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praying for representative government in 1852. His advice was adopted and Letters Patent establishing the principle of representation in the Council were passed in 1856.

During the period under review some alterations were made in the system of municipal government by extending the powers and duties of the corporations as previously established, while divisional or county councils were created 2 These, however, were devised on too pretentious a scale for the various districts to support. The arrangements were annulled after three years. As regards the administration of justice an Ordinance of 1849 3 preserved the power of native chiefs to try according to native law cases arising between members of their tribes, subject to the advice and control of European officials appointed by the Lieutenant-Governor. In all cases appeals were allowed to the Lieutenant-Governor, acting with the advice of the Executive Council. For the benefit of the European population two laws were passed in 1852 to indicate the qualification and duties of jurymen and to introduce the institution of trial by jury in civil cases.5

§4. NATAL, 1856-93.

4

Up to this time Natal had been largely dependent on the Cape Government, carrying on its correspondence with the Colonial Office through that channel; but the Charter granted in 1856 raised it to the status of a separate Colony. The Legislative Council was reconstituted so as to consist of sixteen members of whom twelve were to be elective and the others, who were high officials, were Crown nominees. In practice these nominated members also constituted the Executive Council, which remained under the direct control of, and responsible to, the Ministers of the Crown in England. The Colony was definitely launched on its way to responsible self-government, the coveted goal which Canada had reached just ten years earlier and to which the Cape Colony and the Australian colonies were also moving. The British Government and the bulk of the people in the United Kingdom had no objection to pushing the system of government established in 1856 to its logical conclusion-that objection was a thing of the past, though of the recent past. It was only sixteen years since Lord Durham had published his memorable report on the government of Canada, in which he advocated the system of responsible government for that Colony, carrying the British political world by storm in a short space of time through the cogency of his arguments and the sound common2 Ord. 3, 1854; P.R.O., C.O. 180/1. 4 No. 142. No. 143.

1 No. 133.

No. 141.

No. 113.

sense conclusions at which he arrived. But if his reasoning was unassailable it was obviously none the less imperative that in every colony due precautions should be taken to maintain imperial interests.

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In Natal the movement for responsible government came to a head in 1870, when a Bill aiming at the introduction of The demand that system was introduced in the Legislative for responsible Council, but was withdrawn without completed government. legislation. It was not until 1893 that the movement gained success. During the intervening twentythree years some two or three dozen Bills were introduced, of which about a dozen were passed, and several petitions and addresses were presented aiming at making the executive responsible to the legislature. If then the imperial authorities had no objections to offer to the system, and readily admitted that the arrangement made in 1856 gave no guarantee that imperial policy would be carried out the Executive Council having at times adopted an independent attitude—and that it was liable to end in a deadlock between the legislature which had to find funds and the executive which had the spending of it; and if the colonists desired the change, what caused the delay? If the answer must be given in a single sentence it must be stated that responsibility would bring with it obligations which a young Colony, situated as Natal was, could not shoulder; but the difficulties that stood in the way related in the main to the defence of the country, to native affairs, to the interests of Indian immigrants, to the relations between the Governor and the Executive Council on various issues, and to the relations to be observed by Natal with regard to the High Commissioner for South Africa, the Cape Colony, and the two Republics.

Reviewing each of these points, it was obvious in the first place with regard to defence that Great Britain would certainly follow the procedure adopted in most Defence. other colonies of withdrawing the bulk of the imperial troops stationed there, retaining only such garrisons as were imperatively demanded by possible eventualities of imperial defence. When an intimation of this intention was published in Natal it straightway divided the inhabitants into two more or less evenly balanced parties-the one, led by the elected members of the legislature, still agitating for responsible government, and the other fearing the burdens which that institution would entail. The question was only one of supplying the actual man-power for any war that might arise, for even before responsible government was established the Colony was liable to bear at least a large proportion of the 1 Parl. Papers, [C-3174], p. 8.

expense involved. For a long time the Government in London maintained its attitude, and consequently a majority of the colonists opposed a change in the constitution. Under these circumstances no improvement could be effected, for the Secretary of State for the Colonial Department was firm in his demand that so important a step as the appointment of a responsible Ministry should only be taken when a majority of the citizens, being fully aware of the results that would follow, had distinctly expressed themselves in favour of it. Indeed it was only when native pressure on the northern frontier had been weakened by a native war with the South African Republic, when the Cape Colony made itself responsible for the government of the territory on the south-western frontier, and when the Government in London promised to assist with the defence for a while longer, that a majority of the electors could be persuaded to accept responsibility. Really the matter was not quite so simple as it looked. More was involved than the mere question whether the Colony could enrol, equip, and pay the necessary number of troops for repelling a native attack. Native policy was initiated and directed by the imperial authorities. The question before the colonists was whether they should support blindly a policy over which they would have very little practical control, and which, they stated, had already led to complications. But this leads to a consideration of the second of the list of difficulties which faced the framers of the new constitution, the one which permeated nearly all the others, and made it impossible to do for Natal what was done for so many other colonies possessing representative government, viz. establish responsible government by merely amending a clause or two of their constitution Acts or altering a few words in the instructions of their governors.

