CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

(CAPE COLONY.)

Constitution and Government.

THE form of government of the colony of the Cape of Good Hope was originally established by order in Council of the 11th of March, 1853. By Act 28 Vict. cap. 5, and Colonial Act III. of 1865, which provided for the incorporation of British Kaffraria with the colony, various changes were made, and further changes of an important nature by the Constitution Ordinance Amendment Act,' passed by the colonial legislature in 1872, providing for the introduction of the system of executive administration commonly called Responsible Government.' The Constitution formed under these various acts vests the executive in the Governor and an Executive Council, composed of certain office-holders appointed by the Crown. The legislative power rests with a Legislative Council of 22 members elected for seven years, presided over ex officio by the Chief-Justice; and a House of Assembly of 74 members, elected for five years, representing the country districts and towns of the colony. By a law passed in 1882, speeches may be made both in English and in Dutch in the Cape Parliament. The qualification for members of the Council is possession of immovable property of 2,000l., or movable property worth 4,000l. Members of both Houses are elected by the same voters, who are qualified by occupation of house property of the value of 50%., or receipt of a salary of 50l. or wages of 251. with board and lodging. The number of registered electors in 1883 was 68,074.

Governor of the Cape of Good Hope.-Right Hon. Sir Hercules George Robert Robinson, G.C.M.G., born 1824; served in the 87th Fusiliers; member of the Irish Poor Law Board, 1846-53; President of Montserrat, 1854-55; Lieutenant-Governor of St. Christopher, 1855-59; Governor of Hong Kong, 1859-64; Governor of Ceylon, 1864-71; Governor of New South Wales, 1872-78; Governor of New Zealand, 1879-80. Appointed Governor of the Cape of Good Hope, December 1880.

The Governor is, by virtue of his office, commander-in-chief of the forces within the colony. He has a salary of 5,000l. as Governor, besides 1,000l. as Her Majesty's High Commissioner.'

The administration is carried on, under the Governor, by a ministry of five members, called the Colonial Secretary, the AttorneyGeneral, who is Premier, the Treasurer-General, the Commissioner of Crown Lands and Public Works, and the Secretary for Native Affairs.

The highest Court of Judicature in the colony is the Appeal Court in Cape Town, composed of the Chief Justice, the judge presidents of the Eastern Districts and High Courts, and two other judges of the Supreme Court, which consists of a Chief Justice and eight puisne judges. The judges of the Supreme Court hold sessions in Cape Town, and Circuit Courts in the Western Districts; the judges assigned to the Eastern Districts Court hold sessions in Grahamstown and Circuit Courts in the Eastern Districts; and the judges assigned to the High Courts hold sessions at Kimberley.

There are numerous seats of magistracy and further periodical courts held by magistrates at outlying villages, as well as Courts of Special Justices of the Peace. Under certain conditions appeal may be made to the Queen in Council. The Roman-Dutch law forms the great bulk of the law of the colony, modified by Colonial statute law.

Religion and Education.

The bulk of the population of the colony, white and coloured, at the last census, belonged to the Dutch Reformed Church, the Episcopalian coming next in number, though most other bodies are represented. There is no State Church, but a certain sum is appropriated annually for 'religious worship' (10,1957. in 1884–5) to the Dutch Reformed, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, and Roman Catholic churches; in 1875 an Act was passed for the gradual withdrawal of this grant.

Cape Colony has a university, incorporated 1873, and granted a Royal Charter in 1877. It is an examining body, empowered to grant degrees, but with no specially attached teaching institutions. There are five colleges aided by Government grants under the Higher Education Act, with full staff of professors and lecturers in the departments of classics, mathematics, and physical sciences. ber of students, 246 matriculation; 62 B.A.; 55 for survey and other professional work; total 363. In the 1,031 aided schools in 1883, the enrolment was 78,150, with a daily attendance ranging from 38,495 to 45,518.

In these schools it is estimated that about 22,000 are children of aborigines (Kafirs, Fingoes, &c.); 24,000 are of European origin, and the rest of mixed race. Including private schools, 71 per cent. of children of school age are at school. Education is not compulsory. Of the European population in 1875, 34.13 of males and 33.28 of females could neither read nor write.

Revenue and Expenditure.

