HC Deb 19 August 1909 vol 9 cc1646-7

The control and administration of native affairs and of matters specially or differentially affecting Asiatics throughout the 1Union shall vest in the Governor-General in Council, who shall exercise all special powers in regard to native administration hitherto vested in the Governors of the Colonies or exercised by them as supreme chiefs, and any lands vested in the Governor or Governor and Executive Council of any colony for the purpose of reserves for native locations shall vest in the Governor-General in Council, who shall exercise all special powers in relation to such reserves as may hitherto have been exerciseable by any such Governor or Governor and Executive Council, and no lands set aside for the occupation of natives which cannot at the establishment of the Union be alienated except by an Act of the Colonial Legislature shall be alienated or in any way diverted from the purposes for which they are set apart except under the authority of an Act of Parliament.

Question proposed, "That Clause 147 stand part of the Bill."

Sir C. W. DILKE

I beg formally to move the omission of the clause in order to ask the Under-Secretary a question. He said there was one single class of case in which the Governor-General had to act apart from his Cabinet or advisers. There was hitherto, and there is still, named in this clause another class of case—so-called single cases—in which the Government has been conducted with great hardship to the native races. Formerly the powers of the paramount or supreme chief have been a matter of reservation by both parties in the State. The whole delay in the granting of responsible institutions in Natal rested upon this point. And the granting of Zululand to Natal rested on the same point, namely, whether the paramount chief was the Governor or Governor-General in Council.

11.0 P.M.

Colonel SEELY

I think the right hon. Baronet will agree with me when I say that this cannot be done because the Governor has no staff or funds, and therefore he cannot exercise those powers. The questions raised with regard to Natal show how difficult it is for the Governor to act in these matters.

Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.

Clauses 148 to 150 agreed to.