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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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Reference :-

C.O. 885

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

14 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

SIB.

No. 152.

(Care of Good Hope,)

LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OFFICE.

Royal Courts of Justice, August 6, 1897.

We were honoured with your commands, signified in Mr. Wingfield's letter of the 27th ultimo, stating that he was directed by you to lay before us a Despatch from

the Governor of the Cape Colony transmitting a Bill which had been passed by the No. 89, Assembly and Legislative Council of the Colony, and reserved by him for the signification June 30, of Her Majesty's pleasure, entitled "An Act to declare the powers of the Governor with 1897. reference to the Proclamation of Laws in the Transkeian Territories, Tembuland and Pondoland," with a Minute from his Ministers, and newspaper reports of the debates on the Bill

That Mr. Wingfield was also to enclose for reference copies of the three Colonial Acts mentioned in Clause 1 of the Bill and a copy of the Judgment of the Judicial Committee Cape Act, of the Privy Council in the case of Sprigg ». Sigeau.

38 of 1887. Cape Act,

That the Bill had been enacted in consequence of that judgment, in which it was held 3 of 1885, that the 2nd section of the Pondoland Annexation Act, 1894, did not empower the Cape Act, Governor by Proclamation to repeal laws in force in Pondoland or to enact new laws 5 of 1894. but only to bring into force in Pondoland laws which were already in force in other parts of the Colony. That it enacted that that section and the corresponding though differently worded sections of the Transkeian and Tembuland Annexation Acts should be read and construed as if the legislative powers, which, in the case of Pondoland, the Judicial Committee held that the Governor did not possess, had been thereby delegated to him, and it validated all Proclamations purporting to be issued under and by virtue of the provisions of those Acts except the Proclamation authorizing the arrest of Sigeau, which was pronounced invalid by the Judicial Committee.

That you presumed that it was at the times of the enactment of the three Annexation Acts, and was now within the power of the Cape Legislature to delegate to the Governor the power to legislate for the respective portions of the Colony to which those Acts and Letters the Bill now under consideration related, and that the Bill was not open to objection Patent, on the ground that it was ultra vires. That, as bearing on this point, Mr. Wingfield was Fingoland, to enclose copies of the several Letters Patent under which Proclamations were issued &c., June by the Governor annexing to the Colony the respective territories to which the three Letters above-mentioned Acts related, and he was to observe that the territories to which the Patent,

12, 1876. Transkeian and Tembuland Annexation Acts related were now represented in the Cape Tembu- House of Assembly.

land, Oct. 2, 1884.

Letters

Patent,

That the reason for which the Governor with the concurrence of his Ministers had Letters reserved the Bill for the signification of Her Majesty's pleasure, was the exceptional Pondo- provision inserted as a proviso in Clause 1 which empowered the Governor by land, June

Patent, proclamation to authorize the arrest and detention for three months of any person 7, 1894. whom he should be satisfied was dangerous to the public peace if left at large. That Amending it was admitted by the Cape Ministers that such a provision was contrary to the principles of English law, but it was justified by them on the ground of the exceptional Ponto- circumstances of the territories to which the Bill applied, which in their opinion, and land, July that of the Cape Parliament, called for the vesting in the Government of such an exceptional power as a means of preventing the outbreak and spread of disaffection among the Natives which might develop into war as had recently been the case in another recently annexed part of the Colony.

That the Governor accepted the view of his Ministers, and for the reasons stated in his Despatch advised that the Bill be assented to, and that you were prepared to accept his advice unless we were of opinion that on any legal or constitutional grounds Her Majesty could not properly be advised to give Her Assent.

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WI 20260 D&S

27, 1894.

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