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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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Reference :-

TLC.O. 885

15 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

No. 159a.

(SOUTH AFRICA.)

[Future administration of the Railways in the Transvaal and Orange River

Colony.]

SIR,

LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OFFICE.

Law Officers' Department,

Royal Courts of Justice, 18th July 1902. We were honoured by your commands signified to us in Mr. Graham's letter of the 5th instant, stating that he had been directed by you to request the favour of our report on certain questions which had arisen in regard to the future administration of the railways in the Transvaal and Orange River Colony.

That the railways in the Orange River Colony were owned by the State. That in the Transvaal they were built by private Companies, such as the Netherlands Railway Company, the Pretoria-Pietersburg Railway Company, and the Selati Railway Company, to whom concessions were granted by the late President of the South African Republic and the Volksraad.

That copies of the Concessions in the cases of these railways would be found in the Blue Book Cd. 625, 1901, which formed the Appendix to the Report of the Commissioners and the Minutes of Evidence. taken before them (Cà. 623, Cd. 624, 1901), copies of which he transmitted with his letter.

That it was considered important in the interests of the Transvaal and Orange River Colonies that all the railways in these two Colonies should be placed under one central control- and administration, either by vesting the property in those railways in the High Commissioner for South Africa for the time being, or by vesting it in the Governments of the Transvaal and Orange River Colonies, but giving to the High Commissioner the entire control of the railway lands, plant, rolling stock, &c. in hoth Colonies. That if there seemed reason to believe that the railways in the Orange River Colony had already become vested in the Colonial Government, it would seem preferable to introduce the same system in the Transvaal, merely providing for the administration of both railway systems by the High Commissioner.

That with regard to the legal position of these railways you assumed that the State railways in the conquered territories must be regarded as being vested in the Crown by right of conquest. That any lands acquired by conquest would appear to be the property of the Crown, and that you presumed that it would be open to the Crown to transfer such lands to any person of authority, either by Letters Patent or by the appointment of a Crown nominee to hold them. That the new Constitutions conferring Crown Colony Government upon the Transvaal and Orange River Colonies had, however, now been proclaimed and brought into force, and that we should observe that by Article 2 of the Transvaal and Orange River Colony Letters Patent the area of the Government jurisdiction and authority was defined without any reservation of a railway area, and that by Article 12 of these Instruments power was conferred upon the Governor and Lieutenant-Governor respectively to make grants and dispositions of lands in the Colony, a power which was not expressly conferred upon Lord Roberts by the Commission authorising him to annex the conquered territories, and which, presumably, would not be held to have been conferred by implication in the general power given him to administer those territories. That in Article 27 of the Instruc- tions to the Governor of the Transvaal and Article 26 of the Instructions to the Governor and Lieutenant-Governor of the Orange River Colony certain conditions were laid down as to dispositions of vacant or waste land.

That as to the lands which were owned by private Companies in the Transvaal, he was to refer us to the concessions granted to those Companies which would be found in the appendix of documents to the Report of the

C 22091.-4. 25.---8/02.

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