SOUTH AFRICA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19019, 15 November 1923, Page 7

SOUTH AFRICA.

THE TRANSVAAL ELECTIONS. SETBACK FOR NATIONALISTLABOUR PARTIES. Press Association —By Telegraph—Copyright CAPETOWN, November 12. Unusual interest is being taken in the elections for the Transvaal Provincial Council, ns the. result is regarded as pointing to the probable effect of the National and Labourite pact upon the next Union parliamentary General Election. The majority enjoyed by these parties has been reduced from fifteen to ten. The final strength of the parties in the Transvaal is:—South African Party, 20; Nationalists, 21; Labourites, 9.—Reuter. THE COLOUR BAR. REPUGNANT TO TRANSVAAL - LAW. CAPETOWN, November 13. The Supremo Court has delivered an important decision declaring that the colour bar in the Transvaal is repugnant to general law of the land. The matter arose on the application by the Attorney-General asking for a ruling in a case where a mine manager was acquitted by the magistrates of a contravention of the mining regulations by permitting a native to have charge of a locomotive on the ground that the regulation was ultra vires, mainly because of its unreasonableness, and because it did not apply to all classes alike. Mr Justice Krause, in delivering his judgment, in which the other judges concurred, said the real point at issue was whether the regulation was not ultra vires in that it discriminated between white and coloured persons. At all times, whenever the Legislature had seen fit to place restrictions ou tho rights of coloured persons, it had done so in express and clear words. In the absence of such clear expression there could be no justification for differentiation, and' it would be dangerous to bold, in the absence of such express statutory provision, that power existed to make such a regulation.—A. and N.Z. Cable.