D1.8.36: [Untitled]

D1.8.36: [Untitled]

Newspaper Clippings

Bleek declares the impartiality of Het Volksblad, which is not a government mouthpiece or advocate for a particular parliamentary party or ideology. He then turns to the frequent spats of ideologically indistinct parliamentary parties that are mere factions or cliques vying to maximise power and promote local interests. They are not genuine parties if there is no diversity of principles and no legislators seem brave enough to break away and form one. Het Volksblad may champion a specific party when one emerges. The census outcome necessitates an adjustment of our system of representation. Graham's Town is unfit to hold the seat of government, as it is inferior to the more populous and intellectually vibrant Cape Town. Wodehouse's unpopular native policy resulted in an almost unanimous vote of censure. Bleek believes Responsible Government is now imminent, moderately expedited by the local parliament's policy direction and the pressure of England's public opinion. Federal division of the colony into two separate provinces will soon follow.

Printed newsprint glued on paper

06 July 1865

Two cut-out columns of printed newsprint mounted on foolscap folio (warped).

Parliamentary parties (Westerners and Easterners), capital (seat of government), vote of censure (on Wodehouse's policy), Responsible Government (is imminent), federal system (bifurcation of colony)

Pressed clippings of Victorian current affairs opinion pieces by Wilhelm Bleek. Published in Het Volksblad on Thursday, July 6th, 1865. Bleek reiterates his belief that Cape Town will always be 'the most important place in South Africa'. If the Home Government thought otherwise, it could easily 'alter the [s]eat of [g]overnment and [l]egislature [...] to their pleasure'. Bleek believes that Responsible Government in the Cape Colony is imminent.

Van de Sandt de Villiers & Co.