South African Union

Court appeal may be made only to the King's Privy Council. As the representative of the King, the Governor-General is commanderin-chief of the naval and military forces.

The legislative power is vested in a Parliament of South Africa, consisting of a Senate and an Assembly, and in the Governor-General, representing the Crown, who may summon, prorogue, or dissolve Parliament. For ten years, or until a change is made, the Senate consists of forty members-eight appointed by the Governor-General, and eight elected by the legislative bodies of each province for a term of ten Four of the appointed Senyears. ators are chosen because of their special fitness for looking after the interests of the colored races. Α Senator must be at least thirty

years old, and own real estate

worth $2.500. Members of either house must be of European descent, and resident at least five years in the provinces. The Assembly consists of 121 members, chosen directly, by electoral divisions, for a term of five years, at the end of which period a reapportionment is to be made. For the first term, Cape Colony has 51, Natal 17, Orange Free State 17, and Transvaal 36.

Though natives are excluded from membership in Parliament, the franchise rights now enjoyed by them in Cape Colony may not be disturbed except by a twothirds vote of each house. Money, revenue, and tax measures originate in the Assembly, but only on recommendation of the Governor

General.

The provinces are divided into administrative districts under resident magistrates. Each province has a provincial council, which deals with elementary education, local institutions, agriculture, etc., levies direct taxation, and may borrow money on the provincial credit. Each province has an administrator appointed by the Governor-General for a term of five years. He is advised by an executive committee of four, chosen by the provincial council from its membership.

No general scheme of defence has as yet been made public. Universal military training and liability to service have been discussed as probabilities; and there are many advocates of the establishment of a military college. The strength of the permanent troops of the former colonies was 12,400. Before the Union, Cape Colony and Natal paid an annual contribution of $425,000 to the British Navy, and this obligation was taken over by the Union Government on its formation. It is thought that the permanent arrangement will also consist of a money payment rather than the maintenance of a local navy. The Union, however, will have charge of its local coast defenses.

316A

All real and personal property formerly belonging to the four colonies, and all mineral rights, were transferred to the Union government on its formation. The Union also assumed the burden of the colonial debts. All moneys received by the Union are at present paid into a Consolidated Revenue Fund, out of which the government is to pay annually to the administrator of each province the amount considered necessary by the Governor-General-in-Council. This scheme is only temporary, a permanent arrangement waiting on the report of a commission appointed to inquire into the financial relations between the Union and the provinces. A general Railway and Harbor Fund is managed by a commission appointed for that purpose. The following table shows the public debt of the Union at the time of its formation (1910):

PROVINCE.

Cape of Good Hope
Natal

Transvaal
Orange Free State.

Total

South African Union

of a draft act of union. As amended by the Convention at Bloemfontein in May, in accordance with suggestions from the four Houses, the Act was accepted by the South African Parliaments, by the Parliament of the United Kingdom, and by the King of Great Britain, who gave the royal assent on Sept. 20, 1909. The name of the Orange River Colony was changed to the Orange Free State province, and provision was made for the admission of contiguous British territory, including Rhodesia and the protectorates of Bechuanaland and Basutoland.

The official date for the commencement of the new government was set for May 31, 1910, the anniversary of the Peace of 1902. The Governor-General, Herbert J.Gladstone (q.v.), raised to the peerage as Viscount Gladstone, and the ten ministers forming the Executive

cussed in the Cape Parliament, which appointed a committee to consider the question. In 1877, Lord Carnarvon's bill was passed by the British Parliament and approved by the King. The constitution, modelled largely on that of Canada, provided for a GovernorGeneral, the representative of the King, assisted by a Privy Council; a Legislative Council, representing the divisions of the federation, and a House of Assembly. Each province was to have a chief executive and a legislature. The Union proved ineffective because, imposed from outside, it lacked local support.

After the South African War (q.v.), however, the liberal treatment of the conquered Dutch states produced happy results, and the movement for a federation of the colonies grew rapidly among the colonists themselves. Moreover, long-standing disagreements among the four states concerning customs and railroads seemed most likely to be solved by union. In 1908 the subject was brought to the colonial Parliaments. On their approval of the plan, a National Convention for the adoption of a constitution was assembled, meeting in Durban and Cape Town, in October and November. In February, 1909, the Convention submitted to the Parliaments its report in the form

$40,000,720 $583,545,560

Council, were sworn in on May 31. Candidates for the House of Assembly and the provincial councils were nominated on Aug. 19, and elected on Sept. 9. The first Parliament was opened by the Duke of Connaught, representing the King, in November, 1910.