In 1880 when demands for an improvement of the constitution became peculiarly insistent the white population of The native Natal consisted of about 30,000 souls, of whom less problem. than 7000 were electors. The number of Kaffirs was estimated at not less than 400,000. It was out of the question to grant the franchise to those masses of coloured people unless a legislature of uncivilised persons were to be set up with perhaps three or four members to represent European interests. But the natives had been living under their own laws, which had lately been codified and which were administered by special officers responsible to the Governor. In the event of responsible government being set up it was feared that native rights would be disregarded or exploited for the benefit of the white population, unless some [C-3280], p. 16 ff.

2
* No. 141.

means could be devised for first securing those rights; for if the unfettered direction of native affairs were placed in the hands of responsible Ministers representing the views of the majority in the legislature, the result might be that the taxpayer in the United Kingdom would have to bear the cost and responsibility of providing for a policy over which he had no control. On behalf of the colonists it was claimed that they more than any other people were likely to strive after the maintenance of a good understanding between whites and blacks, for to them a Kaffir war meant the spreading of distress and confusion, peril to life and property, and the arrest of progress.1 They went so far as to say that the control of native policy which the Government in London exercised had not improved the coloured races. "It is a fact beyond dispute," they declared in 1888, "that the moral condition of the Native population, after forty years of British rule, is worse than it has ever been." 2

At first the representative members in the Legislative Council did not claim a complete measure of control over the natives in the event of self-government being granted, but were content that all measures relating to native affairs should be referred to the Government in London for consideration and approval. This attitude, however, was probably of the nature of an offer in return for continued protection; at any rate, it did not satisfy the constituencies. Seven years later, in 1888, the Council took some pains to remove the prevailing impression that, were responsible government established, the control of native affairs would practically remain in the hands of the Crown, observing that it was the essence of responsible government that the local administration should possess full control over all classes of the population. But now the Council took the wind out of the Imperial Government's sails by advocating as strenuously as the latter had ever done some form of representation of native opinion and native interests. Certainly the prolonged discussion of the subject had been stirring the white community to a readjustment of their early views. All this was to the good of the settlement, but the home Government insisted on some positive constitutional guarantee being afforded for the maintenance of native interests. The Council was not irresponsive. They suggested a legislature of two chambers. The seats in the upper chamber might be filled by nominees, and this House alone could be given the power to initiate legislation intended to deal with the Kaffir population. The Secretary of State, however, did not consider this expedient would contain any security that 1 Parl. Papers [C-3174], p. 4.

3

[C-3174], p. 10.

[C-6487], p. 8.

2 [C-6487], p. 9. Ibid. p. 15.

adequate laws would be passed or sufficient money voted for the benefit of the natives,1 particularly as the second chamber would have the initiation of money Bills. Being asked to offer a solution he suggested that all Bills exacting compulsory service of natives or restricting their freedom in any way or altering their old laws or increasing the taxes paid by them should be reserved by the Governor. He also thought a Native Protection Board independent of the legislature might be established and a sum of money should be reserved under the absolute management of the Governor to be spent annually for the education and general advancement of the natives.2 This was written in August 1889. The Colony now only too gladly reverted to the idea of a unicameral legislature, but again the Secretary of State objected. Responsible government with only one House was an unknown thing in the Empire, and it was very desirable to have an upper chamber which would be expected to guard against hasty and illconsidered legislation for the non-European population. In 1892 the British Government demanded the erection of an upper chamber as an indispensable condition to the granting of responsible government.3

The third difficulty that had to be met arose from the presence in the Colony of a large body of natives of India. The Indian Owing to the unreliable nature of the Kaffir as an population. agricultural labourer a commencement was made in the fifties with the introduction of coolies at the public expense. Within a few years several thousands arrived, and contrary to the expectation of the promoters of the scheme, they were not anxious to leave the country when their periods of indenture expired. In 1881 they numbered 25,000, thus nearly equalling the European population. As yet there were among them only some eight or nine dozen registered electors, but large numbers of names were being pushed forward for registration. There was considerable uncertainty as to the position of this class of men under the Charter, so three Bills were introduced into the Legislative Council in 1880 aiming at limiting the Indian franchise by demanding an education test for electors. In the same year a select committee of the Council dealt very summarily with this question by simply recommending the exclusion of the Indian population from the franchise. It was feared that in course of time the Indian vote might swamp the European vote. Another objection was that if the Indians, who belonged to another country and were only brought into the Colony as labourers, could by residence and by a property qualification obtain the franchise, Ibid. p. 24. Cf. p. 74. [C-3796], p. 6.

1[C-6487], p. 22. [C-7013], p. 19.

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