"ONE VOTE ONE VALUE" IN THE TRANSVAAL.
(TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR:1
SID,—In your "News of the Week" of January 27th you speak of the "sound democratic principle" of "One vote one value" as applied to the present proposed Constitution for the Transvaal. Having just returned from Johannesburg, I am convinced that in this you misinterpret the situation, and that the proposed Con- stitution is, as a matter of fact, a travesty of sound justice. I should like to ask you what reason there is to depart from the democratic principle prevailing generally throughout the British Empire of the division of a country into electoral areas of equal population, and whether any reason can be alleged other than the desire deliberately to bolster up a certain section and a certain industry as against the rest of the community. The late Government, acting as they always did under the direct dictation of the financial houses of Johannes- burg, had to devise an apparently equitable Constitution which should nevertheless keep all real power in the hands of the mine magnates. To bring this about they pro- posed to gerrymander, firstly the franchise, and secondly the electoral division. The franchise was to be biassed, so that while every temporary male resident of the towns should receive a vote, a large proportion of the permanent farmers were to be excluded. Secondly, the straightforward principle of electoral division according to population was to be broken, and the towns were to be given undue prominence, by a new subdivision to be made according to the number of voters only ; and in order to cover up the injustice of the proceeding, they applied the catchword of "One vote one value," with its seeming equity, to the new situation. By these means Johannesburg and Pretoria, with about one- third the population of the Transvaal, would obtain, it has been estimated, about two-thirds of the total representation. The new Government must revert to true Constitutional principles. These principles demand (1) that every man in town and country shall be able to obtain the franchise on reasonable terms ; (2) that the electoral division shall be effected, as in democratic countries, on the basis of population.
[With the first proposition stated by our correspondent we are in hearty agreement ; with the second we cannot agree. Why should a man have bestowed upon him a double dose of political power because he lives in the country? In long- settled communities the number of inhabitants in a particular district corresponds proportionately with the number of adult males. In new countries it does not, and therefore in new countries the number of electors should be the standard rather than population. We have no wish, as our readers know, to give the capitalists an unfair advantage ; but in the same way we do not wish unfairly to favour the Boers. If the anti-capitalists are wise, they will concentrate their efforts on the first of our correspondent's propositions. That is a matter of right and justice.—ED. Spectator.]