Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/612

 188 STATE PAPEES— TEANSVAAL. [1899.

9. In proof of the above statement your Majesty's petitioners would humbly refer to such measures as the following : —

The Immigration of Aliens Act (Law 30 of 1896) ; The Press Law (Law 26 of 1896) ; The Aliens Expulsion Law of 1896.

Of these the first was withdrawn at the instance of your Majesty's Government as being an infringement of the London Convention of 1884.

By the second the President is invested with the powers of suppress- ing wholly, or for a stated time, any publication which in his individual opinion is opposed to good manners or subversive of order. This despotic power he has not hesitated to exercise towards newspapers which support British interests ; while newspapers which support the Government have been allowed to publish inflammatory and libellous articles, and to advocate atrocious crimes without interference.

The Aliens Expulsion Act draws a distinction between the burghers of the State and Outlanders which, your Majesty's petitioners humbly submit, is in conflict with the Convention of 1884. Thus, whilst burghers of the State are protected from expulsion, British subjects can be put over the border at the will of the President without the right of appealing to the High Court, which is, nevertheless, open to the offending burgher. This law was repealed only to be re-enacted in all its essential provisions during the last session of the Volksraad.

10. The promise made by the President with regard to conferring municipal government upon Johannesburg was to outward appearance kept ; but it is an ineffective measure, conferring small benefit upon the community, and investing the inhabitants with but little additional power of legislating for their own municipal affairs. Of the two members to be elected for each ward, one at least must be a burgher. Besides this, the Burgomaster is appointed by the Government — not elected by the people. The Burgomaster has a casting vote, and, con- sidering himself a representative of the Government and not of the people, has not hesitated to oppose his will to the unanimous vote of the councillors. The Government also possess the right to veto any resolution of the council. As the burghers resident in Johannesburg were estimated at the last census as 1,039 in number, as against 23,503 Outlanders, and as they belong to the poorest and most ignorant class, it is manifest that these burghers have an undue share in the representa- tion of the town, and are invested with a power which neutralises the efforts of the larger and more intelligent portion of the community. Every burgher resident is qualified to vote, irrespective of being a ratepayer or property owner within the municipal area.

11. Notwithstanding the evident desire of the Government to legislate solely in the interests of the burghers, and impose undue burdens on the Outlanders, there was still a hope that the declaration of the President on December 30, 1896, had some meaning, and that the Government would duly consider grievances properly brought before its notice. Accordingly, in the early part of 1897, steps were taken to bring to the notice of the Government the alarming depression