THE CAPE DISSOLUTION. D R. JAMESON since he took office in
1904 has had, as they say in America, a" difficult patch to hoe." He has had to contend against those two greatest of obstacles to successful leadership,—an empty Exchequer, and an uncertain majority. He began by having a majority of seven in the House of Assembly and of one in the Legislative Council. But in that majority several were included as Progressives who might more properly have been classed as Independents, and their support was always a dubious matter. Dr. Jameson courageously resolved to face the franchise anomaly, and the Additional Representa- tion Act, the greatest success of his Ministry, was the result. This did not fully meet the difficulty, but was in the nature of a palliative rather than of a remedy. Still, it corrected the more glaring abuses. Whea Cape Colony was first granted representative institutions the towns were relatively much less important than they are to-day. Going roughly by population, a division of constituencies was made ; but, there being no provision for automatic redistribution, in a very few years the division had become unfair. Cape Town grew, while Victoria East remained unaltered. Before 1904 matters had become so bad that while a great commercial centre like Port Elizabeth, with eleven thousand electors, returned only four Members, a little dorp like Vryburg returned two ; or, to put it otherwise, while it required nearly three thousand voters in the one case to secure a representative, at Vryburg four hundred and fifty were sufficient. There were even worse cases. Cape Town, for instance, had a Member for every three thousand four hundred electors, and Victoria East a Member for every three hundred and ninety. The country districts were preferentially treated, and as the country districts were the stronghold of the Bond Opposition, there was a great outcry at any hint of change. The argument used was the old bad one that a numerical basis is not the best for an electorate, but that the country, as representing the more stable elements of the population, should have a higher proportional representation than the towns. We have so often combated this heresy that we need not argue the point arin. Dr. Jameson forced his Bill through in spite of the liveliest obstruction, and to-day the measure is law. It increased the membership of the Legislative Council by three and of the Assembly by twelve, and the fairness of its terms is shown by the fact that among the districts whose representation was amplified were the Bond constituencies of Pearl and George. So far Dr. Jameson seemed to have surmounted one of his obstacles ; but he was less successful with the other. Sir Gordon Sprigg had left the Colony a damnosa haereditas of public expenditure. In the rich years of the war, when Cape Town was making large sums as a forwarding agency for the Transvaal, and the Cape railways were running at high pressure, it looked as if a new era of prosperity had dawned for the country. Accordingly the private citizen sunk more capital in his business and built a new house, while the Government embarked on an ambitious programme of public works and railway extension. So did people in the new Colonies, and the bare years of reaction which have been so acutely felt in Johannesburg were scarcely less disastrous to the Cape, The Government could not go back- upon its programme, for its commitments were too deep. But the Prime Minister faced the necessity bravely, and the establishments of all Departments were greatly reduced. The post of an economising Minister is not a popular one. The ordinary man at the Cape has been hard hit by bad times, and when he finds railway rates increased he is apt to cry out against the Govern- ment. But as the railways are the chief revenue producers Of the State, Dr. Jameson had no alternative but to raise the rates. It was an excellent chance for the Oppo- sition, who, as is the habit of Oppositions, were not very consistent in their attacks. They urged the Government to undertake new railways to benefit remote Dutch districts ; they complained bitterly of the raising of the rates and of the reductions in the Civil Service ; but they did not show how the Government was to keep solvent by any other methods. So far the Jameson Cabinet might well have earned the praise of all thinking people, though it may have won little popularity. But the Prime Minister made one mistake which has greatly lowered his prestige, both in the Colony and at home. His policy has always been to conciliate the back-country farmer—generally Bond in his politics—by showing that the Progressives were zealous in his interests. Unfortunately, he carried this excellent principle too far. He made a bid for the support of the farmer by proposing to facilitate the sale of intoxi- cating drinks to the natives. The Opposition, who have a very doubtful record on this subject, were quick to seize the chance, and to lift up protesting hands at such an infamy.
Except for this bad blunder, the Jameson Ministry has done well, and in a very difficult time has stuck to its guns and made a good fight. But we fear that it is not popular. Its economy is against it, its railway policy is against it, and then, of course, there is the ordinary swing of the pendulum to be reckoned with. The elections, which in a thinly peopled Colony take a long time, will not be over before February, and, it is generally assumed that it will be a Bond Ministry which will represent the Cape at the great South African Customs and Railway Conference early next year. Probably this forecast is correct ; at any rate, it can scarcely be a Progressive Ministry of the type of the last. A Coalition, with Mr. Schreiner as Prime Minister, is possible, and might be the best for the country. Dr. Jameson has, of course, the Additional Representation Act on his side, which should mean an increase of eleven Members. But then lie passed an Act which restored to the register the seven thousand voters who were disfranchised as rebels, and these seven thousand are certain to vote for Opposition candidates. On the other hand, it may be said that they must be mainly resident in constituencies which return Bond Members in any case, and that their presence will only add to Bond majorities, and not bring about Bond victories. The real reason for thinking poorly of the Progressive chances is the state of discipline in that party. It has always contained a large cross-bench element,— men who will not answer readily to the party spur. The Bond, on the contrary, has a perfect discipline, even though the great days of Mr. Hofmeyr are past. There is much talk about racial feeling having died away, but the two party organisations are still on racial lines. And just as Het Volk brought every voter to the polls, so the Bond tolerates no shirking.
But Dr. Jameson has one weapon in his armoury which may prove more effective than his critics imagine. He has dissolved because of the refusal of the Upper House to pass Supplies. The Government's majority of one was transferred, in the person of Mr. Logan, to the other side, and the Appropriation Bill was categorically rejected, The Opposition wished to force a Dissolution, fearing, it is said, a thoroughgoing Redistribution Bill which would complete the work of the Additional Representation Act. Their fears were groundless, for Dr. Jameson has always declared that any further electoral reform must be left to the federal authority, and that with federation in sight any tinkering at an independent Constitution was a waste of time. But, whatever the reason, they adopted a course which has transferred the crisis to the high grounds of Constitutional theory. The Upper House at the Cape is an elected body, the franchise being the same as for the Assembly. A higher property qualification is required in its Members, the electoral areas are larger, and it sits for seven instead of five years. Now a Second Chamber in the Colonies is supposed to be in much the same Con- stitutional position as the British House of Lords. . That is to say, it is not supposed to have any authority. to amend a money Bill, still less curtly to refuse Supplies. This has often been denied, and large powers have been claimed for the Second Chamber ; but no Lower House in any Colony would tolerate the carrying of these claims very far into practice. The principle at stake is really the same as in the case of our own House of Commons,—that the more popular and democratic of the two bodies shall have complete control of the purse-strings. We notice that some Radical papers defend the action of the Cape Opposition on the ground that the Cape Second Chamber is elected. But this in no way changes the principle at stake. The more democratic House is being deprived of its financial prerogative ; and these critics would be the first to cry out if an elected House of Lords infringed this right of the Commons. Dr. Jameson asks for a mandate in favour of the House of Assembly, and his appeal would in normal circumstances be a strong one. Whether the justness of his cause will counterbalance the disrepute into which his Ministry has, fallen remains to be seen during the coming months.
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