THE POSITION OF AFFAIRS IN SOUTH AFRICA.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 14, 18 January 1899, Page 4

THE POSITION OF AFFAIRS IN SOUTH AFRICA.

At present no sneh important \u~ crease in the sphere of British influence is taking place as that which in Xorthem and Southern Africa is advancing so rapidly as to make the. allred route from the Cape to Cairo not a. phantasmal conception of a few politicians but a movement the consummation of which as a. concrete fact may be looked for within a reasonable time. The factor of greatest importance just now in relation to this ad- ' vnnce is the political state in Cape Colony. Political parties have resolved themselves recently there into practically only two divisions—the Rhodes' party, led by Sir Gordon Sprigg (Rhodes haying-had to retire on account of his connection with the Jameson Raid) are known as the Progressives, and their policy differs from that of their opponents chiefly in what Cecil Rhodes would call its Imperialism: their great plank, outside purely local politics, is the federation of the Cape. Natal and Charterland, ov Rhodesia, under the British flag. The other party, of which Mr Schreiner is head, ara what are known as Afrikander Bond members, and are pronouncedly Dutch in sympathies. As the number of Dutch in South Africa is approximately 250,000,. as against i;>0,0'00 British, an Imperialist party .wouldappear to be a necessity )f the integrity of the Cape as part of the. Empire is to remain secure. The Legislative Council at the Cape

is an elective one, members holdhW their seats for seven years, and in the election last March the Progressives obtained a majority of several seats in the Assembly, however. Sir Gordon Spring's Governmn'et was defeated last June on a no-confidence motion while attempting to put through a Redistribution Bill creating 15 new scats. At the election which followed the Progressive campaign was led by the lit. Hon. Cecil Rhodes, and the general opinion seems to be held that a mistake was made by making the contest very largely a racial one. and. further, by bitter Progressive accusations of disloyalty to Great Britain against the Afrikander Bond opposition. The urgent necessity of a Redistribution Bill was plainly revealed by the election, for the results showed 40 Afrikander' Bond members elected by, roughly, .10.000 voters and -°>9 . Progressives bY approximately f>o.ooo voters. Sir Gordon Spriggs' Government was natinv ally defeated at the outset of the session which followed, and on his resig. nation Mr Schreiher formed a Mini's, try.

One of the first actions of the 'disloyal' Afrikander Bond party was to' pass a Bill making an unconditional grant of £HO,OOO annually to the Rritish Navy. This was the consummation, in an altered and improved form, of Sir Gordon Spriggs' offer on behalf of Cape Colony, at the time of the Jubilee, to present Great Britain with a first-class battleship. The Schreiner Government, however, had forced on it, owing to their extremely narrow and uncertain majority, the Redistribution Bill, and as a. result of the passage of this measure early in December there will be another election at the Cape in. March, when sixteen new seats will be contested. To put it shortly, the redistribution Act means the triumpj? of ?vfr Rhodes at the forthcoming eletf tioii, when he w ill again lead the Tri>. gressives; for, should the constituent cies in March be no more progressive than they were last October there will be a Progressive majority of two or three members in the next Assembly., This is a small margin, but as the parties are constituted the majority would be a working one, and. beyond: this, there seemr, reason to believe that the constituencies will have grown in Progressive grace in the meantime.

The important bearing of this Progressive viqtory from our outside point of view is that it means the prosecution in Soirth Africa of the Imperial in contradistinction to the purely local policy. It will in all probability also ensure the British Government guaranteeing the £2,000,000 loan for the Tanganyika railway for the advocacy of which Mr Rhodes is now in England —a financial operation in the interests .of the Empire as a. whole of which a leading London daily says:-—. 'Other Governments—notably far-see-ing Russia —would regard it as a privilege.' ' j