PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
19
Reference :-
C.O.885
19 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
2
Populations in self-governing
Colonies.
In
are no natives left in Newfoundland mania. In Canada and Australia they mparatively insignificant remnant, they number about 100,000 out of a [21 pulation of nearly seven millions.
i there are no accurate statistics, and ement is pure guess work. In the Handbook they are estimated at out of a total population of over four but this seems to be clearly an over- and 100,000 is probably nearer the In New Zealand they number about gainst rather less than 900,000 whites. Africa they overwhelmingly outnumber es, being estimated in a report of 1905 1,000 against 1,135,000, or more than es as many.* In the Orange River he whites are more than a third of the In the Cape Colony and the Trans- care abour one-fourth. In Natal about 0 or II. In Southern Rhodesia about
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6. In Swaziland about one in 100. In uanaland Protectorate about one in 120, oland about one in 350.
ividing under the first of the two heads
nula and Australia the federal franchise the state franchise. In Canada some of
ians are citizens. Some are not. In for instance, there are Indian voters. sh Columbia they seem to be expressly 1.+
australia, I am told, the aborigines ly nowhere enjoy the franchise.
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The
wealth Franchise Act of 1902 provides aboriginal native of Australia, Asia, or the islands of the Pacific except New shall be entitled to have his name placed Electoral Roll unless so entitled under 41 of the Constitution." That Section in effect that all adults entitled to vote popular House in a State may vote for monwealth Parliament. To take an of the State restrictions, the Western an Constitution Acts Anfendment Act
provides that no aboriginal native ralia, Asia, or Africa, or person of the o, shall be entitled to be registered in respect of a freehold qualification." is now before the Western Australian ent abolishing the freehold qualification ases of Europeans as well as natives,
annexure No. 7 to the Report of the South
Native Affairs Commission, 1905. [Cd. 2399.] orandum on the Legal status of British North
a Indians: Colonial Reports (Miscellaneous) 900.
C
and expressly excluding from the franchise, without any reservation, natives and half castes.
It is noteworthy that the constitution embodied in the Imperial (Commonwealth of Australia) Act of 1900, which is therefore an integral part of Imperial legislation, provides in Clause 25 that, for the purpose of assigning each State its quota of members, “if by the law of any State all persons of any race are disqualified from voting at elections for the more numerous Houses of Parliament of the State, then, in reckoning the number of the people of the State or of the Commonwealth, persons of that race resident in that State shall not be counted."
In New Zealand, natives are citizens both in theory and in practice, though not (except in the case of half castes) on equal terms with the whites. Half castes are given the alternative of voting either as Europeans for a white represen- tative of the district in which they live, or us Maoris for Maori representatives of the race. Full blooded Maoris vote for one out of four Maori representatives who speak for the race in the Lower House. There are two Maoris out of 38 in the nominated Legislative Council, and four Maoris out of 80 in the House of Represen- tatives (a number which is not far removed from the relative proportions of the population).
In South Africa "the position is, as regards direct representation of the natives of South Africa, that, except at the Cape, it is practically non-existent."*
In the Cape Colony the natives have been admitted to the franchise on equal terms," and this Colony has an appreciable though small number of native voters. In this Colony
there are special native Acts as to land, &c., but the citizenship is open to natives, and this has been the case ever since representative institutions were first given to the Colony. The first elected legislature met in 1854.
In Natal there are special qualifications for natives as regards the franchise, but natives are practically excluded from the citizenship, though not, it would seem, excluded by law.
The
In the Transvaal and Orange River Colonies the new constitutions exclude natives. franchise is confined to adult white male British subjects. In Rhodesia the law is the same as in the Cape Colony, but in 1903 there were only 51 native against 5,200 white voters.
Native Populations in the Crown Colonies and Protectorates.
I think it is safe to say broadly that, in the Crown Colonies, the natives are in principle, and
to a large extent in practice, as much or as little citizens as the white men.
Where there is an elected Legislature, there is, as far as I know, no difference made between
66-69 of [Cu. 2399].
30741
See PP.
A 2