Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 04.djvu/203

* CAPE COLONY. 165 CAPE COLONY. consists of two houses, the Legislative Coiiiieil and tlie House of Assembly, which meet at Cape Town, the capital. The former numbers 23 mcTiibcrs elected for seven years, and is pre- sided over ex oflicio by the Chief Justice. The House of Assembly consists of 95 members, elected for live years. The qualifications for voters are quite liberal, and no distinction is made on account of color or race. Parliament must meet at least once a year, and the records are kept in English, while in discussions and de- bates both English and Dutch are allowed. The law of the colony is the Roman-Dutch law modi- fied in aocordance with the local requirements and supplemented by special legislative acts. In cases where there is no provision in the Roman- Dutch code, the English law is followed. The highest local judicial authority is the Supreme Court at Cape Town, consisting of the Chief Jus- tice and eight puisne judges. There is also a court of appeal and a vice-admiralty court, both situated at Cape Town. In the separate divisions and towns justice is administered by resident magistrates, while in the outlying villages the same fimction is performed by periodical courts and justices of the peace. The central govern- ment is represented in each division and district by a civil commissioner or magistrate, whose functions include the collection of revenues and administration of justice. There are also divi- sional councils elected by local rate-payers, and most of the municipalities have municipal coun- cils. The colony has a military force of over 1000 officers and men, known as Cape ^lounted Riflemen, besides nearly 7000 volunteers. Accord- ing to the law passed in 1878, everj' able-bodied man between 18 and 50 is subject to military service in the colony as well as beyond its limits. There are a number of naval fortifications along Ihe coasts, and a strong British fleet is main- tained at Simon's Bay. The principal ports and towns are Cape To^-n, Port Elizabeth, East Lon- don, Graham's Town, Kimberley, Paarl, and Beaconsfield. Finance. The revenue is obtained chiefly from customs duties, licenses, and public domains, and averages about .$34,000,000 per annum.' The ex- penditures had reached by the end of the Nine- teenth Century the sum "of nearly $40,000,000. The indebtedness of the colony is very great when compared with the population, amounting, in moo, to nearly .$153,000,000. The larger part of the debt, however, represents expenditures on public works, the railways alone having absorbed over $100,000,000. Educ.vtion in the colony is assisted by the Government, and is not compulsory. Even among the Europeans illiteracy prevails to a consider- able extent. The Department of Public Instruc- tion is under the direction of the superintendent- general, who has charge of the distribution of grants, while the inspection of the schools is conducted bv deputy inspectors. In 1901 the enrollment in the s<-hools assisted by the Goveni- ment was over 14fi,000. At the head of the edu- cational institutions is the University of the Cape of Good Hope, which is an examining university merely. There are a number of colleges. PoprT.ATTox. The population of the colony, in- cluding that nf Pondoland and the Crown colony of Bechuanaland, was, in 1891, about 1,000,000, or less than six inhabitants per square mile. The whites constitute less than 25 per cent, of the total population, and the rest is made up of JIalays, Hottentots, Kaffirs, Bechuanas, and mixed races. The European population is mostly of English extraction. The descendants of the Dutch settlers, in whose veins there is an in- fusion of Huguenot blood, are known as Afrikan- ders. About 750,000 people belong to different Protestant denominations, over 17,000 are Roman Catholics, over 15,000 Jlohammedans, and 3000 Jews. Hl.STOKY. It was toward the end of the Fif- teenth Century that Dias, a Portugviese nivvi- gator, doubled the Cape of Good Hope, prepar- ing the way for Vasco da Gama, who opened the sea route to India in 1497-98. The thriving trade in that quarter attracted both English and Dutch mercliants, but, although their ships found fre- quent shelter in the bays of the coast of Cape Colony, it was not till the middle of the Seven- teenth Century that an attempt was made per- manently to occupy the country. In 1652 the Dutch East India Companv sent out an expedi- tion which landed in Table Bay and took pos- session of the region, and set about converting it into a habit.ible land. Slowly the development went on, Dutch colonists and French Huguenots, fleeing from religious persecution, taking up their abodes there. During the Eighteenth Century the stream of immigration grew larger, the Dutch scattering over a considerable area, busying themselves now with subduing the wilderness, now the aborigines. At the end of the century there were at the Cape about 27.000 souls of European descent and a slightly larger number of slaves. In January, 180G, for the second time during the wars against Napoleon, an English force cap- tured Cape Colony, stipulating that the '"burgh- ers and inhabitants should preseiwe all the rights and privileges hitherto enjoyed by them." Since that date the Cape has been a colony of Great Britain, though not formally recognized as such until the peace of 1815. During the ensuing sixty years the history of Cape Colony was made up of chapters of war with the Kaffirs and other tribes, and of conflict with the Dutch inhabitants, Mho, from well-foiintfcd causes, felt the rule of England to be oppressive. There oc- curred during these years the famovis 'treks' of the Dutch burghers into the wilderness. The fortitude and heroism they displayed in their wanderings bear high testimony to what men will dare in order to realize in a more or less perfect way their religious, social, and political ideals. The story of the Nineteenth Century in Cape Colony was epitomized in the unequal war be- tween Boer and Briton, which ended in 1902. See South Airicax War: Tkansvaal CoLONy; and Orange River Colony. BiBLiOGR.PiiY. Wilmot. Ceoqraphy of the Cfipr f'olonif (London. 1882) : Greswell, Our ,^nuth African Empire ( ib., 1885) : Mitchell, Dia- momJfs and Gold for ^otilh Africa (ib., 1888) ; Sil- ver, Ufindbook to South Africa (ib., 1891); Greswell. (leofiraphy of Africa South of the Zambesi (ib., 1892) ; Churchill, Men, Mines, and Animals in South Africa (ib., 1892) ; Wallace, Fnrminr/ Industries of Cape Colony (ib., 1896) ; Aubertin. Six ^fonths in Cape Colony and Natal (ill., 189(i) : Macnal. On Veldt and Farm (ib., 1897) ; Illustrated Official Handbook of Cape Colony and fiouth Africa (ib.. 1890) ; Theal, His- tory of South Africa ( ib., 1889-93); Brycc, Im-