Liie Bolivia and South Africa, the Netherlands has two capitals, de jure and
de facto. Being so small, the dutch case is perhaps unsurprising. The other
two (or three for S.Africa) have the locations much further apart.

In NZ until "reforms" in the mid-1980s, a borough was an urban area of 1500
people, and a city had 20 000. So there wasca set size. Once you got the
status, you nevcer lost it, so places in the South Island like Naseby, which
were large during the gold rushes in the 1860s and gianed borough status,
never lost it even though their population declined to only a hundred or two
by the 1980s.
Now, cities are part of a legislated local govt system, and were dec ied
upon by central government in the mid1980s. There is less scope for becoming
a city now (and so less local autonomy: one auckland borough, amalgamated in
the neighbouring large city had 80% of the people want to remain separate,
but as the entire city had to vote on the ex-borough ceding, it never was
able to regain its autonomy).
As Michael said. in his Basil Fawlty voice "Typical".

>From: michaelstride@...
>Reply-To: BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com
>To: BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com
>Subject: [BoundaryPoint] capital city info for Peter
>Date: Tue, 12 Jun 2001 14:51:48 -0000
>
>Well, I checked my databases for legislation that defines London, or
>indeed the City of Westminster as the 'Capital' and drew a blank (Im
>a lawyer). As I'm sure your aware we don't actually have a written
>constitution. Arnt we the lucky ones! We do have definitions of what
>a city is, but not in a'legal' sense, which generally is a place with
>an Anglican Cathedral, but nowadays the government can confer city
>status on conurbations of an undefined size, undefined facilities,
>and undefined qualities.(Typical) Recently a number of cities applied
>and if my memory serves me, Brighton and possibly Wolverhampton
>became cities in the eyes of the government. I do know that Luton and
>Milton Keynes applied and failed.
>As for legal definitions of London as a Capital City, i'll search a
>little more. Its interesting the Hague is not a Capital, cos I always
>thought it was. You live and learn. Michael
>

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