946 THE FEDERATIONS AND THE UNION [PART IV
was to focus public attention on the question, and after
much discussion at the Conference of May 1908 for the
revision of customs—the Transvaal demanding lower duties—
and railway rates, the idea took practical shape in the selection
of delegates from the several Colonies with the authority of
the Colonial Governments and Parliaments to discuss the
basis of a unification in some way of South Africa.
The actual Constitution which resulted from the labours
of the delegates was not, as was originally expected by the
advocates of some union, a federal one, but an Act of Union.
The preamble expressly says that it is desirable that the
Colonies in South Africa should be united under one Govern-
ment in a legislative union under the Crown of Great Britain
and Ireland, and that it is expedient to make provision for
the union of the Colonies and to define the executive, legisla-
tive, and judicial powers of the Government of the Union.
In this respect the Government stands in striking contrast
to the Government which would have heen set up under the
“onstitution of 1877.
The Constitution which was proposed in 1877! was a
purely federal one, though the term ‘union’ was used in the
title and in the preamble. The provisions of the Act were
mainly based on those of the British North America Act,
1867: for example, in the Executive Government the
Governor-General was to be advised by a ‘ Privy Council».
The legislative power was vested in a Union Parliament
consisting of a Legislative Council, to be constituted as
the Crown should direct, and an elective House of Assembly
in which due provision was to be made for the representa-
tion of the natives. Provision was made for the decennial
readjustment of representation in the Parliament and for
proportionate representation of the provinces. The pro-
visions as to royal assent to Bills, reservation, and disallow-
ance were precisely modelled on those of the Canadian
Act. The Union was to be divided into provinces which
! 40 & 41 Viet. c. 47. The arguments against federation in South Africa
are set out at length in The Qovernment of South Africa, i. 260 seq., 303 seq..
357 seq.