Political parties in the new Parliament have separated along lines of race, rather than political creed. The distinction between Briton and Boer is still a living one; and while the feeling is less strong in the younger generation, it is accentuated among the present leaders by differences of interest and occupation-the English living largely in the cities, the Boers in the country. An attempt by political leaders, at the time of the election, to combine on the best men in both parties --known as the 'Fresh Start Movement' proved unsuccessful, and party lines were maintained. The Parliament consists of 67 Nationalists (Dutch interests), 40 Unionists (English interests), 10 Independents, and 4 members in the Labor interest. Some of the problems to be solved are concerned with education, the army, and the adjustment of the complex financial relations between the Union and the Customs provincial governments.

are to remain unchanged for the present, the rulings of the Customs Convention of 1906, which give a rebate on British manufactured goods, being still in force.

The personnel of the Parliamentary leaders is significant of the diverse elements that constitute the

South African War

organized his army, and made elaborate preparations for resisttime and again the ance; but Boers melted away from magnificent positions after long-range From Johannesburg fighting. they fled precipitately the moment the pressure of the British columns made itself felt, and on the May 30 town surrendered. A few days later, on June 5, Lord Roberts marched into Pretoria, and liberated 3,000 British pris

oners.

Away in the west the little garrison at Mafeking had been holding out since the middle of October, and suffered severely from lack of proper food. The investing Boer force made a final attack on May 12, but Colonel Baden-Powell surrounded and cut off the attacking force when it got inside the camp. Colonel Mahon, who on May 4 set out from Barkly West with a mounted column, finally relieved Mafeking on May 17. After the fall of Pretoria De Wet began guerilla tactics and prolonged the war for two years. The surrender of Prinsloo, with 4,000 Boers, did not discourage this renewed activity. De Wet foiled all attempts to take him, and on August 4 crossed the Vaal river. In September he was strong enough to attack the town of Ladybrand, but was repulsed. About the end of August Lord Roberts left Pretoria, made his final advance and joined hands with Buller at Belfast in Natal.

In December, 1900, Lord Roberts returned to England, and the chief command devolved upon Lord Kitchener. De Wet continued as active as ever. His next move was to cross the Orange river and invade Cape Colony, but in this project he was frustrated through two other Boer leaders, Kritzinger and Hertzog, who succeeded in crossing the river and creating unrest for some weeks in the colony. After that De Wet projected an attack upon Cape Town itself, while Botha was to march upon Durban; but this bold scheme was likewise defeated, and again De Wet made his escape to the north, leaving many of his wagons in the hands of Colonel Plumer, who pursued him as far as Fauresmith. The vast tracts of country over which they manoeuvred, and the mobility of the Boer forces, enabled them to appear and disappear, to concentrate and disperse, with a suddenness that was almost magical; and as ordinary methods of warfare proved futile against them, Lord Kitchener set about the estab lishment of an extensive system of blockhouses along the railway line, each one garrisoned and in communication with its neighbor on either side. Armored trains Scouring the line were able to

317

bring help when called for. De Wet was unable to withstand the new plan. On February 27, 1901, half his command was captured. As the year 1901 advanced and the blockhouse system was extended, the Boer forces were more and more confined. In the Eastern Transvaal there were several Boer defeats, and General Ben Viljoen was captured. In the Orange River Colony a sweeping movement was organized by Lord Kitchener, which had for its object the final breaking of the power of De Wet. The 'great drive,' as it was called, began early in February, 1902, and so thoroughly was it carried out that the Boer general and his followers were specdily shut into the trap, and their project of another raid into Cape Colony was at an end. The fortune of war, however, was not all on the side of the British even now. They lost nearly all the escort of a convoy near Klerksdorp, and on March 7, Lord Methuen was captured by the Boers, but speedily released. Shortly afterward another 'drive' by Lord Kitchener took place, and this was the last important engagement of the war.

The terms of surrender offered by the British government were accepted by the Boers at the conference of Vereeniging, which met on May 14, and on May 31 they were duly signed at Pretoria. Thus ended a war which cost the British nation the lives of more than 20,000 men. See L. S. Amery's Times' History of the Boer War (1902), Wilkinson's Lessons of the War (1900), Cunliffe's History of the Boer War (1901), Sir A. Conan Doyle's The Great Boer War (1902), The War in South Africa, prepared by the German general staff (trans. by Colonel Du Cane, 1905), and the reports of the U. S. Military Attachés published by the War Department. The British official history of the war was in preparation in 1906.

South Amboy, bor., Middlesex co.. N. J., 22 m. s.w. of New York city, at the mouth of the Raritan R., on Raritan Bay, and on the Cent. of N. J. and the Pa. R. Rs. It is an important coal-shipping port of the latter railroad. The principal manufactories produce terra - cotta, pottery, and asphaltum. Extensive deposits of clay and moldingsand are found in the neighborhood. A drawbridge spans the river at this point, connecting South Amboy with Perth Amboy. The town was laid out in 1835 and the borough incorporated in 1898. Pop. (1910) 7,007.

