SOUTH AFRICAN POLITICS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19278, 16 September 1924, Page 8

SOUTH AFRICAN POLITICS.

THE HEW GOVERNMENT,

ELECTION OF SPEAKER.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) PIETERMARITZBURG, August 1. Our new Government met the new Parliament on Friday last at Capetown, when the Speaker was elected, ■ and the session was opened in the Senate Chamber with the usual ceremony by the GovernorGeneral. Lord Athlone More than usual interest was manifested in the election of Speaker, which preceded the opening ceremonial. The Speaker of the preceding House of Assembly, the Hon. Christman Joel Krige, member for Caledon, was in his place, having been one of the re-elected, and, as his impartiality in the chair was impeached by none, and his ability was acknowledged by all, one might have expected his complimentary reappointment to the chair. But this did not happen, and Mr E. G. Jansen, member for vryheid, was elected to the high office; and without opposition, I for General Smuts, occupying his singularly new post of Leader of the Opposition, while regretting what he called an entirely new precedent, did not challenge what was a foregone conclusion. The ex-Pi-ime Minister was met with cries of “ What did you do in the Senate?” This question had reference to the appointment of Mr Van Heerden, a former Minister, to the office of President of the Senate in 1921, so shelving the previous President, Mr Reitz, a Nationalist. But Mr Reitz had during his term of office identified himself with the movement for the disruption of the Union when General Hertzog went to Europe with that object at the end of the war. No charge of any party nature oould be brought against Mr Krigo while occupying the chair of the Assembly. So the Comical charge was laid against him that he had shown party spirit at the general election! The hon.' gentleman could not do anything else, for his seat for Caledon was attacked by a Nationalist, and he was compelled to answer his opponents’ arguments. However, as General Smuts declared, the traditions of the House will bo safe in Mr Jansen’s hands. Although the new Speaker has hod only three years’ parliamentary experience, "he seems to have tha confidence of the House, as well as the confidence of his party, and 1 think he will do justice to his appointment. Hia most conspicuous act so far has been to rule out General Byron’s Questions regarding the release of the rebel Maritz, and there he certainly scored, for the general threw away a fine case by introducing arguments into his interrogations. Mr Jansen was expected to be one of the new Ministry, but, if report he true, Transvaal Party claims stood in the way, and, besides. Natal is represented in the Ministry by another Natal member, Mr Thomas Boy dell, the Labour member for Greyville. I think it is likelv that Mr Jansen will make his mark as Speaker. So a brief biography will not be out of place. He is the son of a settler who came to South Africa from Holland. Originally a teacher, Mr Jansen, senior, evenutally went in for sheep fanning along the Biggarsberg, in the Dundee district of Natal. There the Speaker was born in 1881. He was educated by his father, and later at Ladysmith and Durban. He became a solicitor ami practised in this city, and since 1921 as an advocate at Vryheid, which place he represents in Parliament. He stood for Vryheid in 1920, when he was defeated, and in the following year he got in by the very tenuous margin of three. At the General Election of June last Mr Jansen had quite a handsome majority. Mrs Jansen is a daughter of a French Protestant missionary. Mr Jansen has the distinction of being the second Natal-born Speaker of a legislative assembly. The Natal Legislature which existed from 1857 to 1910, had seven Speakers; all were Home-boni. But there has been a Natal-born Speaker in Australia. The Hon. A. S. Cowley, a son of the late Pastor Cowley, of the West Street Baptist Church, Durban, was Speaker of the Queensland Legislative Assembly for many years. He still resides in, that State, whose distinguished Governor, Sir Matthew Nathan, was Natal’s last and best Governor. THE NEW ASSEMBLY. Four leading members of the old Assembly are absent from the new House, three of them were Ministers, and three were members of the Privy Council. The four absentees are Messrs Merriman, Burton, P. S. Malan, and Colonel Meiutz. Mr Merriman, the Father of the House, and now in his ninth decade, did not seek re-election. He has a beautiful voice,* and always com** manded the attention of the House. He was Prime Minister of the Cape Colony when Union took place in 1010. The three Ministers wore defeated. The new Assembly includes 14 gentlemen of military rank and four ministers of the Gospel of the Prince of Peace. Considering all that has happened during reoont belligerent years, the militant majority is not surprising. Even at lour, however, the pulpit element is a bit of a rc-ord. It comprises a three to one majority for the new Government. There