the Transvaal, and Hon. N. F. de Waal of the Cape. This date (May 31) was celebrated as a public holiday throughout the Provinces and the Governor-General issued the following Message: "The King commands me to express through you to the people of South Africa, on the birthday of Union, his earnest hope and strong confidence that the new Constitution will, under Divine Providence, further the highest welfare of South Africa and add strength to the Empire."

A

From Canada came a message through Lord Grey to Lord Gladstone: "His Majesty's Canadian Ministers, on behalf of the Canadian people, desire to convey to your Excellency and to the people of South Africa an expression of their congratulations on the consummation of the union of all the races of South Africa under the British Crown and of their belief that it will insure harmony, prosperity and constitutional freedom, and of their hope that it will prove as beneficial in South Africa as in Canada." Message of grateful thanks was received in reply. Throughout Canada, on May 31, and as the result, originally, of a suggestion from Mr. H. R. Poussette, Canadian Trade Commissioner at Durban, flags were flown on the public schools-the Provincial Government of Ontario, through the Hon. R. A. Pyne, Minister of Education, leading the way and being followed by the British Columbia, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Manitoba Governments. The next important event was the General Election. The Dutch parties, the Afrikander Bond in Cape Colony, the Het Volk in the Transvaal, the Unie in the Free State, united under Mr. Botha as their Leader while Dr. Jameson organized the Opposition in all the Provinces into what was called the Unionist Party, with the following platform: A comprehensive scheme of national defence; an efficient and impartial Civil Service; the improvement of social conditions by a vigorous policy, including compulsory education wherever possible and also technical instruction; opposition to the introduction of Asiatics while securing fairness for those now lawfully settled; the maintenance of the liquor excise and prohibition of the sale of liquor to natives; industrial legislation and closer settlement; the development of agricultural resources; the administration of railways and harbours with a view to the reduction of rates; the fostering of exports and the mining industry; and the adoption of a moderate tariff protecting legitimate industries and giving an Imperial preference. In a speech at Pretoria on June 14, Mr. Botha announced his policy according to the following summary:

1. Welding of the different races into one great people.

2. Recognition of the fact that Parties should be based upon principle. 3. Encouragement of the white population and prevention of Asiatic Immigration.

4. A broad educational policy.

5. Attention to the needs of workers and the requirements of Empire defence.

6. The development of Industries and Mining.

7. Land settlement, the encouragement of capital and the opening of Foreign markets.

Protection by the British flag, the Premier declared to be of the utmost importance, and he hoped the ties with the Mother-Country would be strengthened. He announced his intention to live at Groote Schur, the inheritance of the Union from Cecil Rhodes. Mr. Botha's candidacy in Pretoria against Sir Percy Fitzpatrick and his eventual defeat was one of the sensations of the campaign while Mr. Fischer's Educational policy, when Premier of the Orange River Colony, in making both languages compulsory in the schools was another issue. Mr. Botha's policy in this respect was announced on July 12 as (1) equal opportunities of language; (2) the medium of instruction to be the Mother-tongue of the pupil; (3) no compulsion. In August the unopposed returns were stated at 29 Ministerialists and 8 Unionists. On Sept. 15, the final returns showed the defeat of Mr. Botha in Pretoria by Sir Percy Fitzpatrick, of Hon. H. C. Hull in Johannesburg by Sir George Farrar, of Mr. F. R. Moor in Natal and the election of Dr. Jameson in two constituencies. The Ministerialists or Nationalists obtained 66 seats, the Unionists 38, the Independents 13, and the Labourists 4-or a net Government majority of 11. Out of these figures, however, the Government majority, under ordinary conditions, was expected to be about 20. Following the Elections Mr. Botha and Mr. Hull obtained other seats and Mr. Moor retired from the Cabinet into the Senate.

After the celebration of Union Day, under conditions which involved drapings of mourning for the dead Sovereign, most elaborate preparations were made for the inauguration of the new Parliament on Nov. 4th. Parliament House at Capetown was partly rebuilt and a great pageant of South African history arranged. The latter event opened on Oct. 29th and was a triumph of colour effects, of organization, and historic embodiment. Under the direction of Mr. Frank Lascelles, who managed the Quebec Tercentenary Pageants, it cost about £30,000. H.R.H. the Duke of Connaught, who was formally invited and urged by the new Botha Government, through the Governor-General, to pay this visit to South Africa, arrived at Capetown, accompanied by the Duchess and a large suite, on Oct. 31.

