CABLE NEWS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIII, Issue 50, 28 February 1907, Page 7

CABLE NEWS.

(by electric tixeobaph. — coptezgiit.] » SOUTH AFRICAN POLITICS. HET YOLK TRIUMPH. FINAL RESULTS. AN ABSOLUTE MAJORITY OF FIVE. PRESS ASSOCIATION. (Received February 28, 8.27 a.m.) PRETORIA, 27th February. The final results of the Transvaal elections are: — Het Yolk ... 37 Progressives 21 Nationalists ... ... ... 6 Labour 3 Independents ... ••• 2 [Het Yolk thus wins 37 out of 69 seats —a dear majority over all parties of 5. Cables published on Saturday indicated j that Het Yolk had then 6eovrrsd 29 seats and the Progressives 21. Evidently Het Yolk has secured all the success since then, for while the Progressives remain ! at 21, Het Voile has added .eight seats, I making 37. Thia is probably only to be expected, as the returns coming in late j would be from outlying districts, and Het Yolk is ths> country party. Saturday's cables anticipated that "the combined majority against the Progressives will be ultimately 19." If this means the combination of all parties, the estimate is very wide of ,the mark, as the Progressives are in a, minority of 48 on the whole 69 seats in the House. If the combination referred to was that of Het/Voli and Nationalists, the estimate is n'otf so inaccurate, as the Progressives are 22 behind that combination, and 16 behind Het Yolk alone.] TRANSVAAL ELECTIONS. PROTEST AGAINST THE PIGMIES. I PRETORIA, 27th February. The nominated members of the Upper House, who were recently described by the press as political pigmies, are the subject of a protest by Het Yolk and Nationalist members of the new Parliament, on the ground that the nominees are at varianco with the majorities m tho electorates, which fact is likely to lead to friction in the working of tho Constitution. REPATRIATION. HOME GOVERNMENT'S POLICY. LONDON, 27th February. Mr. Churchill (Under-Secretary for the Colonies), replying to criticisms by Mr. F. C. Mackarness, Liberal member for Nowbury Division of Berkshire, on tho slowncs3 of the repatriation operations, said the Government had never intended, nor had it expected, that State-aided repatriation proposals would lead to a gpneral exodus of coolies from the Rand. Tho Hon. A. Lyttelton (Secretary of State for the Colonies m tho Balfour Government) said that when ho had invited the Chineso to go homo in steam yachts at the Government expense, only one per cent, of those repeatedly described as "tortured, miserable, manacled slaves" had accepted the invitation, while 99 per cent, had refused 't. Mr. John Ward, Labour member for Stoke-on-Trent, said he did not believo the country was entirely satisfied with what tho Government had done to x'educe the amount of Chinese labour. ORANGIA'S CONSTITUTION. DUE IN APRIL. LONDON, 27th February. T t 13 promised that Letters Patent establishing a Constitution for Orangia (formerly the Orange Freo State) will be issued in April. MINERAL RESOURCES. A BLESSING AND A GURSE. CAPETOWN, 27th February. Mr. M. T. Steyn, ex-president of the Free State, in an open letter to the people, states that ho is .csolved not to seek election to tho new Parliament. He warns the colony of the evil of pitting race against race. The now diamond fields have, Mr. Steyn says, introduced tho element of capitalism, and the people must fight ' those unscrupulous capitalists who may endeavour to secure control of the administration. He is thankful for tho oxistonce of uho mines, but fears the advent of trusts. Lord Elgin, Sooretary of State- for the Colonies, and Mr. Winston Churchill, Under-Secrotary for tho Colonies, Btated in December last that Orangia would receive substantially the same Constitution as tho Transvaal. The Natal Mercury points out that the obvious corollary is Dutch rule. "Some progress," r.a,yB tho Mercury, "was made, under Lord Milner'a direction, with tho policy of planting new British settlers in the Orange River Colony, but it has not proceeded fnr enough to be likely to produce any material effect upon tho personnel of a Parliament to 'be elected under manhood suffrage."