962 THE FEDERATIONS AND THE UNION [PART 1V 
of voters, election petitions, and so forth, the laws of each 
Colony are to apply in the elections in each new province. 
There are, however, excluded from the franchise (as in the 
Transvaal and Orange River Colony) all soldiers on full pay, 
and further, while the date of the nomination of members is 
not, as originally proposed, to be the same throughout the 
Union, all polls are to be held on the same day, a provision 
which in a place of vast distances like South Africa will reduce 
to a minimum plural voting. 
The Parliament may legislate for the qualifications of 
electors, but no such law shall disqualify any person who is, 
or may become, entitled under the laws of the Cape as 
existing at the time of the Union to be registered as a voter 
from being registered as a voter in the Cape by reason of 
race or colour alone, unless such law shall be passed by the 
two Houses sitting together, and passed at the third reading 
by a two-thirds majority of the total members of the two 
Houses. No person, however, who is registered as a voter 
in any province at the date of the passing of such a law may 
be removed from the register because of a disqualification of 
race or colour alone. This provision? is intended to safe- 
guard the rights of the native voters in the Cape ; it is, how- 
ever, somewhat doubtful if it is adequate for the purpose. 
The native vote has been, even in the Cape, subjected to 
serious criticism, and the South African Native Affairs Com- 
mission ? in their report were inclined to prefer the expedient 
of the nomination of representatives of the coloured races 
rather than the direct participation of these races in the 
franchise. Of the four original provinces only one recognizes 
in fact a native franchise, and therefore there may be a 
strong movement in any new Parliament to couple the pro- 
vision of some sort of representation for natives with the 
abolition of the native franchise in the Cape. It was there- 
fore suggested in the Cape that the clause should be amended 
to require the assent of two-thirds of the Cape members for 
the passing of any law disqualifying natives in that province 
for the franchise on colour or race grounds. On the other 
* Parl. Pap., Cd. 2399, pp. 67 seq. 
Cg 35