The revenue of the colony is derived largely from Customs, which produced, on the average of the five years from 1879 to 1883, about a million pounds sterling per annum. Comparatively little is derived from rent or sales of public lands, although vast districts are waiting to be cultivated. The income and expenditure of the colony, the former including loans, the latter including expenditure under Act of Parliament, were as follows during each of the ten years from 1874 to 1883 (ending June 30):

The estimated revenue (excluding loans) for 1882-3 was 3,572,1107., and the actual revenue was 3,306,5387.; the estimated revenue for 1883-4 was 3,496,7907.; and the actual (unaudited) revenue 2,896,2731. The estimates for 1884-5 are-revenue, 3,552,1607.; expenditure, 3,590,2627.

During the last ten years one-half of the expenditure has been for public works, and the revenue from railways alone in 1883 was 941,5097.

The colony had a public debt of 19,671,8591. on January 1, 1884, and of 15,302,759. in 1883, besides 1,139,1507. raised for corporate bodies, but guaranteed in the general revenue. The debt

dates from the year 1859, when it amounted to 80,000l. It rose to 1,101,6507. in 1869, and to 9,527,4597. in 1879. In 1882-3 the interest on the debt amounted to 746,3891., or with loans repaid, 931,3047. A small part of the debt is in course of repayment by instalments, extending to the year 1923; the remainder is provided for by a sinking fund. Nearly the whole of the loans have been spent in public works-upwards of twelve millions sterling on railways alone. The total value of assessed property in the colony in 1882 was returned at 34,106,9187.

Army.

For the defence of the colony a military force of three kinds is maintained the Cape Mounted Riflemen, 996 officers and men in

1883; Cape Field Artillery, 91 officers and men; and Cape Infantry, 527 officers and men. Besides, by a law passed in 1878, every ablebodied man in the colony between 18 and 50 is subject to military service beyond, as well as within the colonial limits. There was besides a body of 3,005 volunteers in 1883. Expenditure in 1882-83 on colonial defence-votes, 254,0387., actual, 213,9967.

Area and Population.

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The Cape Colony was originally founded by the Dutch, under Van Riebeek, about the year 1652. When it was taken by the English, in 1796, it had extended east to the Great Fish River. In 1803, at the peace of Amiens, it was given up to the Netherlands, but was again occupied by British troops in 1806. Since that time the boundary has been gradually enlarged by the annexation of rounding districts. The most important of these annexations are British Kaffraria (now the districts of King William's Town, East London), in 1866; Stullerham, Kemgha, and the Transkeian Districts, including Tembuland, Emigrant Tembuland, Galekaland and Bomvaniland, and Griqualand West in 1880. The total area and estimated population of the colony of the Cape of Good Hope may now (1883) be stated as follows:

The Cape Colony, excluding the Transkei, is divided, politically and administratively, into 66 fiscal divisions and 70 magisterial districts. The population at date of last census (1875) was as follows:

:

At the time of the census, of the total population 521,777 were

natives of the colony, of whom 203,463 were whites.

Of the re

mainder 73,000 were natives of other parts of South Africa (about 2,400 whites); 22,000 natives of Great Britain, 4,685 Germans, 883 Dutch.

The capital of the colony, Cape Town, had a population of 33,239 in 1875, and with suburbs 45,240; Port Elizabeth had a population of 13,049; Kimberley, 13,590.

The majority of the white natives are of Dutch, German, and French origin, mostly descendants of the original settlers.

The average density of the population is 3.61 per square mile, varying from 79.39 in the Cape Division to 0.28 in Calvinia on the N.W. frontier. There is no general system of registration of births and deaths in the colony. According to the Church returns there were, in 1883, 2,818 marriages, 14,144 births or baptisms, and 3,349 deaths; but these must be regarded as very incomplete. The amount of immigration into Cape Colony is small; from 1873 to 1881 the total number of immigrants sent by the emigration agent in England was 16,632; the greatest number being in the year 1881-4,143. There were 1,118 persons returned as paupers in 1882.

Other South African possessions of Great Britain, directly under Imperial jurisdiction, are the following: Basutoland, area 10,290 square miles, population 128,000; Bechuanaland, 42,900 square miles (including the new district of Stellaland), a protectorate; Pondoland, population 200,000, a protectorate (1884); Walwitch Bay, on the coast of Namaqualand, with rayon of 10 to 16 miles round.

Trade and Commerce.

The following table shows the value of the leading exports from the Cape in 1881, 1882, and 1883, according to the official Cape Returns:

The value of diamonds exported from the colony in 1883, not entered in above statement, was 2,742,470l., and the total value from 1867 to 1883 was 28,965,2477.

The values of the total imports and exports, excluding specie, of the Cape Colony and dependencies, in each of the five years from 1879 to 1883, were as follows:—