NATIVE FRANCHISE
SOUTH AFRICAN BILL WARNING BY MINISTER CAPETOWN, April 7 The Senate and the Assembly, at a joint sitting, passed the third reading of the much-discussed Native Representation Bill by 169 votes to 11. The measure amends the Constitution to deprive Cape natives of the franchise which they had previously held, subject to qualifications, and substitutes for it a division of the "Union into three native electoral districts each to return one European. The bill creates a native advisory council, somo members of which -will be Europeans. This body is to discuss native legislation before it reaches Parliament, to which the council will report. A feature of the debate was the action of the Minister of the Interior, Mr. J. H. Hofmeyr, in voting against the bill, "whatever the political consequences may bo to myself because it gives the natives an inferior, qualified citizenship. "The Government is interfering in a franchise enjoyed without abuse for 80 years," said Mr. Hofmeyr. "No nation, except at the cost of honour and ultimate security, can remove a franchise onco exercised by a section of the community. This bill might lay the foundations of a serious racial conflict."
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Bibliographic details
New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22390, 9 April 1936, Page 11
Word Count
195NATIVE FRANCHISE New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22390, 9 April 1936, Page 11
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