THE TRANSVAAL CONSTITUTION.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 73, 26 March 1906, Page 4

THE TRANSVAAL CONSTITUTION.

The appointment of a special Commission to inquire into the political and constitutional conditions of the Trans-

vaal indicates the intention of the Liberals to settle this difficult question as speedily as possible. Sir J. West-Ridg-way and his colleagues are to report upon the probable effects of the various practicable methods of Parliamentary representation, more especially wita reference to single member constituencies, the population basis, and manhood suffrage. Similar inquiries are to be made in the Orange Colony, and whatever form of government may be ultimately approved, the information collected in the course of such an inquiry cannot fail to be of great and permanent practical value. It must not be forgotten that the great question of the hour in South Africa is—Shall the Transvaal receive full responsible government at once, or shall it remain for some time to all

intents and purposes a Crown colony with a limited form of "representative" government. Lord Milner and the Unionist Ministry decided for representative government only. This was all that was promised by the Vereeniging Treaty, and it would effectually prevent any sudden reversal of Imperial policy through the preponderating influence of the Boers. The Progressive party, which is the British Imperial party in the Transvaal, supports "representative" as against "responsible" government through fear of Boer intrigue But the other party demands "responsible" government chiefly for the purpose of undoing the evil work of the Labour Ordinance and expelling the Chinese from the Rand. The .Boers, who outnumber the British, clamour loudly for "responsible" government, and it is very unfortunate that the Imperial party which denounces Chinese cheap labour should in this instance be found working for the same ends as the enemies of British Imperialism, who through the new national organisation of the Boers, are striving vigorously to counteract our success in the South African

It is most important to observe that, more especially if "responsible" Government is granted, the character of the constitution and the policy of the Transvaal will depend upon the distribution of seats. There is a great industrial and commercial community, mostly British, settled on the narrow strip of country 50 miles long known as the Rand. Besides this, there is an agricultural and pastoral population scattered thinly over an area the size of Great Britain, of which the Boers form everywhere the majority. If area, and not numbers, were made to any extent the basis of distribution of seats, it is thus clear that the Boers would control a large majority of members in the new Assembly. And while the Boers are barely equal in number to the total British population, they are immeasurably inferior in wealth and capacity for producing revenue. The Rand—which is the British Transvaal — must, financially speaking, support the rest of the country; and even if it gets representation in proportion to numbers, that will be far from proportionate to its burden of taxation. For these reasons the constitution •proposed Inst year by the Balfour Cabinet provided that the distribution of seats should be based on the numerical principle As far as possible the same number of voters was to be given to every seat. The suffrage qualification was so low that out of a total white population of little over 300,000, about 90,000 adult males have been placed upon the rolls. The main principles of the constitution were "One man, one vote," and "One vote, one value," and these maxims are thoroughly consistent with Democratic Liberalism. The danger of altering this scheme is that any modification of its fundamental features will throw political preponderance into the hands of the Boers. And in spite of the sympathy displayed by certain eminent Liberals for the Boers during the war, it is not likely that the British Government will surrender into the keeping of Het Yolk—the Boer Nationalist Party—those Imperial interests which the war was fought to secure.