At the succeeding ceremonies and functions Canada was officially represented by Hon. R. Lemieux, M.P., Postmaster-General, who had accompanied the Royal party from London; New Zealand by Hon. George Fowlds, Minister of Education; Australia by Hon. Andrew Fisher, Prime Minister. Addresses from all races and creeds and from all parts of the country poured in upon the Royal visitor and, on Nov. 3rd, a State banquet was held and felicitous speeches delivered. One of the most notable was that of Canada's representative whom The Times correspondent described as the

ablest and most outstanding of the delegates from other Dominions. His speech was a presentation of comparative conditions between South Africa and Canada, in a racial sense, and the expression of a vigorous belief that the results would be the same-unity, peace and loyalty. "Where, I pray, except under the British Crown alone, can such a spectacle be ever witnessed? There, far away where the stars glitter under our northern frosty skies, a man of French lineage, belonging to the minority, acting as chief adviser to His Majesty in the oldest of the Oversea Dominions and here under the tropics where the sun shines and irradiates a luxuriant vegetation, a Boer General is entrusted with the seals of office in the latest Union. Yet, each in their official capacity, and from both ends of the earth, maintaining with undisputable loyalty, the direct relations of each of their free governments with the Crown -the Crown which is not only the symbol but the real bond of unity in the greatest empire that the world has ever seen."

On the following day Parliament was opened by His Royal Highness who was accompanied by the Duchess of Connaught and Lord and Lady Gladstone and a brilliant suite. The Union Senate had meanwhile elected Dr. F. W. Reitz, ex-President of the Orange Free State, as its President and the Union Assembly had chosen Hon. J. T. Molteno as Speaker. After a speech in which the Duke expressed the great regret of the King at events having rendered it impossible for his original hope of performing this ceremony being realized he declared Parliament open in the name and on behalf of His Majesty. A message was then read from King George. During a speech in the evening His Royal Highness said:

I would say to those who have made surrenders that they are richer for having made themselves citizens of a nobler State than any which this country has seen before. The rising generation will grow up nurtured in the environment of full and true liberty, blessed with a Constitution of your own creating. I look forward with hope and confidence to the happiness and prosperity of the great South African nation, its peoples filled with the patriotism akin to the love which Britons of other countriesCanadians, Australians and New Zealanders-have for the countries of their birth, and instinct like them with the wider patriotism which makes us all alike co-partners in the brotherhood of the British Empire.

Following these events and the laying of the corner-stone of a new University of South Africa the Duke started (Nov. 8) upon his 4,000-mile tour of the Union during which he visited Bloemfontein, Livingstone, Salisbury, Buluwayo, Pochefstroom, Pretoria, Johannesburg, Pietermaritzburg and Durban. Many Addresses, enthusiastic popular receptions, native and Dutch and English functions, magnificent gifts, stately and splendid trappings of travel, marked this tour and on Dec. 3rd the Royal party sailed for England. A number of Honours were bestowed, the chief ones being a G.C.M.G. to Lord Gladstone, a G.C.V.O. to General Lord Methuen, Commander of the Forces, a K.C.M.G. to Ernest Gilpin,

Secretary of the Union Convention, and a K.C.V.O. to Sir Lewis Michell. Meanwhile, a monument which had been erected in Toronto, costing $37,000, in honour of Canadians who fell in the Boer War had been unveiled by General Sir John French; several young women came from South Africa to study at the Guelph or St. Anne Agricultural Colleges and these institutions were frankly taken as the model for a Transvaal College of Agriculture; in one of his trade reports Mr. Poussette drew attention to the important part played by New York Commission Houses in business transactions between the United States, Canada and South Africa as not always to the advantage of Canada; in July Sir George M. Sutton, lately Premier of Natal, visited the Dominion and a little later Thomas Bagnall of Capetown endeavoured to organize an Exhibition of Canadian Manufactures and natural products to be held in South Africa.

