable items I'roiu Soulli Al'riea with respect to the draft Constitution have nul_ been numerous, liiil tlie tune of lliusc I'cccived suggnsU that tile proposals of the Convention will, ultimately, provide a. basis for the union of tlie aub-cuutiueut. Koine of our contemporaries have been writing as if the'publication of Oho draft Constitution had signalised t'he actual union of the four colonies. A great many tides, we fear,

will riiie and fall before a. united South I Airiea, makes its appearanee. lief-uve the suggestions framed by the Convention commend themselves to the majority of the electors in Natal, Cape Colony, the Orange Kim Colony, and the [Transvaal, they will doubtless undergo many important alterations. From Hie lirst the fact has been recognised that the .major problem—the form of union—would be more easily solved than unanimity reached ou the innumerable sniall- | er (potions whidi to-day so urgently i demand settlement in youth Africa. Historically, it is of interest to note that I the Constitution now published is tlu» I second instrument which has been drawn [ up for the same object. Thirty-two | years ago. Lord Carnarvou, then Colo- | nial (Secretary, prepared, and passed

through the .British Parliament, what is known as the "South Africa Act of 1877." That iiiieiuuic provided fur the union under one Government "of each of the South African States as might agree thereto." A curious feature of the draft Constitution is its remarkable

resemblance to the provisions of Lord | Carnarvon's Act. That measure provided for a Uovernor-Ueneral, the establishing of Provincial Councils, the control of the public debt, the setting up of an Appellate Court, and for jurisdiction , over the native population. The "South I Africa Act" was permissive, and lapsed, through non-tfeeeptanee, in 1882.

It must be obvious thai of greater importance than the preparation of the Constitution must be the nature of the reception that document will have from the South African people. In all probability the lonn of union suggested —a very mar approach Lo uniluation—after more .provincial rights have been secured than the draft Constitution proposes to give, will be accepted, oven by hiatal. The "Garden Colony" has declared for federation on t'hc lines of the Australian Commonwealth, ami the mere semblance of federation which is oll'ered will there, assuredly, fail to confer anything akin to satisfaction. That the- Capetown branch of the Afrikander Jiond—as the cables have informed us—is not at one with the Convention is somewhat surprising information. Mr. J, 11. liofinoyr, it would appear, has submitted to the 13oml a resolution regretting the decision in favor of tllie unification oi South Africa instead of its federation,

and it it* this resolution which has been adopted by the Capetown branch, iMr. Mofmeyr, for many years, has been the most prominent, as he has been the i most inlluential, Dutchman within Cape Colony. The closer union movement has?, of late, brought ihim much before the public, and out of his partial retirement. Though Mr llofmeyr for long had 1 ceased, until the present time, to take | any untoward and active share in the political affairs of the country, the fact is well kuown that hie counsel was frequently asked for, not only by the politicians at the Cu.pi', but also by public men hailing from colonies further north. Were the Afrikander Bond, in the south, Lo engineer an agitation against the form of union proposed, as to all appearances it will, and be aided by -Natal in

anees it will, ana uu .- - v ,n tlie nortli—or, the north-east—no doubt the propositions drawn up by the Convention would, without much debate, be considerably relaxed in favor of a more federal form of union.

Tlfe capital, the natives and the native territory will, it is apparent, furnish mudi matter for debate. South Africa is unlikely, we should think, U> agree to the proposals for setting up a dual capital —one half, the legislative, to be established in Capetown; the other, the administrative, to he set up in distant Pretoria, At one time it was suggested that, like Australia, South Africa should build a new capital, and the town of Kroonstadt, on the Vaalsch river, was named as supplying a convenient J nucleus. We should esteem tilie proposed division of federal functions as scarcely practicable. How- Ministers I will be able to attend Parliament at Capetown and preside over the depart- | ments at Pretoria, is difficult to understand. It is somewhat curious to recall that Cape Colony set the example of having Government Departments administered in a town other than the legislative capital. Two years ago the Hon. E. H. Walton, then Treasurer-Gen-eral of Cape Colony, removed the Treasury officials to Port Klizabeth, and there, lor several months, conducted the entire business of his' Department. Rumors have been heard that the delegates at the Convention were prepared to undertake the difficult task of incorporating the three native territories—JSecllmanaland, Busutoland and Swaziland—in a united South Africa. This incorporation will iu all likelihood take place some day: but not in the immediate future. The latest South African newspapers received state that the Resident Commissioner of Swaziland has declared the intention of the Imperial Government ivuE respect, to tihat territory. Speaking to a meeting of Europeans at the end of January Commissioner eald it was not the intention of the Imperial Government "to sat-

ion any immediate change in Swaziland r to transfer the responsibility for its .dministration to tile South African Uo•eminent at the moment oi its forma/ion.'' Doubtless the same information las. already. beea'Torihooining with rcTard to the two other native territories, if wo at this distance migflit venture an opinion, it would be that it will bo time iMwujrli to consider the inclusion of protectorates when has actually beon accomplished the union of the four selfgoverning colonic.?.

ON THE FOURTH PAGE. Cricket. Petroleum. Commercial. Cost of Living. Correspondence. Farm and Dairy. Horough Council. Dinizulu's Career. froiits of tile Entente. Wangaiuit Tram System. State and States Note: