COLONEL WARREN AND MR. JUSTICE DE WET PUT THEIR HANDS TO THE
PLOUGH.—VISIT OF MESSRS. SPRIGG AND UPINGTON. PIE-CRUST PROMISES.—MY
PROTEST IN THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL AGAINST ANNEXATION.—DEPARTURE OF MR.
ROSE INNES, C. M. G., LAST ACTING ADMINISTRATOR.—ELECTION FOR CAPE HOUSE
OF ASSEMBLY.
When Colonel Lanyon was sent by the imperial government to the
Transvaal, Colonel (now Sir Charles) Warren was appointed acting
administrator in Feb. 1879. His short “acting” career was characterized
by procedures, which, if not strictly illegal, yet exhibited a great
amount of impulsive self-will, which many times carried him a little too
far. This was especially marked in his treatment of Mr. Advocate Lord,
Q. C., the attorney general, which created for that gentleman, at the
time, an immense amount of sympathy; Sir Bartle Frere, after he had
fully studied both sides of the question, absolutely canceling the order
suspending Mr. Lord from office, which he had made at the suggestion of
the acting administrator. Such actions, however, caused less surprise
when it was reported that Colonel Warren was also suffering from the
effects of an accident, met with I believe, in the Perie Bush; but of
this the public was not long kept in suspense, as a climax was reached
in October of the same year, when the acting administrator had suddenly
to leave the province, in the care of the government surgeon.
Griqualand West was then blessed (or cursed) with another acting
administrator in the person of Mr. Justice de Wet (now Sir Jacobus), who
administered the government until the arrival of his successor, Mr. Rose
Innes, C. M. G., who in reality came like an assignee’s agent to wind up
an estate, or in other words to prepare the territory for annexation.
To return to the visit of Messrs. Sprigg and Upington. As these
gentlemen occupied the positions of premier and attorney general of the
Cape Colony respectively, great importance was attached to their visit,
as the conjecture was generally entertained that they had come to “spy
out the land.” At a public dinner given them, these gentlemen gave forth
what the inhabitants of the diamond fields thought no uncertain sound.
Mr. Sprigg, in his speech on the occasion, said: “That in the year 1878
the annexation act was returned with her Majesty’s assent, and it was
signified to the governor of the colony that he was at liberty to put
that annexation in force. The governor asked my advice on the matter,
and I informed the governor of the Cape Colony and the governor of the
province, when he was present himself, that I could not at that time
advise that the act should be put in force, because I felt extreme
unwillingness to annex any province to the Cape Colony against the
wishes of the inhabitants;” while Mr. Upington was even more decided in
his remarks, saying that: “He had seen it stated that his honorable
friend and himself had come to Griqualand West with a view of doing
something which, in the minds of some people at least, would be an
injury to this province. He wished to give an emphatic denial to this
statement.... They would seek to deal with the people of this province
on the broad grounds of reason.... If they had intended to do anything
against the wishes of the people why should they not have done it by a
stroke of the pen in April 1878, or at any time down to the present
day?... They had come to see the people and their representatives, to
endeavor to come to a conclusion as to what would be the best for South
Africa generally.” These utterances attracted much attention, but yet it
was considered advisable to hold a public meeting and send a deputation
to wait on Messrs. Sprigg and Upington. A meeting of 1,000 citizens was
held in the Theatre Royal on Oct. 6th, 1879, when ten gentlemen,
including the members of council, were chosen to form a deputation to
wait on the above-named Cape ministers, but, as one of these, I came
away as wise, after the interview, as before.
The inhabitants of Kimberley were, however, lulled into a sense of false
security, in which they remained until Sir Bartle Frere electrified them
by an unmistakable statement respecting annexation in his speech at the
opening of the Cape assembly in 1880. In this speech he said: “In
redemption of the undertaking given by the colonial legislature and
confirmed by the colonial governor, we relieve her Majesty’s government
of the responsibility of the administration of the affairs of Griqualand
West. The bill passed for that purpose in 1879 will shortly be
proclaimed, care being taken that the people of that important province
shall not be left without legislation, at a time when a legislature in
which they are not at present represented is actually in session.” What
could be done? Remonstrances, petitions, public meetings, all had been
tried and found to be of no avail. The elective members of the
legislative council then made a move, and as a body supported a motion
which I brought forward in June 1880, seconded by the member for Barkly,
Mr. Paddon, to the effect “that in the opinion of this council the
annexation by proclamation or otherwise of the province of Griqualand
West to the Cape Colony would be detrimental to the best interests of
the province, and opposed to the wishes of the inhabitants.” In a long
and exhaustive speech I went through all the reasons against annexation,
speeches to the same effect being made by the other elective members,
when the attorney general, who no doubt had infinitely more respect at
this time for the magnates of the Cape Colony than he had in 1884, when
by bitter experience he found that it was vain to trust in “premiers,”
proposed an amendment: “That in the absence of any public expression of
opinion on the subject it is premature and unreasonable to ask this
council to commit itself to the terms of the resolution, which is based
upon the assumption that such opinion has been expressed,” and this was
seconded by the treasurer general. On my calling for a division the
president put the amendment—the president, the recorder, the attorney
general, the treasurer general, in a word all the members of the
government, voting for the amendment, and the elective members against,
when the president, as a nominee of the Cape ministry, sent for a
special object, exercised his right and gave the casting vote, which, of
course, was in favor of the amendment, and against my motion—being “in
keeping,” he said, “with the speech I considered it my _duty_ to make.”
