SOUTH AFRICA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13602, 22 November 1907, Page 5

SOUTH AFRICA.

ORANGE RIVER COLONY. THE FIRST PARLIAMENT. By Telegraph.—Press Association.— (Received November 22, 1 a.m.) Pretoria, November 21. The Orange River Colony elections are now proceeding. The Constitutionalists have carried Bloerafontein, winning four seats by large majorities.- They lost a fifth by two votes. (Received November 22, 1 a.m.) ' London, November 21. The Times correspondent says that the Upper House in the Orange River Colony consists of five supporters of the Orangia Unie and five Constitutionalists, with Mr. Steyn's brother-in-law, Mr. Blignaut, holding the balance. The 'correspondent adds that the new Council is both strong and representative. A message from the Bloemf'onlein correspondent of the Times recently stated that in the Orange River Cblony. there was no question of a British-born "majority. ' The Constitutional party led by Sir John George Fraser embraced most of the immigrant Englishmen, and supported in general the policy pursued by the British Administration since the war. but included a large.proportion drawn from the moderate section of the older population. "It is evidently viewed," the correspondent, added, "wiffi considerable favour by the Dutch Church, of which Sir J. G. Eraser has always been a stout champion. That- this party by itself, however, should win sufficient seats to form a Ministry is regarded as quite out of the question, even by its own members. The party's only conceivable hope of office lies in adherence to it after the elections of a number of independents, of whom a large body are already in the field. The Orangia Unie, corresponding to Het Volk in the Transvaal, and embracing the solid mass of the Boer population, is under the leadership of Mr. Abraham Fischer, and is unquestionably the strongest party in Orange River politics to-day. Seeing that a Unie Government is probably inevitable, it is some satisfaction to find that the official candidates on the. whole represent the least violent section of a party the public utterances of which have naturally given rise to gloomy forebodings of racial animosity and retrogressive policy. The influence of Mr. Steyn, who is'the high priest of the irreconcilables, is on-the wane. The bulk of the people have hardly forgiven him for plunging the country into war. Even the active leaders of the Unie and their organ, the Bloemfontein Friend, 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 works, incessant struggle with stock diseases, and progressive policy in agriculture, has been an unmitigated blessing f the country, while the personal popularity of Sir Hamilton Goold-Adams with the farmers has done much to wear down .the initial prejudice against the*e innovations. Whatever happens at the elections, the work of Lord Milner and his lieutenant in this colony can hardly be altogether undone. But the more one sees of the Orange River Colony, the more one realises and regrets the folly of disturbing the existing administration "in favour of a system of party government on English lines, which is totally alien to the ideas and traditions of the people, which cannot fail to awaken dormant racial feuds, and for which there is no sort of demand."

THE TIES THAT BIND. Pketokia, November 20. Judge Hertzog, speaking at Bloen> fontein, eulogised the; generosity of the Imperial Government, which had bound all hearts in South Africa i~, the British Empire. * \ .