The Dominion. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1907. SOUTH AFRICAN FEDERATION.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 82, 31 December 1907, Page 4

The Dominion. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1907. SOUTH AFRICAN FEDERATION.

' A perusal of ■ tho chief South African newspapers leaves no doubt' that Federation is how within the range of practical politics. In Cape Colony, in particular, and, no doubt, because of the • opportunities afforded by the pending .General Election, tho subject is. always referred to in the speeches of. leading politicians. It is worthy- of note that, the Bond party is as much in favour of it as the Unionists (late Progressives), but all parties throughout the country, whilst desirous of obtaining Federation N quickly/ are keenly alive to the danger of forcing it on with undue haste. When we recall to mind some'of the problems which must be solved before a. workable Fedoral Constitution - can be evolved, such as customs tariffs,' railway rates, coloured franchise, .inclusion of Rhodesia, inclusion for Customs and railway, rate purposes) of Mozambique (Portuguese), it can be seen, readily enough,'that much pre-, liminary discussion will be needed before the various colonies can profitably send thejr representatives to a 'Round Table indaba. We do not propose, at the present juncture, to'discuss-the respective merits of, Federation and Unification, nor any of the branches of the subject already enumerated. We prefer now to call attention to two points, which have pot, so far as we are aware, received notice as yet, but which ought to, and probably will, become of first importance in the near future. These two points involve. the principles of " one vote, one value," and "equal electoral districts based on the voters' register." To realise the bearing of these points on the solution of the great problem of Federation, and, consequently, oh that even greater problem, the intelligent development of the country's resources for the national good, we must first realise the present position of lafiairs in the five colonies of South Africa. In Cape Colony the Dutch will, 1 shortly, be again paramount, thanks not to their numbers but to the great inequalities of the system of electoral division. This system has not been ( materially altered since self-govern-ment was granted/ and as the. larger towns have increased in population, out of all proportion to the country districts, the rural (or Dutch) population is largely over-represented at the expense'of the urban (or British) population. In 'Natal, the British 'element always has been, and always will be, predominant. . Rerdistribntion is needed here also, but will only increase British predominance. In the opinion of thoughtful men on the spot, a Constitution could have been withheld from the Orange River Colony for the next four or five years, without doing the colony any harm, and with every prospect of doing it good, for, being a purely pastoral colony, it is free from, the difficult industrial questions so much in evidence in the Transvaal. But the peace and prosperity of a distant South African colony, and, incidentally, of some thousands of their own kith and kin, counted for little,, when wild Radical election pledges in England could, by any possibility, be fulfilled, and to-day all political power in the Orange River Colony is as firmly vested in Jhe. Free Staters as it was

before the war. As regards the Transvaal, it will be remembered that " one vote one value" was the key-note of the Constitution proposed by Mr. Balfour. This, combined with "equal electoral districts based on the voters' register," would have secured tg the British majority, the constitutional rights■ of a majority. A Radical Government at Home, however, flouting constitutional practice and its own alleged principles, while preserving the name of "one vote one value," destroyed it in practice, by arbitrarily giving to the rural districts (Dutch) a number of seats, which belonged by right to'the urban districts (British). Consequent on this, the Dutch minority rules the colony. Rhodesia's sparse white population is entirely British, but as it is so small we shall leave it out of account in further developing our argument. ' We se£, then, that three of the four colonies are (politically) Dutch, one. of them overwhelmingly so, whilst Natal only is British; but that in two out of the three Dutch States, what is stated to be a Dutch minority is ruling the British majority. It is clear, then, that the Dutch in the Orange. River Colony, and in the Transvaal and Gape Colony will, on the present scheme of electoral distribution, have an undue amount of power in framing the new Federal Constitution,' and we maycount with confidence on their endeavouring to retain the present system,of' electoral distribution, or, in the alterof basing it on,population. In countries such as Australia and - this Dominion, where there is not any noticeable mixture of white races, it is very material whether electoral divisions 1 are based on population or on the voters' register. The result would be practically the same. In South Africa, the conditions are altogether (liferent, and so must the treatment be. There we have a resident married population mainly Dutch. They are not well-educated. They are not progresr sive. They have neither aptness nor inclination' for industrial pursuits. They are pastoralists pure and simple 1 , and have no wish to be anything else. They pay no taxes worth mentioning, and • the doctrine of closer settlement would arouse their fierce resentment. On the'..other hand we have a virile British population, for the most part bachelors, full of energy,' hard-work-ing, skilled in industry, and not to be despised hi agriculture. To allow the drones to rule the working bees .is economically unsound. But this must happen if every woman, child, and babe-in-arnis is to be taken into account in fixing electoral districts_ on a population basis. Considerations such as these led to Mr. Balfour's_ decision on the point, and considerations such as these lead us to the belief that " one vote one value," and ''equal electoral districts on the basis of the voters' register," must ere long hecome the main plank in the British platform for the coming Federation fight. The origin of the present depression was, undoubtedly, the war, as is the case all the world .over. But its long continuance is mainly due to the want of confidence on the part of that aggregate of small investors, which we call,'and some people abuse as, Capital.;. A 'British success .on, this plank of the. platform would restore confidence, because , British' rule■ >vould be assured. One other result, would follow. Sir George Farrar's policy of declaring the whole ,of the Transvaal open to prospectors would be carried'into effect, and within ten years afterwards the (white) racial problem would boa thing of the past, owing to the vast increase in'-the British population.