are two Nationalist predikants (ministers) in B. Hattingh. of Krugersdorp, and M. L. Fiok, of Potchofstroxn; J. Mullineux (Labour), of Roodepoort, and Wilkinson Rider, retired Wesleyan minister (S.A.P.) of East London. Reverends all. Reference to the clerical member for Roodepoort pardons my recalling a Labour predecessor of Mr Mullineux in the representation of that Rand constituency, Mr C. H. Haggar. This gentleman now retired from political warfare, was, before Union, one of the members for Durban in the Natal House of Assembly. In a burst of confidence, Mr Haggar once told the Natal House that he had been brought up to become a missionary, but that, “fortunately for the natives,” he had not followed tha sacred vocation for which he was intended. Dr Haggar was, for a few years after union, member for Roodepoort, but since 1915 he has not found acceptance with the various Oape Peninsula constituencies that he has wooed, and the LTnion Parliament has been bereft of his wisdom and otherwise. Dr Haggar, who is an Bast Anglian by birth, was in Australia for many years, and was engaged in educational work in Townsville ' and Charters Towers. He proudly avowed himself in politics to be a State Socialist of the “Dick Seddon” type. Not being able to win a constituency, Dr Haggar is living what must be to him the much too simple life of rearing poultry and growing roses in the Cape Peninsula. The Dutch clergy who have become members of Parliament seem to regard their public responsibilities more politically than religiously as compared with the British representatives of the cloth. Take two instances in the few days that our new session has so far gone. The Wesleyan Mr Rider, interpolating a question when the traitor Maritz was under discussion, asked whether the rebel had repented. The Rev. B. R Hattingh has shown a leaning more political than pious in his question to-day suggesting the retirement of the present five Administrators of Provinces and their replacement by gentlemen of Nationalist sympathies. The Prime Minister, General Hertzog, displayed much judgment in his answer in the negative, contending, and rightly, that the post of Administrator is not a political one. The reverend gentleman achieved some fame in the recent General Election by knocking out Sir Abe Bailey, for a good many years past S.A.P. member for Krugersdorp, on the West Rand MILITARY PARLIAMENTARIANS. The military contingent of 14 members of tho now Assembly is one of quite superior rank. It includes five generals— Smuts, Hertzog (ex-Premier and present Premier), and three other less luminous men of Mars in the Hon. J. O. G. Kemp (ex-rebel, now Minister of Agriculture), 0. H. Muller, and the Hon. J. J. Byron, C. D.S.O. Under general rank there are five colonels and four majors. Brigadior-ganeral Byron, formerly a member of the Legislative Council of the Orange Free State, is a son of Mr John Byron, of County Wexford, Ireland. He has held various military staff appointments in England, Australia, Canada, and Japan, lie commanded the Queensland Regiment, R.A.A., from 1895 to 1899. and was attached with the Philippines U.S. Army in 1899. Ho was ’A.D.C. to Lord Roberts and was severely wounded at Magersfontein in the Boer War. During the South African tour of the present King in 1901 the general served as an extra A.D.C. I should add to the notable parliamentary retirements that of Mr H. G. Mackeurtan. the S.A.P. member for Umbilo, Durban. Though dubbed S.A.P. and wearing its uniform, he by no means wore it as a livery. Looked upon as a coming leader, Mr Mackcurtiui’s retirement, due to tho claims of his profession, that of law, is a distinct loss. He will b© heard of again, and before long I think. The most distinguished of the new members of the present Parliament is Sir Drummond Chaplin, G.8.E.. K.C.M.G., until recently Administrator of Rhodesia. A barrister by profession. Sir Drummond came to the Transvaal in 1896, was president of the Chamber of Mines in 1905, and was a member of tho Transvaal House of Assembly, and afterwards of the Union House of Assembly. Sir Drummond now represents the Cape South Peninsula, replacing

Mr Murray Bisset, better known as an international cricketer. Mr Bisset captained the second South African touring team in England in 1901, and with better results than the present one, winning 13 matches out of 25. SESSION COMMENCING WELL. The session is but a week old, but, so fax, things have gone quite harmoniously with the Government, notwithstanding that it is partly what Lord Palmerston used to coll ajn “accidental and fortuitous concourse of atoms.” The Premier, General Hertzog, made a very conciliatory statement in regard to the release of the rebel Maritz after serving a very brief portion of his sentence of three years, for high treason. Then the new and young Minister of Finance, Mr N. C. Havenga, member for Faurosmith, Orange Free State, delivered a very creditable Budget speech, announcing the abolition of the unpopular medical tax and the reduction of rhe tobacco duty.