Page:South Africa Act 1909.djvu/5

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A.D. 1909.

not intervene between the last sitting of Parliament in one session and its first sitting in the next session.

Seat of Legislature

23. Capetown shall be the seat of the Legislature of the Union.

Senate.

Original constitution of Senate.

24. For ten years after the establishment of the Union the constitution of the Senate shall, in respect of the original provinces, be as follows:―

^[1](i)

Eight senators shall be nominated by the Governor-General-in-Council, and for each original province eight senators shall be elected in the manner herein after provided:

(ii)

The senators to be nominated by the Governor-General-in-Council shall hold their seats for ten years. One-half of their number shall be selected on the ground mainly of their thorough acquaintance, by reason of their official experience or otherwise, with the reasonable wants and wishes of the coloured races in South Africa. If the seat of a senator so nominated shall become vacant, the Governor-General-in-Council shall nominate another person to be a senator, who shall hold his seat tor ten years.

(iii)

After the passing of this Act, and before the day appointed for the establishment of the Union, the Governor of each of the Colonies shall summon a special sitting of both Houses of the Legislature, and the two Houses sitting together as one body and presided over by the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly shall elect eight persons to be senators for the province. Such senators shall hold their seats for ten years. If the seat of a senator so elected shall become vacant, the provincial council of the province for which such senator has been elected shall choose a person to hold the seat until the completion of the period for which the person in whose stead he is elected would have held his seat.

Subsequent constitution of Senate.

25. Parliament may provide for the manner in which the Senate shall be constituted after the expiration of ten years, and unless and until such provision shall have been made―

(i)

the provisions of the last preceding section with regard to nominated senators shall continue to have effect;

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1. For Senators nominated by Governor-General-in-Council see Govt. Notice No. 757 of 1910 (Gazette, 18th October, 1910, p. 215).