948 THE FEDERATIONS AND THE UNION [PART IV 
powers vested in the Governor-General! were to be exercised 
by him acting on his own discretion and without the advice 
of the Privy Council ;2 and the provision in s. 19 for the 
due representation of the natives in the Union Parliament 
and in the Provincial Councils in such manner as should be 
deemed by Her Majesty to be without danger to the stability 
of the Government. 
Effect could only be given to the Act up to August 1, 1882, 
and, as circumstances prevented anything being done at 
that date, the Act lapsed, save as to one section (58) allowing 
the Crown from time to time to annex territories to the Cape. 
Under s. 4 of the Act the King in Council is empowered 
by proclamation at any time within a year from the passing 
of the Act to declare that the four Colonies of the Cape, 
Natal, the Transvaal, and the Orange River Colony shall 
be united as a Legislative Union with the name South 
Africa. The King may then appoint a Governor-General and 
the Union shall come into force at the date given in the 
proclamation, but which must not be more than a year after 
the passing of the Act. The Colonies joining the Union at the 
start become original provinces with the same boundaries 
as at present, the Orange River Colony being styled the 
Orange Free State Province, and any Colony which does not 
join can only enter later on by virtue of an Order in Council 
made under the powers taken in the Act for the entry of 
sew provinces (such as Rhodesia). 
It will be seen at once that the assent of the Colonies con- 
* Per conéra, the Tasmanian Interpretation Act, 1906, s, 12, provides 
that the term ° Governor’ means Governor acting with the advice of the 
Executive Council, a curious and unusual provision, which renders necessary 
a new definition in the Act No. 10 of 1908, s. 2, respecting indeterminate 
sentences, where the duty is cast on the Governor personally, The South 
Africa Interpretation Act, 1910, has followed this model; cf. above, p. 150,n. 1. 
* This seems to go too far. For example, by s. 20 the Governor-General 
was empowered to summon the House of Assembly : that he should not 
be advised by the Council as to this would have been absurd. The real 
point is not ‘ without advice’, but the existence of power to disregard 
advice ; such a power the Governor-General must and does have, or the 
(Government would be completely transferred to ministers.