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11026.

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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11 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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MY LORD,

No. 736.

(CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.)

LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OFFICE.

We are honoured with your Lordship's commands signified in Mr. Holland's letter

Temple, November 7, 1871. of the 3rd instant, stating-

1st. That he was directed by your Lordship to transmit to us the copy of part of a Despatch of the 30th August, from the Governor of the Cape Colony in which questions of importance were raised and suggested with respect to the proper course to be followed in the event of it being decided to divide that Colony into provinces or to effect a federation of it with any of the neighbouring republics and native tribes or the Colony of Natal.

2nd. That in June last commissioners were appointed by the Governor to inquire into and report upon the question of federation and other matters connected therewith. and Mr. Holland was to annex, for our information, a copy of the commission, excluding the merely formal parts.

3rd. That he was also to annex a copy of the Order in Council of 11th March 1853, which would be found at page 27 of the parliamentary paper of May 1853, and in which the Letters Patent in May 1850 were recited, and also a copy of the Ordinance of April 1852, as amended by the Order in Council, and as to the general powers vested in a representative legislature like that of the Cape to make laws respecting the con- stitution and powers of such Legislature, Mr. Holland was to refer us to the 5th section of the Colonial Lawa Validity Act 28 & 29 Vict. c. 63.

4th. That the Commissioners had not yet reported, but your Lordship thought it desirable that he should, without delay, be furnished with advice as to the legal and constitutional mode of proceeding in each of several contingencies in which it might become necessary to take action in order that explicit instructions might be in the hands of the Governor enabling him to act at once without such reference to England as might seriously retard negotiation, or cause a convenient opportunity to be altogether lost.

5th. That the following were the principal points on which your Lordship requested to be favoured with our opinion, but your Lordship would further be glad to receive any observations or suggestions which appeared to us to arise upon the legal and constitutional questions raised by the Governor's Despatch :-

1. Whether the Cape Legislature has power, without the assistance of the Imperial Legislature, to divide the Colony into provinces, and to invest the provincial autho- rities with legislative and administrative powers subordinate, however, to a Supreme Colonial Parliament, either upon the system adopted in New Zealand under the Imperial Act 15 & 16 Vict. c. 72., or upon that more recently adopted in Canada under the Imperial Act 30 Vict. c. 3?

2. Whether the Cape Legislature has power, with the assent of the Colony of Natal, to unite that Colony or confederate it with the Cape, and to provide for the government

of the united Colony or confederate Colonies?

As bearing upon that question, Mr. Holland was to annex, for reference, a copy

of the existing charter for the government of Natal in which the different steps through which that Colony has passed are recited.

3. Whether, if Colonial legislation be not sufficient to unite or confederate Natal with the Cape, such union or confederation may properly be effected by Imperial legislation and Order in Council upon addresses from the Natal and Cape Legislatures, as in the case of British Columbia and Canada, under the provisions of section 146 of the British North America Act (30 Vict. c. 3.), or in what other way such union or confederation may best be effected?

4. If an independent state, such as the Orange Free State, desires to be united with the Cape Colony, an Imperial Act is required, or whether the Cape Parliament has power to effect such annexation and to legislate for the government of the territory so annexed; and in the latter event whether such Colonial legislation should be preceded by a proclamation declaring auch territory to be British territory and the inhabitants British subjects, or by a formal annexation of the territory under Letters Patent, as was done in 1863 in the case of the annexation of "No-man's-land" to Natal

0 16978-793,

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