CO885-(18-19) — Page 409

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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Reference :-

C.O.885

19 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

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e might yet find partial uniformity in u machinery of administration throughout component parts. “Uniformity in almin- e principles should be specially aimed at,' etum of a Natal magistrate, quoted on 1 of the Natal report; but we want uni- in practice as well as principles. There ge establishments for the benefit of natives different South African States. Others

• able to speak of them, how far they are ate and efficient; but I have already quoted 13, above) from the two South African to show that there seems to be an opening provement, and I take it that it might be le to suggest to the South African Govern- in connexion with federation, the advisa- of unifying these Establishments and ga regular graded service for the whole uth Africa, with classes and tests and a efined career similar, though on a different to the Civil Service of India.* I very much t, that for a long time to come the best ard of the native races in South Africa will nd not so much in political status as in a administrative service. The whole cost ha service might be a Federal charge, or ight follow the analogy of the Federated States and, while making the higher posts de of them_federal posts, let the different bear the charges of all the minor appoint- within their borders.

uch a service is at all feasible it would produce uniformity. The next point is Want of continuity.

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is could only be met by making the pro- service to some extent at any rate- endent of the Legislatures. One long step s would be a Civil List Act, from which ervice, or at any rate the more important in it, would be paid, so that the salaries other charges would not be voted on the il estimates.

wever difficult it might be to procure ac nce of such an Act, it seems to me that it I be most defensible in principle. The il circumstances of South Africa, in which,

gh there is self government, the large rity of British subjects are not citizens, re a special organisation and seem to justify ting to the analogy of the English Civil in its old form. The King was assigned so money and out of it he paid judges, sters and so forth. It is intelligible and llogical that the High Commissioner should e same way be granted for a long term of

3 a specified sum from which the South

an native service would wholly or partiady

aid, and that that service, or the heads of it,

d be directly responsible to him and not

e elected Legislatures. If some such system

I be worked out, we should have the con-

ty desired we should have the personal

:

lee Colonial Office Paper, Natal No. 65, Confi- Memorandum by Mr. Shepstone on Natal

al

rs," 28th November, 1874, last paragraph.,

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factor which is considered requisite with natives ; and we should have also the final control which, in the case of natives, I have tried to contend, is better exercised from a distance than on the spot, though not removed to England, at any rate removed from the different local centres.

Whether anything of the kind is possible at all others who know South African questions There better than I do will be able to say. would, I should inngine, be the greatest difficulty in inducing the Cape Colony to part with its separate organisation and separate control. But assuming that anything of the kind could be even partially attempted. there are two obvious objections. The first is that it would emphasise the principle-which, as already stated, seems to me at the root a vicious principle of separate treatment for natives. The second is that there might be constant danger of conflict between the two authorities in the same area--the High Commissioner and the Colonial Government and Legislature.

The first objection, that the principle of separate treatment for the coloured race will be emphasised by a special and a separate adminis- tration for that race, cannot be answered except on the score that it is not intended to be a per- manelit measure for all time and that, while. natives are being safeguarded by a separate administration, they will still be qualifying, as far as laws will allow them, to be citizens.

The Natal Report (p. 11, par. 35) will give us

a text which partially applies: :-

"The administration of native affairs must, if it is to be successful, have a self- contained constitution of its own, based on the autocratic principle of control.” and again (p. 13, par. 40)

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To obviate the disadvantages in- herent in a political system which we approve for ourselves, but which is not in its essentials adapted to a people yet under the patriarchal system, Parliament should be urged to grant a charter to the administrative side of the government within such limits as will be indicated, enabling it the more effectually to con trol and improve the natives, made in the same way as a township can be better governed by a Municipality than by the central authority of the country. It is

no part of this proposition to divoree native administration from the general government of the country, and the bogey cry of an imperium in imperio need not therefore be raised. Neither should it be denounced as visionary or empirical, for it can be supported by both experience and analogy, In addition to Munici palities, all incorporated societies control their own affairs within the terms of their constitutions, and so does our own railway department, which is merely

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