SOUTH AFRICAN UNITY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 13979, 8 February 1909, Page 4

SOUTH AFRICAN UNITY.

If South Africa can bo brought into unity such little disadvantages as two or even three capitals can well be endured. For when the federation is once instituted, when a common Parliament is established, internal Customs linen swept away, common defence arranged, and the whole machinery of nationality set in motion, the difficulties of legislating in one centre and of administering from another centre will either be found quite endurable or will be removed by drastic amendment. As a matter of fact, there is nothing extraordinary in a movable Parliament. For centuries English Parliaments were called at the most convenient place, and there is no apparent reason why an Imperial Council might not be held sequentially in every great colonial capital, as well as in London. Admittedly, it has been found most convenient not only to hold Parliametary meetings in a fixed spot, but to govern the country from the same place, an obvious convenience which has led to the proposal to centralise all Indian governance at Simla. In all probability South Africa will find the same convenience of centralisation steadily making for the ultimate abandonment of the dual capital method, but in the meanwhile federation will have been attained in a friendly if clumsy manner, which is by far th# most important aim at the present moment.