THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1908. AN AMAZING CHANGE IN SOUTH AFRICA.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9180, 1 September 1908, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1908. AN AMAZING CHANGE IN SOUTH AFRICA.

A change that is described by leading Home journals as amazing is taking place in South Africa. "The Times" (London) remarks that no one who has followed 1 the course of South African politics during the last few months can fail to have been impressed by the extraordinary transformation which has taken place on the question of South African union. Discussed at intervals for half a century, since Sir George Grey first incurred the displeasure of the. Home Government by raising the question in 1858, South African unity seemed, barely a year ago, to be still a purely academic subject in which the majority of practical politicians and business men in South Africa took little interest. To-day, union is not merely a question of practical politics, but the question which is bound to dominate ali others till its solution has been attained. In no small measure this result has been directly due to the efforts of a handful of untiring missionaries of the gospel of national union, whose first distinct success was achieved nearly a year ago when Lord Selborne issued a remarkable memorandum largely based upon their researches and conclusions. Yet those efforts would

scarcely have borne fruit if the , forces making for South African unity had not been far stronger and the conditions far more favourable than ever before. The fact is that the question of union no longer occupies the minds of political students only, but has forced itself upon the attention of the far larger body of men whose political views are determined by their immediate business interests. It is precisely in a time of acute economic depression, such as that which prevails in South Africa at present, that the ordinary business man begins to realise how seriously arbitrary political barriers can hamper the development and impair the economic stability of what is essentially a single country. The present political divisions of South Africa correspond to no natural divisions of climate or interests. They are purely historical, and, in a sense, accidental. The most serious division of all fortunately exists no longer. There could be no thought of unity till there was a definite answer to the question under which flag and under which political system unity was to be achieved. That issue was decided at Vereeniging just six , years ago. But though a single flag now flies over South Africa, it flies over separate administrations, each bound to fight for its own interests

and to subordinate the needs! of South African development to the immediate exigencies of its Customs or railway revenue. Ever 3ince the peace a Customs and railway war between the South African colonies has been imminent. It was to deal with these questions of Customs and railways that the Inter-Colonial Conference which sat at Pretoria recently was ostensibly convened. But from the first it was felt that the problems confronting the delegates were really insoluble except on the basis of South African unity. On May 9th the delegates at Pretoria unanimously passed a resolution adopting the principle of closer union, and undertook to recommend to their respective Governments the appointment of a National Convention to frame a draft Constitution for a united South Africa. Subsequent attempts to improve the Customs and railway situation on the existing basis proved futile, and on May 30th the Conference, which had meanwhile adjourned to Cape Town, decided to prolong the status quo for another year. Accordingly it may be taken for granted that in October next, after the sessions of the local Legislatures, the National Convention will meet, probably at Durban.