958 THE FEDERATIONS AND THE UNION [parr Iv 
Union of the clear value of £500 over and above any special 
mortgages thereon. The Senate shall elect a President, who 
may be removed from office by a vote of the Senate or who 
may resign by writing under his hand addressed to the 
Governor-General. The quorum is twelve, and the President 
or other presiding officer shall only have a casting vote. 
It will be noticed that the Senate combines in a curious 
manner the principles of nomination and of election. There 
is no parallel for that in South Africa, where the Upper 
Houses of Natal, the Transvaal, and the Orange River 
Colony were nominee and that of the Cape elective. Nor has 
a combination of nomination and election yet been tried in 
the Upper Chamber of any of the other Colonies enjoying 
responsible government, though a proposal to remodel the 
Parliament of Canada on this basis was introduced into 
the Senate in 1909 by Mr. Scott, late Secretary of State in the 
Dominion Cabinet.! The motive of the rule is, however, sound 
—it is often desirable to secure the presence in the Parliament 
of some outstanding man who could not be expected to face 
or to be successful in an ordinary election, and for whom 
special provision should be made. The requirement that 
the half of the nominated members should be selected on 
account of their knowledge of native wishes, so far as they 
are reasonable, will not of course be capable of legal enforce- 
ment, and the Governor-General in Council will alone be 
qualified to decide what amount of acquaintance will satisfy 
this requirement, but no doubt it will ensure that there will 
always be on the Senate a small body of men who are 
thoroughly acquainted with the native problem : the others 
may probably be skilled lawyers. Again, the length of 
! Cf. also the Imperial Act of 1854, which allowed the introduction of 
the elective system into the Upper House of Canada, but saved existing 
rights, 
S There was some irritation in South Africa among the opponents 
of the Government because Sir F. Moor, originally selected as a minister, 
was made a senator on ground of his knowledge of the natives when he 
failed to win a seat at the general election. Cf House of Commons 
Debates, 1909, ix. 1530. The others selected were Mr, Krogh, Mr. Schreiner, 
Colonel Stanford, all admirable candidates.