TRANSVAAL PARLIAMENT.

Timaru Herald, Volume XC, Issue 13270, 26 April 1907, Page 3

TRANSVAAL PARLIAMENT.

THE SEVERAL PARTIES. The first British Parliament in the Transvaal has b--cn elected. And the Boers have a majority of one over all the other parties combined. And wivh their allies they have a majority of twenty-one over the Progressives-, who may be roughly and not quite accurately, termed the Britis party. This i; the all-important central fact. What it mar mean it is' impossible to -;: ay. 1 he' Rand, exhausted and limp jifter thrtXf months of fiiriour- electioneering makes no attempt to prophecy. It simply accepts it. Judging from the cab".ei comments of the London papers, tli> real position in tin Transvaal is not I'ndnstcod. The victory of Sir Percy Fitz Patrick over Sir Richard Solomon, who wa--? marked out as the first Ret Vo'k-ci'm-ivational-ist Premier, and tin rcivn of capitalists like Sir George Farrar, Mr Abo Bailey, and Mr F. D. P. Chaplin, have given rise to a false optimism. It seems to , lie supposed that the Fwrressives have done rather -well; that they ara strong enough to check extreme measure?, and are certain of a victory in three or four years' time . I fail to find the slightest support for such confidence. Sir Percy Fitz Patrick's victory was an undoubted tnumpk. Bui it i-- openly stated here that, it war- fairer 1 frvr him by (he head committer of Het Yolk.' the Vmr organisation -which answers to the Bond in the Cape and Urn in the Orange River C'a 1 - ony. theory is that the Boer leaders, whilst g'ad of the co-operation of the smaller fry of the British' Nationalist, party and -welcoming the moral support, corf erred by Sir Richard Solomon's presence i- their ranks, had no intention ri allowing him to take the Premiership. Th»r>- majority was certain enough- to mako t) y p lors of one seat a small matter. So the word -was forth. Sir Richard Solomon helped the Boers to power. But in .South-Centra! Pretoria the D"teh vote -went largely to Sir Percy Fitz Patrick. And the Premiership is open for General Botha. (General Botha now fills the office of Filmier.) Whether the plot has ar.y' foundation in truth no one can say. Probably it -would be vigorously denied. Bi't it explains the only -Progressive victory in Pretoria. However, loavirig this aride, what is the p;sitlon' Tlt3 polling emphasised one fact more than any ether. It -was the tremendous hold the Het V(dk has upon the country vote. Every country district and every country town (save Barberton, which is a- mining centre) went. Boer—not by ordinary majoriti.s, but- by huge ones. In several cases tho majority was over 100 C in an electorate of 1500. Over 83 per cent, of- the voters in many of the scattered rural arc-as w<;ni to ihi poll. The solid silent vote of the burghers of the old republic was never shaken. Popular Britishers stood; farmers, men well known in their district, frkndly' with the Dutch, helping them in their pursuits, speaking their language. The Boers were pleasant; they attended meetings and listened ;. sametimes they looked like voting anti-Het Yolk. But on the day of the poll they went solid for. the Boer candidate.. I was talking only yesterday with a candidate who had fought a countv constituency—an Independent. "If I had been there a.year, talking and holding meetings," he said ruefully, " it would have been the same. They won't- vote for you." / My own opinion \% that if\the Archangel Gabriel himself opposed Het Volk he would bz badly boaten. Xothing can make, the country British as far as politics are concerned. Five yearn hence- or fifteen years hence it- will be just as hopeless a battle. This gives the Hoofd Komite'about thirty ab~olutely safe seats in ■a housi-yof sixty nine—a splendid start in a campaign. Suppose the • Progrtsidves can win over the entire Reef—a task not impossible with better management than was displayed in the recent contest—then Pretoria holds the balance of power, and in the capital tha, Dutch element is 'too strong for the Progressives. In -five years of government the- Beors' will -so identify themselves with the- • interests of Pretoria i-hat Johannesburg influence will never oust chem. The attitude Sydney adopts to wards Melbourne is effusive friendship compared wi.h the view Pretoria takes of Johannesburg. It subsets the mining centre wants to become the saat of..Gover'nment, it imagines it has all kinds of schemes for minimising the importance of ;he capital. Audit hates Jbhannisburg with a f.ttady-hatred based upon jealousy. REMARKABLE ORGANISATION. Thus the Boers have won back the. Transvaal with the assistance of the Imperial Government. - "The composition of the majority," writes the "Johannesburg Star." "is nearly us remarkable a feat of organisation as the majority itself. The whole' of ;he Hoofdkomito will have ac-atis in the firyj Parliament-. Among the other Het Volk members the generals and commandants preponderate-. The Government benches will be an almost exact replica of the staff of the burgher army." What their policy will be it is impossible to say. If words r.re r.ot meaningless and political pledges not nitre pie crust, their programme will be a moderate one. General Smuts has time and again declared that the Dutch have, learnt their lesson and realised their errors. General Botha has often spoken in a similar strain. But there is a large section of back-veldt- Boers who have not spoken at all—or if they have it was when there were no r-porters present. What will they de- . mand when they take their seat in the Raadzaal at Pretoria Will tho mors enlightened Boers be able to control the extre-miit-s, who claimed support at the poll b;-caus3 thev would "win the countrv back?" It is useless to follow the example of two of the Johannesburg papers, and at once proceed' to erect a scarecrow to frighten the world, a political bogeyman of Boer domination. Time alone can show whether the teachings of history have really sunk into the Dutch mind. Anxiety at present is centred in two or three s-übjec.'s. The civil servants fear drastic retrenchment; the South African constabulary are nervous about dismissal: the financial people dread that the cstablifhment of a Land Bank may be used for party purposes, and to fill (he pccket-> of tli? farmers, who are still grumbling about the small percentage of their compensation claims-passod by the commis.ion; the mining men tremble lest the' profits be raised to counter-balance the reduction of railway rates in the interest * of the farmers. The man in the street howtvt-r, cheerfully declares that no harm will cr.me to the country, and that Dutch ruL- again may after all be a blessing in d!;-c"is-;. Still the position is without paralell in the history of the Empire. It is not yet five years since the peace of Yereeniging was signed, and the loser:; rule the countrv a'jahi tn-;:!av. Remarkable people the British ! The future of South Africa- will be full of inteii-st. It is difficul' to assign her a place amongst the daughter nations of the Empire With the Bond dominating the Cape—as it- will, according to all accounts, at the next election—he TJnie lulhig the Orange River Colony, and K;'t Yolk, with a- permanent majority in the Trapsvaa!, what form will the growth of colonial nationalism asnure? Will it hi colon.'al nationalism at all? Sou li Africa, h.-.s long been in leading strings. Whit will she do with her liberty? The on!v thing the Progressives can do h to broadpn the basis of their party, to make it appeal to the country, a" well as to the Rand, to remove once and for all the imprc.sion that it is governed by min-

magnates. It must be popularised with the people generally; it must appeal boldlv to democracy—the Labour vote was very "solid at the elections, and will grow and show that it is really the party of progress and reform. By hard sustained effort-it may reduce the Boer majority to ;;uch proportions as to make extreme, measures dangerous, lest iv sudden re-action, in some of the more enlightened Dutch constituencies throw them out (if power. But- a Progressive Ministry can only be .secured by a political miracle. And five vears ago"the war was; still raging. Well may the Boulevards ejaculate, Ces Anglais!