PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
THE C.O.885
16 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO
LONDON
2
a view of the case more favourable to His Majesty's Government than that above expressed.
The Right Honourable
The Earl of Elgin, K.G.,
&c.,
&c., &c.
We have, &c.,
JOHN L. WALTON. W. S. ROBSON.
PAPERS SUBMITTED TO THE LAW OFFICERS.
Lease to East Africa Syndicate. Foreign Office to East Africa Syndicate. East Africa Syndicate to Foreign Office. Foreign Office to East Africa Syndicate. East Africa Syndicate to Foreign Office. Crown Lands Ordinance, No. 21 of 1902.
January 8, 1904. July 5.
July 27. August 3.
1838
No. 93.
(SOUTH AFRICA: INTER-COLONIAL COUNCIL.)
LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OFFICE.
[Competence of the Inter-Colonial Council to coufer Pensionable Rights upon its Servants.]
Royal Courts of Justice, MY LORD,
We were honoured with your Lordship's commands, signified to us in
January 15, 1908. Mr. Just's letter of 11th December ultimo, stating that he was directed by your Lordship to lay before us a despatch from the High Commissioner for South Africa, with enclosures, respecting the question of the competence of the Inter-Colonial Council to confer pensionable rights upon its servants.
That Mr. Just was also to transmit copies of correspondence which had passed earlier in the year with regard to the pension rights of Mr. C. P. Isaac, Auditor to the Inter-Colonial Council, who was transferred from the Imperial Service to the service of the new Colonies. That in that case the High Commissioner had reported (vide his despatch, No. 530, of the 24th of June, 1907), that the Govern- ments of the Transvaal and the Orange River Colony did not feel themselves able to ask the Inter-Colonial Council to make the Transvaal Pensions Ordinance applic- able to pensionable officers transferred to its service because they had been advised that the Council had no power under the Order in Council to give any undertaking in regard to the pension rights of its staff; and that your Lordship, in your answering despatch, No. 396, of the 12th of July, preferred, in the uncertainty then existing as to the future of the Council, to leave the pensionable rights of officers in Mr. Isaac's position to be classed as a liability of the Council, in the event of its dissolution, under Section 49 of the Transvaal and Section 51 of the Orange River Colony Letters Patent.
That the dissolution of the Inter-Colonial Council was imminent and that the High Commissioner, who was apparently not satisfied with the solution proposed in the despatch of the 12th of July, desired, if possible, to make definite provision for the pensions of transferred officers with pensionable service in the service of the Council, on the analogy of the accompanying Transvaal Ordinance, No. 30 of 1906, and Orange River Colony Ordinance, No. 23 of 1904 (Section 19).
That the possibility of making such provision appeared to depend upon the right of the Council to make any arrangements for pensioning its servants, whether transferred from other services or not.
That, as would be seen from the opinion of the Secretary to the Law Depart- ment of the 14th of May, 1906, the competence of the Council to adopt a pension scheme was at that time admitted; and that, in fact, pensions had been granted in certain cases in the Railway service, and a superannuation fund, for which (vide page 24 of the Estimates of the Transvaal and Orange River Colony) a pro- vision of £25,000 had been made under the head of Railways in the last Estimates of the Council, had been in operation for some time so far as the railway employés of the Council were concerned."
That, acting on a similar view of its powers, the Council, at its session in June, 1906, passed the accompanying draft regulations, which were subsequently confirmed, to govern the superannuation allowances to members of the South African Constabulary; and that it would be observed that the pensionable rights which these regulations contemplated formed part of a general scheme of re- organisation of the Force, and were granted partly in order to counterbalance reductions in pay and allowances involved in the reorganisation.
That Section 11 of these draft regulations, referred to in Inspector Kitson's letter of the 7th of May, provided for the reckoning, for pension purposes, of the previous service of officers transferred to the South African Constabulary. That this privilege, by Section 6 of the General Orders of the 6th of April, 1907, was afterwards limited to officers with continuous service in police forces.
That if it were now decided that it was not competent for the Inter-Colonial Council to make provision for the pensions of its servants, not only would it be impossible to make the arrangements now desired by the High Commissioner for
26 Wt 97 2:08 D & 8 5 30076