it may be added that a meeting of law officers has already considered the possibility of identical legislation in such matters of common interest as alien immigration and of the formation of a common South African Court of Appeal, and that more than one conference of educational experts has resulted in the gradual approximation of the different codes. Naturally, the success of these things depends to an enormous extent on the personal element South Africa has been singularly fortunate of late in the fact that the administration of her self-governing Colonies has been in the hands of men who are able to see beyond the limits of their immediate surroundings.
It is idle speculation to forecast the date of a definite federation of South Africa, and it is just as idle to attempt to hurry it. The Transvaal and the Orange River Colony have been wisely started on their career with something of a federal bond in the Intercolonial Council. Possibly the rest may come by stages, too. It has been suggested, for instance, that a union between the new Colonies and Natal, which have comparatively few outstanding points of difference, might be reinforced later by the adhesion of the Cape, where there are special conditions and difficulties, and of Rhodesia. But, whatever happens. South African statesmen are already taking the only sane course of clearing the ground in advance. A Customs Union is an accomplished fact. A Railway Union is at least in the air—an arrangement, that is, under which the trunk lines, at any rate, shall be. controlled and their profits pooled by a Federal Board. There is at last some prospect of a uniform native policy. So far as the adjustment of local interests is concerned, it need not be a very difficult matter, when the time comes, to fit the coping-stone of a formal federation.
But let it never be forgotten that this adjustment of local differences, necessary and desirable as it is, is not in itself the be-all and end-all of federation to-day. Certainly it is an obvious practical object, absolutely