South America is wider in the N. and tapers to the S., forming a somewhat pear-shaped outline. Its extreme southern point is

South America

Cape Horn (more properly Hoorn), in 56° s. The extreme length is 4,500 m. and the breadth about 3,000 m. The continent is bounded on the w. by the Pacific, and on the E. by the Atlantic Ocean, where Africa__approaches within 1,700 m. of Cape San Roque. Its area is 7,700,000 sq. m.. The average elevation of the continent is 2,000 ft.; yet over 40 per cent. lies below 600 ft., a greater proportion than in any other continent except Europe.

Physical Divisions.-S. America is essentially an Atlantic and not a Pacific continent. Extensive highlands exist in the E., divided by the broad valley of the Amazons into the Guiana highlands in the N. and the Brazilian highlands in the s. Communication is also possible by the lowlands of the Orinoco valley in the N., and by those of the Plate basin in the s. There are thus three great gateways to the central lowlands, which are completely shut off from the Pacific by the W. Cordillera area. This is a band of one or more young folded mountain chains, with plateaus between, and varies in width from a few miles to 500.

The Eastern Highlands.-The Guiana highlands consist of Archæan rocks, covered in the w., or Venezuelan part, by horizontal layers of sandstone, whose highest parts are Icutu (probably 11,000 ft.) and Roraima (8,600 ft.). In the E. part the highest region lies in the s., and descends sharply to the Amazons basin; the longer rivers to the N. pass from terrace to terrace in great waterfalls. The coast is flat and sandy, formed by ocean currents. The Brazilian highlands are very largely made up of Mesozoic sandstone fringed with Paleozoic strata; and Archæan masses constitute the plateaus of Matto Grosso, Goyaz, and that between the São Francisco valley and the sea. A number of mountain ranges occupy this plateau region with occasional elevations of 5,000 to about 10,000 ft. Itatiaya, 9,840 ft., in the state of Rio de Janeiro, and Itajuba in the state of São Paulo, 7,800 ft., are among the highest peaks. Granites, schists, and other crystalline rocks prevail as a central foundation, and these are folded and cut by mineral veins dating back to Paleozoic time. The coast is mainly low, of Tertiary sediments, and between the Amazons and the Parahyba it is bordered by a sandstone reef, revealing a former extension of the continent. This is followed by a steep coast with numerous inlets, the picturesque bay of Rio de Janeiro being the largest. From the tropic to the Plate the coast

plain the shrinkage of Lake Titicaca.

The Western Cordillera area, sometimes collectively known as the Andes, extends over one-sixth of the earth's circumference. In the N. it curves in a great arc from the Caribbean Sea to Arica (18° s.), and is narrowest in the centre opposite the Gulf of Guayaquil, but it spreads out into several ranges, with intermontane plateaus towards each end. At Arica the system is widest (500 m.), and includes the lofty plateau of Bolivia, drained to Lakes Titicaca and Aullagas. These plateaus are of enormous size, 8,000 to 11,000 ft. above the sea, with almost level tracts separated by mountain ranges but not cut by gorges very extensively. The system narrows to the s., and only one main range is prominent beyond Aconcagua (23,080 The ft.), the highest summit. S. Andes are heavily glaciated, and alpine glaciers exist on most of the higher peaks even at the equator, such as Antisana, 19,335 ft., and Cayambé, 19,186 ft., in Ecuador. The snow line varies from 14,000 to 17,000 ft., and, as there are many peaks in the Andes from 20,000 to 23,000 ft. in elevation, glaciers of this type are numerous. Several outliers rise above the pampa-e.g. sierras of Cordoba, Tandil, and Ventana -and the Patagonian plateau. A lower coastal chain, separated by a longitudinal valley from the main chain, can be traced from Panama to 6° S., and from Arica to the extreme s. The mountains of N. Venezuela, Trinidad, and probably the Sierra de Santa Marta, seem to be distinct from the N. Andes, and may represent the end of the Antillean chain. Active volcanoes are numerous, especially s. of Lake Titicaca and in Ecuador. Cotopaxi, 19,613 ft., Tunguragua, 16,690 ft., and Sangai, 17,464 ft., in Ecuador are the largest active volcanoes in any part of the world. The w. coast is concordant, with few breaks. The most important transverse gulf is that of Guayaquil, except s. of 42° S., where there is a well-developed

fiord coast similar to that of the glaciated portions of other continents.

The only islands of S. America of any importance are the small ones which lie parallel to the concordant coasts of Venezuela and Trinidad; the Falkland Islands, which rise above the continental platform in the extreme s.; and the volcanic Galapagos Islands on the equator, which have no physical connection with S. America, although usually considered with that continent.

The oldest part of the continent is the eastern highlands of Brazil