A fortnight after this a large meeting was held in the Theatre Royal, at
which a resolution was passed approving of the action of the elective
members, and thanking them for opposing the measure.
The position, however, was soon realized by many: That _nolentes aut
volentes_ we were to be cast off by the imperial government and absorbed
into the unsympathetic Cape Colony; and perceiving that further
opposition was useless, the inhabitants quietly accepted the inevitable,
with the exception of a few stubborn spirits, myself among the number.
Sept. 30th, 1880, the day on which was to be sounded the death-note of
the autonomy of the province, at last arrived. The council met at the
usual hour in the afternoon, but it could at once be seen that some
unusual occurrence was expected. The acting administrator of the
territory and president of the council, Mr. Rose Innes, C. M. G., sat at
the head of the table, looking very solemn, while _vis-à-vis_ at the
foot I sat, supported by the members for Barkly and Hay. No member,
either elective or non-elective, was absent. There was no vacant seat
that day. The hall was crowded, many ladies coming to see the closing
act of the drama which had for the last six years been produced under
different managers in the small theatre of Griqualand West.
After prayers, the usual formal questions having been asked, I at once
rose and read the accompanying protest against annexation:
“We, the undersigned, elective members for the Province of Griqualand
West, having ascertained that it is in contemplation to enforce at an
early date an act, No. 39, of 1877, entitled “To make Provision for
the Annexation in this Colony, of the Province of Griqualand West,”
hereby desire our protest against the same to be recorded on the
minutes of this council previous to its dissolution, for the following
reasons:
“1st. Because it was understood at the time the act was under
discussion in the Cape parliament that it would be submitted to the
legislative council of this province before any attempt would be made
to promulgate it; Whereas this has not been done, neither have the
wishes of the inhabitants of Griqualand West in any way been
regarded—whether in respect to the expediency of annexation or the
conditions upon which it should take place.
“2d. Because the measure of representation accorded under the act to
the electoral divisions of the province is, we submit, in no way
commensurate with its wealth, and with the intelligence and enterprise
of its inhabitants, and judging from the past we have little hope in
this respect of reasonable treatment in future at the hands of a Cape
parliament.
“3d. Because the circumstances of this province differing entirely
from those of the Cape Colony, demand the presence of a local
government, with authority to deal at once with mining and other
questions requiring immediate attention; consequently we anticipate
that great injury will be done this province by the seat of government
being removed so many hundred miles away.
“4th. Because the inhabitants of this province object to being mixed
up in the party contentions of the Cape Colony, where the scramble for
place and power seems to override all other considerations and to
retard that progress which would otherwise ensue.
“5th. Because Her Majesty’s subjects in Griqualand West have in no way
forfeited their right to be consulted as to the disposition of this
province or the alteration of their political status; but, on the
contrary, have shown their fitness for self-government by defending
their country and even in assisting neighboring provinces during the
late general war with the native tribes.
“6th. Because, although the people of this province are undoubtedly
loyal to the Queen’s government, yet they do most strongly object to
the action of the imperial authorities in thus handing them over to a
government and a colony with which they have so little in common; and
we, in our own name and in the names of our constituents, hereby hold
both the imperial and colonial governments responsible for all
untoward events and results which may follow on annexation.
“Therefore, for these above stated and other weighty reasons, we
hereby request that this, our protest against the annexation of this
province to the Cape Colony, may be recorded on the minutes of this
council, and that a copy of the same may be forthwith forwarded to the
colonial government and the secretary of state for the colonies.
“(Signed)
J. W. MATTHEWS, V. P.
G. BOTTOMLEY.
I. PADDON.
H. GREEN.”
Then, as vice-president, I spoke against the measure and said, as
reported in the local journals:
“In asking that this protest may be recorded on the minutes of the
council, I may say I do so with a heavy heart, and that I find it
difficult to restrain my feelings. It would seem that in the
arrangements of this annexation all consideration for the welfare of
this province has been overlooked. It was not so when Sir Henry Barkly
was governor; he deprecated in the most emphatic manner possible the
idea of governing this province from Capetown. Again, when Messrs.
