Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/60

48 receipt of wages of not less than 50 a year. The ministry under the governor includes a colonial secretary or premier, a commissioner of crown lands and public works, an attorney-general, a treasurer-general, and a secretary for native affairs. Since 1872 the ministry holds office, like the English cabinet, at the pleasure of the Parliament. The governor may dissolve both houses, or he may dissolve the house of assembly without dissolving the council. He may give or refuse his assent to bills in the Queen s name, or he may reserve them for the decision of her Majesty. The Queen may disallow any bill assented to by the governor at any time within two years of its receipt. It is further provided, that all bills appropriating any part of the revenues must be recommended to the house of assembly by the governor. The administration of justice is presided over by a supreme court of five judges a chief justice and four puisne judges. The chief justice with two judges holds the supreme court in Cape Town ; two other judges of the supreme court form the &quot; court of the eastern districts &quot; held at Graham s Town. The jurisdiction of the court of Cape Town extends over the whole colony ; that of Graham s Town has a concurrent jurisdiction over the eastern divisions. Circuit courts are held throughout the colony twice yearly. Each division has a salaried magistrate who is also civil commissioner, and the magisterial courts have a limited jurisdiction in civil and criminal cases. The civil commissioner presides over the &quot;divisional council&quot; of his district, an elected body charged with the super- intendenca of roads, boundaries, and other interests of the division. The Roman or civil law, as received in Holland before the introduction of the Code Napoleon there in 1811, vas in force in Cape Colony at the time of its cession to Britain, and icmains authoritative, though a few modifica tions have been sanctioned by Parliament. The Cape Colony possesses important British military and naval stations, and the establishment maintained by the Home Government has always been very considerable. This was especially the case during the Kaffre wars. In recent years, however, a gradual reduction of the number of imperial troops in the colony has taken place. In 1873 two British Infantry regiments, with detachments of the Royal Artillery and Engineers, were quartered in the colony ; but these are kept at the Cape rather for the purposes of the Home Government than for the domestic defence of the colony. A force named the Frontier Armed and Mounted Police was organized for the latter purpose in 1853, and lias been specially serviceable in quelling disturbances on the interior borders of the country. This force is divided into seven troops, and numbers 750 men. Small volunteer corps of rifles and cavalry have been organized at various points of the eastern and western divisions.

The greater number of the Protestant denominations of the United Kingdom, as well as the Roman Catholic Church, are represented in Cape Colony. The Dutch Reformed Church, as might be anticipated from the early history of the country, is by far the most numerous com munity. In form of government and in order of service it closely resembles the Church of Scotland, to which country a considerable number of its ministers belong. The Church of England has, perhaps, the next smaller number of adherents. In 1847 a bishop of Cape Town was appointed to preside over this church, whose diocese extended not only over Cape Colony and Natal, but also over the island of St Helena. Later, however, separate bishops were appointed for the eastern province (with the seat at Graham s Town) and for Natal. Wesleyan Metho dists nearly equal the Anglicans in number, and have a larger proportion of coloured people in their body than any other sect. TheCongregationalists, including Independents and Baptists, are an important body. Lutherans, Presby terians, and other Protestant communities, such as the Moravians, are in smaller numbers. The Roman Catholics have bishops in Cape Town and Graham s Town, but are comparatively few. Government provides an annual grant for ecclesiastical purposes, which is distributed among the various religious bodies, the Congregationalists alone declin ing to receive aid from the state. According, however, to the provisions of the &quot; Voluntary Act,&quot; recently passed, the grants in aid are to be continued only to present incumbents. There are besides several foreign missions in the colony, the most important being the Moravian, London, and Rhenish missionary societies. The Moravians have been established there since 1732, and have laboured hard to convert the native races.

As early as 1839 a scheme of public schools, drawn up by Sir John Ilerschel, came into operation, which was well adapted to the condition and circumstances of the colony at that time. The Education Act of 1865, now in operation, is an advance on this system, and provides three orders of schools adapted to the wants of the main grades of the population, the Europeans, mixed races, and pure natives. These orders comprise (1) Undenominational public schools in each division of the colony in three classes, subject to the inspection of a superintendent-general of education, and having teachers whose salaries are guaran teed; (2) Schools established by missionary societies to which Government aid is granted under certain con ditions for secular education; (3) Day schools and industrial institutions for the civilization of the aborigines on the frontiers of the colony. For higher education there are several colleges. The South African college in Cape Town was founded in 1829, and in its higher classes prepares for the European universities and for colonial examinations ; the college has a grant of 400 annually from Government. Graaf Reinet College, on the same plan, has a similar subsidy. The Grey Institute, in Port Elizabeth; Gill College, in Somerset East; the Diocesan College, under the bishop of Cape Town, the first of the institutions of a purely denominational character ; the Theological Seminary of the Dutch Reformed Church at Stellenbosch ; and four educational institutions of the Roman Catholic Church, are the other schools of higher education which are chiefly worthy of note. A public university, founded on the plan of that of London, arose out of and superseded the Board of Public Examiners (which had been constituted in 1858), and stands at the head of the educational system of the colony ; it was established by Act of Parliament in 1872. Liberal bursaries and scholarships have since been attached to it, enabling students to continue their studies in Britain. The hospital of Cape Town is so far recognized as a medical school by the Colleges of Surgeons and Physicians, that students are allowed to spend two years of their course there in qualifying for their degrees.

The leading public institutions of the Cape Colony the Royal Observatory, the South African Public Library and Museum, and the Botanic Garden and Government Herbarium are noticed under CAPE TOWN below. The Albany or Graham s Town Museum, the chief of the provincial institutions of this kind, perhaps surpasses that of the capital in its collections and classification of the natural products of Southern Africa. A colonial medical committee, appointed by Government and presided over by a Government inspector of hospitals, is at the head of the curative institutions of the colony, the chief of which are the hospitals of Cape Town, the infirmary at Robben Island, and those of Port Elizabeth, Graham s Town, and King William s Town, with the numerous gaol hospitals throughout the country.