SOUTH AFRICAN UNION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14503, 21 April 1909, Page 4

SOUTH AFRICAN UNION.

It has been interesting and satisfactory to observe that the draft Constitution embodying the scheme for South African urnon evolved by the National Convention as the result of extended deliberations at Capetown has now been approved by all the South African reuresentatiTO Assemblies, and that 'the initial stages of another experiment in Commonwealth-making have consequently been passed. The choice which confronted the people of South Africa was the choice between a unitarian and a federal scheme, of union, and, as was generally expected, unification has won the day against federation. Union upon Australian lines has been re-sirclcd with influential disfavour. Possibly' Jlr -Merriman's remark in the Cane Parliament anont "a bundle of jan.rliiu<, wrangling States" to he found in the Commonwealth may be accepted as a sort of general interpretation of the attitude of the South African majority on this subject. The Constitution, the main provisions of which were disclosed some weeks ago, is a lengthy and intricate document dealing with the machinery of the future South African Central and Provincial Governments. It was drafted in the form of an Imperial Bill l Wf ed 01l v .i, e previously passed by the Convention, ruder its terms any tivo or more of the South African colonics may bo declared within a year of the passing 0 f the Act to be united ui a Legislative. Union under one Government under the name South Africa. The provinces so united am to retain the names of the present colonies except that the Orange iiivcr Colony is to be called the Orange Kir-o State Province. The Executive Government of the Union is to consist of a (iovernor-Cienoral, an Executive Council, and two Houses cf Parliament named the Senate and the House of Assembly. The Senate is to consist of thirty-two elected and oight nominated senators, and the House of Assembly of 121 members chosen directly by the voters of the Union and assigned on the following scale of representation to the various provinces:—Cape of Uood Hope, ;31; Natal, 17; Orange River Colony, 17; Transvaal, 3(1. .Members of both Houses must he British subjects of Kuropean descent and have resided in the Union for five years. The existing colonial franchises aro to be maintained unless the Union Parliament otherwise provides; no voter is to he disqualified on the ground solely of race or colour; and the native franchise in Cape Colony is not to he altered except, by a two-thirds majority of both Houses of Parliament. The constituencies will be delimited by a . special commission on a basis of European adult male population. The provinces, which will correspond to the existing colonies, are to be administered by an Administrator appointed by the Governor(ieneral, an Executive Committee, and a Provincial Council, of which the powers are being carefully defined. The controversy over the capital site, which promised nearly to wreck the work of the National Convention, ended, it may be remembered, in a compromise which agreed that Pretoria should be the administrative capital— that is to say, the seat''of the Government offices,—and Capetown the Legislative capital or seat of Parliament, °It is urged in some quarter; that an arrangement like this cannot last, and anyone who considers the difficulties that would attend the work of government iu New Zealand if the sittings of Parliament were held in Dunediu* end the departmental offices were situated iu Auckland, will realise, the practical objections to this settlement. It neeri cause us no surprise, therefore, to be told that a Parliament at Pretoria and a further victory for Transvaal Dutch influence are prophesied in South Africa. Doth the English and Dutch languages are to be official languages of the Union, and the two races are to enjoy ecMjal rights awl privileges, The pniqu

Government will take over the debts of the existing colonies, and the control of railways is to be vested in a commission. Provision is made for the talcing over of the Protectorates by the I'nion Government at some future date upon terms laid down in the Constitution. Such are the leading features of the unification schemo that is now within measurable distance, of consummation. It is not to be imagined that th.j Hill embodying the Constitution went through tho various Parliaments unchecked or unchallenged. The brief cable messages which we have received on the subject were limited to the information that this and that Legislature had approved of the Constitution, hut there are points in regard to which the draft Constitution will doubtless have be'/i: the subject of severe criticism. It is evident, however, that, whatever exception may have been expressed to details of the scheme, which bristled with more or less contentions points, the broad outlines of the Constitution have commanded approval and that the project, has been judged as a whole, and, upon that test, been pronounced to he good.