cuaP. 111] THE UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA 959 
tenure of office on the part of the members is longer than 
is usual elsewhere where there are elective Upper Houses : 
the ordinary duration of such Houses is six years, and 
the principle of a rotation of retirements ensures that the 
complexion of the House is always being changed more in 
the direction of bringing it into harmony with the views of 
the electorate. The nominated Upper House of Natal sat 
for ten years. It should, however, be added that the 
power of dissolution applies under s. 20 to the Senate as well 
as to the Lower House, though nominee members of the 
former body are not affected by dissolution. The property 
qualification is borrowed from the practice in the Cape, where, 
however, it was higher, being fixed at £2,000 immovable 
property or £4,000 movable property ; in Natal it was £500 
immovable property : in this respect, as in many others, 
the Constitution is not democratic,’ as compared with that 
of Australia. The age-limit is normal in all the Dominions, 
but is not the rule in the Commonwealth. The requirement 
of European descent 2 is unusual, but is derived from the 
state of affairs in the Transvaal and the Orange River 
Colony, and also substantially in Natal, where the native 
has neither the franchise nor the right to be elected a 
member of Parliament. 
The Lower House 2 is to be composed of members directly 
chosen by the voters of the Union in electoral divisions 
defined by a commission selected from the judges of the 
several Colonial Supreme and High Courts. Under the 
* In The Empire Review, xviii. 118, the qualification is considered too'low. 
* The needlessness of this exclusion is emphasized, ibid.; and see 
Mr. Schreiner’s letter to The Times, July 27, 1909, p. 9; House of Commons 
Debates, ix. 1549 seq., 1044. Cf. Sir J. Ward’s view cited by Sir C. Dilke, 
ix, 980. He pointed out the fact that the Maoris have members—Maoris— 
in either House of the Dominion Parliament. The Act of 1877, s. 19, 
contained a provision proposed by Mr. Forster for the representation of 
the natives in any Union Parliament. Mr. Lyttelton, ix. 1580, thought that 
the exclusion was inserted when it was proposed to have proportional 
representation, and retained when the intention of having this and the 
possibility of a selection of a native had disappeared. 
3 gg. 32-50.