THE TRANS VAAL CONSTITUTION.
ON Wednesday the new Constitution for the Transvaal was published as a Parliamentary Paper. Blue- books are notoriously unattractive to most readers, so we propose to summarise as briefly as possible the main provisions of the Letters Patent. They provide for a Legislature consisting of a Lower House—a Legislative Assembly, and an Upper House—a Legislative Council. The Assembly is to consist of sixty-nine Members, elected by the voters in the electoral divisions delimited by the West Ridgeway Commission. Every white male British subject over twenty-one years will have the suffrage. A scheme of automatic redistribution is provided, since there is a biennial registration of voters, followed by a redivision of electorates. The Second Chamber—the Council—is to consist for the present of fifteen Members, nominated by the Governor. No special qualifications are required for membership, save thirty years of age and a three years' residence in the Colony. The Members are to hold office nominally for five years, but after four years the Legis- lature—that is, the Council and the Assembly together— have power to pass a law providing for an elected Second Chamber. If no such law is passed, the Council may go on indefinitely in five-year tenures of office.
The most important of the remaining provisions concern the nature of the legislation and the safeguards added by the Imperial Government, but we may note the sensible rule that a Minister who accepts office does not vacate his seat. In the Constitution of a new country it was well not to follow a bad British precedent, which, we hope, will soon be a thing of the past. English is definitely established as the official language, for, though both English and Dutch are allowed in the debates, and though the papers circulated to Members must be in both tongues, yet all the proceedings of both Houses are to be recorded in English. Certain types of legislation are specially reserved for the consideration of the Imperial Government. One is any law whereby "persons not of European birth or descent" may be subjected to special disabilities and restrictions. This is clearly intended to meet the case of the British Indians, and we are glad that the Government have had the courage to give their policy that logical fulfilment which we advocated last week. On the Chinese labour question, the Letters Patent forbid the issue of any fresh licenses or the renewal of any contracts under the Labour Importation Ordinance, 1904. They also lay down that on the termination of one year from the date of the first meeting of the new Legislature that Ordinance and all regulations made under it shall cease to be of effect. A fresh Ordinance will therefore be necessary to provide for such Chinamen as may be left in the Colony, and this the Imperial Government reserve for their special sanction.
, The interests of settlers in the Transvaal are protected more or less in the fashion which Lord Milner has advocated in his recent speeches. A Land Settlement Board is created, consisting of three members resident in the Colony and nominated by the Governor, in which is vested the administration of that part of the Crown lands set apart for settlement. The Board will deal with all settlement funds in hand and all future grants for the purpose, make advances to settlers and receive repayments, and, in general, act as stewards of the Crown lands, responsible only to the Governor and the Imperial Government. the members will hold office for five years, unless they make a previous arrangement with the Govern- ment of the Colony, subject to the ratification of the Secretary of State. Finally, the much-threatened, but to our mind invaluable, Intercolonial Council is retained. The only changes made are that, instead of the four members nominated by the Lieutenant-Governor and the six elected from among themselves by the present Trans- vaal Legislative Council, seven Members of the new Legislative Assembly are to .be elected, and four nominated by the Governor. Moreover, the Government of either the Transvaal or the Orange River Colony, after responsible institutions have been established in both; max, by giving six months' notice, terminate the Councils or any of the services now administered by it.
On the *hole, the Government seem to have done their work well. Granting certain premisses, the new Constitu- tion is, in our view, as good an instrument as could have been fashioned. We have never attempted to conceal from ourselves that these premisses were very serious, and involved something like a gamble. It is a bold experiment to give autonomy at one stroke of the pen to a country which has had no experience of free institutions, in which there is not a great number of possible statesmen available, and in which there is every prospect of a Dutch majority. We regretted when the results of the West Ridgeway Commission were announced that no attempt had been made to give the British element in the population the voting power to which its numbers entitled it. Having admitted this, we can add that otherwise the Constitution is satisfactory. The provisions dealing with the Intercolonial Council and the new Laud Board seem to meet the case ; and we rejoice that the Government have not neglected the solemn warning of Lord Milner about their duty to those who have staked their all on the good faith of Britain. On the question of reserved legisla- tion, the provisions are no more than an explicit statement of a right which is implicit in all Constitutional grants. It is a statement of policy, not a novelty of law. At, the same time, it is a matter which requires very cautious handling. We have every hope that the Transvaal will not introduce any new Labour Ordinance with servile conditions, and that it will see the justice of the British Indians' case and refrain from any short-sighted and anti-Imperial policy towards them. But we must keep in mind that we have made it a free Colony, and must sedulously avoid any appearance of dictating to the new Government. The one point on which we are scarcely satisfied is the constitution of the Legislative Council. We should have greatly preferred a. Second Chamber elected on a proportional basis, and we are still unable to see the objections to this plan. If it is said that there are too few possible Members in the Trans. vaal to make election practicable, we would answer that the same applies a fortiari to nomination. In the latter case, too, all the blame of creating a weak Second House will fall on the Imperial Government. Election, to be sure, is promised in four years' time, after two redistributions of constituencies have taken place. By that date we trust that the progressive elements in the country will have so grown that the character of the elected Council will be beyond question.
The progress of the country,—this is indeed the founda- tion of any hopeful forecast. If the economic situation changes, and settlers pour into the country districts and artisans and labourers into the towns, then we have no fear of the issue, for that new population will of necessity be British and progressive. We do not distrust the Boers. We do not believe that a Boer majority need mean a disloyal or an anti-British majority. But the Dutch Members will represent conservative traditions not always consistent with true progress, and progress is what we wish to see. The duty of all good citizens in the Transvaal is to make the most of the new Constitution, and shape it to the good alike of the Empire and the Colony. We have started on a road from which there is no turning back, and our business is to walk circumspectly but fear- lessly. Men of all parties in England and throughout the Empire will re-echo the words in the covering despatch in which Lord Elgin records his Majesty's "earnest wishes for the peace and prosperity of the country under the new Constitution."