ORANGIA ELECTIONS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 50, 22 November 1907, Page 7

ORANGIA ELECTIONS.

NEW CONSTITUTION. THE BRITISH PARTY WINS IN THE CAPITAL. NO RETURNS FROM THE COUNTRY. BY TELEGRAPH—PRESS ASSO'OUTIOX— COPYRIGHT, (Rec. Nov. 22, 0.1 a.m.) Pretoria, November 21. The Orange River Colony olections—-held wider the new Constitution, which resembles tho Transvaal's—are in progress. ' Tho Constitutionalists carried Bloomfontein, winning four seats'by largo majorities. Thoy lost a fifth by two votes. London, November 21. " The Times " says that tho Upper House will consist of five supporters of the Orangia Unio, five Constitutionalists, and ox-Presi-dent Steyn's brother-in-law, P. Blignaut, who will hold the balance. "The Times" adds that the new Council will bo both strong arid representative.

The Constitutional party, led by Sir John George Fraser, embraces most of tlio immigrant Englishmen', and supports in general the pbHcy pursued by the British Administration since the war, but includes a large proportion drawn from tlio moderate section of the older population, and evidently is viewed with considerable favour by the Dutch Church, of which Sir J\ G. Frascr has always been a stout champion. Tjie Hloemfontoin correspondent of "The Times", writes:—That this . narty_ by itself, howevor, should win sufiicioiit soats to form a Ministry, _ is iegarded as quite out of the question, even' by its own members. . Tho party's only concoivable hope of office lies iii adherenco to it after the elections of a number of independents, of whom a largo body are already in the field. The Orangia. TJriie, corresponding to Hot volk in the Transvaal; and embracing the sojid mass of the Boer, population* is under the leadership of Mi'. Abraham - Fischer, and is unquestionably the strongest party in Oranpo River politics to-day, feeing that a TTnie Government is probably inevitable, it is some satisfaction to find that the official candidates on the whole rqpresent the least violent section of a party; the public utterances of which have naturally given ris'6 to gloomy forebodings of racial animosity hud . retrogressive policy. The influence of Mr. Stem, who is the high priest of tho irreconcilables, is clearly on the wane. Tho bulk of the peoplo havo hardly forgiven him for plunging tlio country into war. Even the active leaders of the Unie have lately adopted a much more moderate tone. ■ ■ . . '

■It, is admitted by all but the extreme Nationalists that the period of Crown rule with its sound finance, extension of railways prosecution of public wdrks, incessant struggle ivith stock diseases, and progressive policy in agriculture has been an Unmitigated blessing *? AP e T 9 ollI !l :r - v > wllil ° f'O personal popularity of Sir Hamilton Goold-Adams with tho farmers has done.much to wear down tho initial prejudice against these, innovations. Whatever happens at the elections, the work of Lord Milner and his lioutonaiif in this colony can hardly bo altogether undone.