The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-03-20

completed their work, but from the
figures thus far forthcoming we can
arrive at approximate percentages Of
voters in the white population Of the
Rand and IN that Of two typical rural
districts.
It appears that in the Witwatersrand
district, where almost all the important
gold mines are situated, the voters con
stitute 3S per cent. Of the total white
population. On the other, hand in the
~Zoutpansberg district only % per cent
and in the Rustenburg district but 20
per cent. Of the total white population
are voters. The difference is due to the
fact that among the Boer inhabitants
of the rural districts early marriages
and large families are the rule, whereas
the population Of the industrial and
urban districts includes a dispropor-
tionate number Of young unmarried men.
The difference is a racial one, moreover,
there being but few Beers in the Wit
watersrand district and but few Britons
in the agricultural tracts. There seems,
|, moreover, to be no doubt that il seats
are distributed according to the number
of voters the British element will cor
troll the colonial Legislature, whereas
If population be made the basis Of dis
tribution the Beers will forthwith re-
cover their former a~scendenoy. The
mine owners and those English speaking
people in Johannesburg who brought
about the Jameson raid and the iniqui-
tous South African War complain that
if seats are to be distributed on a popula-
ton basis the vote Of an urban voter
on the Rand will be worth only about half
as much as the vote OF a rural voter in
Rustenburg, and accordingly they
raise the cry Of Zone vote one value"
which is undoubtedly effective in Great
Britain.
There is a good deal to be said on the
other side, however. The Beers, in
their public meetings and through their
newspapers, point out that not only in
the United States but in almost all
countries of Continental Europe which
possess parliamentary institutions the
seats in the popular branch of the ma
tional legislature are apportioned not
according to the number of voters but
according to population. In the United
Kingdom also, since the reforms Of
1Ss4-S5, the same principle is accepted
to O very large extent, though a few in
herited traditional deviations from it
are still tolerated. According to ex-
General BoTHA, Mr.. EssELEN and other
leading Beers, there is more ground for
the adoption Of the principle in the
Transvaal than in almost any other
country. 1t is certainly far from being
q discredit to the Beers that they marry
early and rear large families, for they
thus add to the white population, which
is still ominously outnumbered by Kaf-
frs. Since, moreover, the Beers are
exclusively farmers, they have
a stake in the country. They were
born there and they expect to die there.
The white population Of johannesburg,
the other hand, Is a floating INT
The young unmarried men, who compose
90 large a part of it, have not come to
the Rand with what the lawyers call
the animus ren,anendi. On the con-
trary, they mean to quit South Africa
for England just as soon as they can
get together what they would deem a
competence.
Mr.. EssELEN, who like ex-General
BoTHA is likely to have much influence
with the Bannerman Government, pro-
poses a compromise. The Beers will
he says, an electoral law by
which seats would be distributed ac-
cording to voters, provided the suffrage
shall be given to all white persons above
tw~enty-one years of age, including
women as well as men. If Great Britain
really means, he says, to deal justly
with the Beers, why should she not o n
tede to the Transvaal that
suffrage which she has sanctioned in
New Zealand and in several Australian
colonies?
There is no doubt that with woman
suffrage the Boer vote would prepon-
ierate over that of all other elements
IF the white population in the former
South African republic, For several
it is possible that the Banner
nan Government may feel disposed to
accept this compromise between the
conflicting views of Beers and Britons
n the Transvaal