I8 RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT [PART I
In the case of the Transvaal, as was natural, the model
of the case of Natal was followed exactly. Clause xlvii of
the letters patent of December 6, 1906, provides for the
appointment of not more than six ministers to be appointed
by the Governor in the King’s name, and to hold office at
pleasure. These ministers were not subject to re-election
if members of the Legislature, or to disqualification from
election if not members, and a minister could speak in both
houses, but vote only in the house of which he was a member.
But there was no provision requiring that he should be
a member of either house within any fixed period or at all.
In addition a Civil List was granted, and provision made
for pensions to retiring officers, and all appointments
were vested in the hands of the Governor in Council, save in
the case of ministers, and subject to any law which might
be passed. But the letters patent creating the office of
Governor which were simultaneously issued enlarged the
position by providing that ministers should be part of the
Executive Council, but it was not provided that the ministers
should constitute the Council. In the case of the Orange
River Colony the same provisions were adopted, but only
five ministerial offices were laid down.
§ 6. Tur FEDERATIONS AND THE UNION
In none of the cases which have so far been discussed is
any provision to be found creating an Executive Council.
The reason is not difficult to see : it is due to the same fact
as accounts for the absence in the constitutions of Colonies
generally of any provision regarding the office of Governor.
When it was proposed in the Natal case to insert such pro-
vision, the step was deprecated by the Home Government
on the ground that the matter was essentially one for the
prerogative and should not be made the matter of an Act,
and the proposal was dropped.! But the case is otherwise
with the Federations and the Union, for obvious reasons.
The prerogative of the Crown to create a Governor-General
over several provinces or states is indeed clear; it was
t Parl. Pap., C. 6487, p. 72.