Sprigg and Upington were here recently, they saw, as Sir Henry Barkly
had seen, the absurdity of such an idea, and in everything they said,
both in private and public, they repudiated the suggestion of annexing
this province to the Cape Colony. Mr. Upington was especially emphatic
in his condemnation of such a policy. Is it not then a great outrage
that in spite of all these protestations on the part of the Cape
government we should be taken over without being consulted? It may be
remembered that a public meeting which was called here to express
sympathy with Sir Bartle Frere in connection with Zululand matters was
very thinly attended, the people here showing by this their opinion of
Sir B. Frere’s treatment of this province, and what they thought of
the manner in which the petitions against annexation, emanating not
only from the monied classes but also from the bone and sinew of the
place, had been pigeon-holed and suppressed. There is no more right,
there is no more reason, for us to be annexed to the Cape Colony
to-day than there would be for Natal to be annexed to-morrow, which
colony is simply nowhere in wealth and public enterprise as compared
with this. [Loud applause.] We differ from Natal in many respects. I
may remind you of one: when we were in danger, we defended ourselves
with our own troops, and did not cry out for imperial assistance, we
actually sent volunteers away to help the Cape Colony in its
difficulties with Kreli and Sandilli, and are even now being called
upon to assist in quelling a rebellion in Basutoland, the result of
the latest blunder of the Cape ministry. [Hear, hear.]
“Some think that annexation will bring relief from the grievances
under which we labor, but when they have to pay a tax on diamonds,
have no administrator at hand to personally inspect and redress their
complaints [hear, hear], what then?
“We may get a railway, but that is no certainty; we may get the
advantage of a three-judge court, but these benefits are nothing in
comparison to what we shall lose, when we lose our independence. For
my part, I feel like a man who is unjustly charged with the commission
of a crime. I feel like a man who has been wrongly convicted, but the
jury have given their verdict and it remains with you, sir, as judge
to-day to pass the sentence. As the mouthpiece of the law you must do
its behests, but I protest against the passing of a sentence of
capital punishment. [Loud applause.]
“So far as the elected members of this council are concerned they have
done their duty to their constituents, they have resisted and
protested to the best of their ability against annexation to the Cape
Colony. I hope, however, sir, we shall soon recover our liberty under
a wide scheme of confederation. I bow now to the inevitable.
[Continued applause.]”
Messrs. Bottomley and Paddon, the junior member for Kimberley, and the
member for Barkly, then also supported the protest which I had read, in
short speeches, when Mr. Rose Innes, as if tired of the play, spoke the
“tag” declaring the council dissolved, and the curtain dropped.
Thus was carried into effect the bill which three years before had
passed the Cape assembly (No. 39, 1877), and which had nearly lapsed
through effluxion of time. It was forced on with most unseemly haste at
the finish, the provision in the 32d clause that the bill was to take
effect when “all matters and things necessary to be done and to happen
in order to enable the said annexation to be completed and perfected,
have been done and happened,” being entirely ignored, the boundary line
of the province, the most important “matter and thing” of all, not
having been definitely settled.
Although we were taken over with all our liabilities and engagements, I
am sorry to say repudiation has been, more or less, the favorite policy
of the Cape government, so far as the “milch cow” of the colony is
concerned.[65]
Mr. Rose Innes, C. M. G., having finished his work, left for Capetown,
and Mr. P. A. Villiers, the acting colonial secretary, with all the
public documents, title deeds and archives of the province soon followed
in his wake, when instead of being a crown colony, with our own
governor, and in direct communion with the imperial government, we found
ourselves a portion of the colony of the Cape of Good Hope, and at the
bidding of its responsible advisers!
Griqualand West was annexed to the Cape Colony in October 1880.
It was not until March 15th of the next year that an election took place
for the return of two members to represent Kimberley in the Cape
parliament. There were three candidates for the two seats. Mr. J. B.
Robinson, Mr. George Bottomley, my former colleague, and myself. The
excitement was most intense. The unlimited expenditure of money by the
one, and the pertinacious sectarian adherents of the other, proved a
formidable opposition, but the all-round support given the “red, white
and blue” enabled me a second time to become the senior member for
Kimberley. This election took place when the share mania was at its
height, when money was very plentiful, and no ordinance being in
existence forbidding brass bands, carriages, flags, rosettes, champagne
and other little luxuries indulged in at such a time, the extravagant
expenditure bore favorable (?) contrast with an English election in the
“good old days.” As may well be imagined in a rich digging community
some sharp practice occurred, but this was nothing in comparison with
that which took place when the seat, which I afterward vacated, was
filled up, for then the grave gave up her dead, the Capetown breakwater
its convicts, and the natives “polled early and often” for the
successful candidate!
The assembly was in session when Mr. J. B. Robinson and myself arrived
in Capetown.
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