640 PARLIAMENTS OF THE DOMINIONS [PART III
§ 7. SouTH AFRICA
In the case of South Africa the Upper House is elective
as regards thirty-two out of its forty members, but their
position is altogether strange. The first eight are nominated
by the Governor-General in Council, that is, on the advice
of the Ministry of the day—it had been usual in similar
cases to secure that the first nominations are made by
the Crown, acting not necessarily on ministerial advice 1—
while the remaining thirty-two were chosen at special
sittings of both Houses of the Legislatures of the four
Colonies which form the Union.
Unless other provision is made by the Parliament of the
Union, eight senators will continue to be nominated from
time to time, while eight will be elected by the members of
the Provincial Council together with the members of the
House of Assembly selected for each province. The exact
functions which will be performed by so remarkably con-
stituted a body it is difficult to foretell.
The two Houses, following universal Colonial practice, are
not put on the same level as regards Money Bills. No law
which imposes taxation or appropriates revenue or moneys
shall originate in the Upper House, and the Upper House may
not amend any Bills so far as they impose taxation or appro-
priate revenue or moneys for the service of the state. Nor may
the Senate amend any Bill so as to increase any proposed
charges or burden on the people. But the provisions are safe-
guarded, as in the case of the Commonwealth of Australia,
more satisfactorily than is usual in Colonial constitutions, for
a Bill is not to be taken to appropriate money or to impose
taxation merely because it imposes fines or other pecuniary
penalties or provides for their appropriation.? Further, the
! Compare e.g. the plan followed in Canada in 1867, in New South Wales
in 1856 and 1861 (see Parl. Pap., H. C. 198, 1893, pp. 69-74), in Queens-
land in 1859, in the Transvaal and Orange River Colony in 1906 and 1907,
all intended to avoid a purely ministerial mode of appointment. For the
case of Western Australia, see Parl. Pap., C. 5743, pp. 69, 70.
* Of. 63 & 64 Viet. ¢. 12, Const. 8. 53 (Commonwealth). So Victoria,
Act No. 1864 s. 30. See also The Framework of Union, pp. 106 seq.