As to South African conditions and development little can be said. The most recent estimate of population showed (1907) 1,188,570 whites and 4,282,920 black or coloured; the production of gold in Rhodesia was £2,623,788 in 1909 and over £1,000,000 for the first five months of 1910; the total South African Public Debt quoted on the London Stock Exchange in 1910-much of it guaranteed by Great Britain-was £102,521,450; at the annual meeting of the Transvaal Chamber of Mines (Apl. 14) it was stated that the past year's production of gold was 7,280,542 ounces, valued at $154,628,940; the imports into British South Africa for the calendar year 1909 were £29,842,056 or an increase of £3,600,000; the exports were £51,151,463 or an increase of £5,000,000; the total Assets of the Transvaal Mines on June 30gold, coal, diamond and other minerals-was given as £631,000,000. In this connection the first Union Budget in the House of Assembly presented by Mr. H. C. Hull showed imports for the first 10 months of 1910 totalling £27,800,000 and exports of £44,967,000; the Public Debt of the Union as £106,336,832, with a floating indebtedness of £9,700,114.

Canadian

the West

Indios

The central point in this connection during the Relations with year was the concluding work of the Royal Commission on Trade Relations between these parts of the Empire. It had been appointed in 1909 by the Imperial Government and had already visited Canada and parts of the West Indies. The Commissioners were Lord Balfour of Burleigh (Chairman), Sir John Dickson-Poynder, who later became Lord Islington and Governor of New Zealand, Sir Daniel Morris and Messrs. Fielding and Paterson of Canada. The questions mainly discussed at all the meetings in the Islands were the Fruit exports to the United States, which were of much value and which some feared might be affected in a retaliatory manner by any combined West Indian Preferential policy; the

importance of Canada's preference in favour of West Indian sugar; and the necessity of better steam communication with Canada, with Great Britain and amongst the Islands themselves. After a final visit to some of the Islands in the early winter and further sittings in London the Report of the Commission was issued on Sept. 27th. It dealt first with the Canadian preference to West Indian sugar which, in turn, had been affected beneficially by the German surtax and by the United States preference given to sugar from Porto Rico, the Philippines and Cuba, and expressed the following opinion as to its value and influence:

We are convinced that the Preferential policy initiated by the Canadian Government has already been of very great benefit to the West Indian producer of sugar. This is admitted by the best informed, most intelligent and most candid representatives of that industry. It is impossible to state with absolute accuracy the proportions in which the Preference has been divided and the discrepancies to be observed in the estimates of the witnesses were to be expected; but we are of opinion that taking one year with another, those interested in the production of British West Indian sugar have received from a third to a half or, approximately, from 9s. to 14s. per ton above the price which they would have been able to obtain without the Preference. Beyond all question those interested in the production of sugar in the West Indies have also received collateral advantages in the widened area of their market outside Canada, as, for example, on the Clyde. The Greenock refiners have purchased sugar grown in the West Indies and have transported the refined product to Canada and, by the operation of the Preference given by the Dominion upon the refined product of British-grown sugar they have been able to do, to some extent, a successful business.

The Commission believed, also, that the arrangement had benefited the Canadian refiner by relieving him of competition for supplies in other markets, and by stimulating consumption through the reduction of duties. Upon one point regret was expressed: "It is impossible to conceal from ourselves that all those interested in the production of sugar in the West Indies, wherever situated and in whatever class of sugar they are chiefly interested, look with deep concern upon the permission given in the early months of 1909 to the Canadian refiners to purchase and import 20 per cent. of their consumption of non-preferred sugar upon the Preferential terms." It was thought to be possible that this Canadian Preference would not be continued indefinitely without reciprocal concessions and the situation was thus summarized: "The geographical position of the West Indian Colonies must always tend to throw them under the influence of the fiscal system either of the United States or of the Dominion of Canada." As to the West Indian policy the following suggestion was made: "What appears to be necessary, however, is not a uniformity of tariff for the West Indies, however desirable that may be; not even a uniformity as to method of creating the Preference-whether by increase or diminution of dutiesbut that a uniform minimum amount of Preference should be