SOUTH AFRICA.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 73, 26 March 1906, Page 5

SOUTH AFRICA.

INQUIRY COMMITTEE'S SCOPE. (By Cable.—Press Association.—copyrigut* LONDON, March 24. The South African Committee of Inquiry, with Sir J. West Ridgway as chairman, has been instructed to report with the utmost despatch: (1) The effect upon the representation of the Witwatersrand, towns outside the Witswatersrand and purely local districts, of the division of the Transvaal into 60 single members' constituencies, according to the different bases of representation ; ( (2) To inquire and report on the effect of substituting manhood suffrage for the qualification embodied in Clause 3 of the Letters Patent of 1905: (3) To consider and report on any proposals for the representation of urban or rural interests on any other division than single member divisions; (4) To consider to what extent the census of 1904 is unreliable in regard to j some localities, and the possibility of adopting a workable estimate. It is to make similar inquiries regarding the Orange River Colony,'and also study the proposals discussed at the conference of the leaders of the various parties. Finally, it is instructed to consider if the suggestion of nmnhood suffrage, coupled with larger marginal discretion in delimiting divisions, might materially modify the situation and tend to make the Constitution generally more acceptable, and if manhood suffrage would place | in the voters' roll certain -classes whose ■admission, especially in the cases of younger farmers, is desirable. ATTITUDE IN SOUTH AFRICA. PETITION FOR ONE VOTE ONE VALUE. (Received 9.20 a.m.) CAPETOWN, March 25. The South African Customs Conference has resolved that the present uncertainty of the Imperial policy towards the Transvaal and the Orange River Colony was detrimental to the best interests of South Africa. The motion also expressed profound regret over England's attitude towards Lord Milner. A petition to the King to iuscribe the one vote one value on the new Constitution has received 21,800 signatures out of 30.123 voters at Johannesburg.

TRANSVAALEES APPROVE OF THE COMMITTEE.

I (Received 0.28 a.m.) j LONDON, March 25. The Johannesburg correspondent of the "Times" says that the appointment of Sir J. West Ridgway's committee is welcomed as a step towards the goal of finality. The personnel of the committee, he says, is jenerally approved in the Transvaal.