natalia 03 (1973) complete

THE NATAL SOCIETY OFFICE BEARERS, 1972-73

President Miss P. A. Reid

Vice-Presidents Professor A. F. Hattersley M. J. C. Daly, Esq. A. C. Mitchell, Esq.

Trustees A. C. Mitchell, Esq. Dr. R. E. Stevenson

Treasurers Messrs. Dix, Boyes and Co.

Auditors Messrs. R. Thornton-Dibb and Son

Secretary and Chief Librarian Miss U. E. M. Judd, B.A., F.L.A.

COUNCIL

Elected Members Miss P. A. Reid (Chairman) M. J. C. Daly, Esq. (Vice-Chairman)

Professor J. W. Macquarrie Mrs. J. A. Verbcek P. K. Moxley, Esq. D. D. Croudace, Esq. Dr. J. Clark R. A. Brown, Esq. Professor C. de B. Webb C. O. Smythe, Esq.

City Council Representatives Cr. C. W. Wood (Mayor) Cr. I. H. M. Balfour Cr. Mrs. G. E. Terry Cr. H. Lundie

EDITORIAL COMMITTEE OF NATALIA

Professor C. de B. Webb Dr. J. Clark R. A. Brown, Esq. Miss J. Farrer Miss U. E. M. Judd

A

Natalia 3 (1973) Copyright © Natal Society Foundation 2010

SA ISSN 0085 3674

CIty PrInting Works, Bank Street, Pietermaritzburg

Contents Pages

EDITORIAL . 5

UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPT

Captain AlIen F. Gardiner's Natal Journal for 1838 9

REPRINT

Sir Theophilus Shepstone and his local critics 13

ARTICLES

Town and regional planning in Natal- R. A. Pistorius 27

A note on the centenary of a famous Natal School-Neville Nuttall . 32

Speech by His Honour the Administrator of Natal at the opening of the Hall of Natal History at the Natal Museum on 8th November 1972 36

History of the wattle industry in Natal - S. P. Sherry 40

SERIAL ARTICLE

The origins of the Natal Society; Chapter 2, 1845-1846 -~RMhM ~

OCCASIONAL LISTS

Natal mission stations - R. A. Brown 50

NOTES AND QUERIES

R. A. Brown, J. Clark and C. de B. Webb 52

REGISTER OF SOCIETIES AND INSTITUTIONS

C. de B. Webb 59

REGISTER OF RESEARCH ON NATAL

R. A. Brown 62

BOOK NOTICES

R. A. Brown, J. Clark 64

SELECT LIST OF RECENT NATAL PUBLICATIONS

U. E. M. Judd . 68

5

Editorial Captain Alien Francis Gardiner: First Missionary to the Zulu

IT IS with pride that we present in this issue Captain AlIen F. Gardiner's 'Natal Journal for 1838', a valuable fragment of Nataliana, which, to the best of our knowledge, has never before been published.

Through the good offices of Mr. L. S. Johnson of New Zealand, and of Mr. R. A. Brown, the University Librarian in Pietermaritzburg, arrangements were made in 1972 for two MS notebooks in the possession of Mrs. S. Gardiner of Napier, New Zealand, to be made available on loan to the History Department, Natal University, Pietermaritzburg.

The one, a little pocket-book measuring 18 X 11 cm, and bound in soft, blue, marbled covers, is the 'Rough Journal' kept by Captain Gardiner in 1838 - the year of the collapse of his mission to the Zulu and his departure for South America. The other, bound in hard covers and measuring 22,5 X 18 cm, contains a small collection of handwritten documents relating to the Gardiner family. From these two volumes, photocopies were made of material bearing on the career of Captain Gardiner, and these photocopies, together with transcripts, are now lodged in the University Library, Pietermaritzburg, and in the Killie Campbell Africana Library, Durban.

Gardiner's 'Rough Journal' for 1838 falls into two parts. The opening pages are a record of his experiences in the dramatic events surrounding the Zulu massacres of Retief and the Natal Voortrekkers in February 1838. The second part is a diarized account of his departure from South Africa and journey to South America where he hoped to commence mission work among the Patagonians. We publish the South African portion of the journal. Unlike the second section, it is not diarized, and one must assume that a diary which Gardiner had been keeping was left behind in the hasty evacuation of Natal after the bloodshed of February 1838, for the first page is headed 'Abstract of part of the former Journal which was lost'.

It is an exciting find. Its closely written pages (the deciphering of which required the constant use of a large magnifying glass!) serve to supplement, in small measure at least, Gardiner's famous Narrative of a Journey to the Zoolu Country (London, 1836), which carried the story of his mission to the Zulu to December 1835. Though inadequate as a basis for any major historical reevaluations, this fragment, so unexpectedly dug up from the past, refracts new light upon a controversial man and his position during a highly dramatic and much-debated episode in our history.

:I< * * Born at Basildon in Berkshire, on June 28th, 1794, Gardiner showed from

early childhood a restless desire for travel and adventure. In February 1808 he entered the Royal Naval College at Portsmouth. A successful service career followed, leading to his appointment as commander of the Jupiter, Flag Ship of Admiral Lake, in 1826.

6 Editorial

From all accounts, the death of his wife (Julia Susanna Reade) was a major turning point in his life, strengthening his resolution to devote his life to missionary endeavour in distant and untamed lands. It was this that brought him to Natal in 1835, 'the first of his calling to attempt evangelical work among the Zulu'. 1

A rigidly upright, somewhat impetuous, uncompromising man, Gardiner seems to have lacked the tact and tolerance, the human touch, that brought success to many of the great figures in the missionary field. To complicate his task, he faced in the Zulu king, Dingane, a man with a distinctly suspicious cast of mind. His requests to establish a mission station near to the royal capital, Mgungundhlovu, were consistently evaded or rejected. But in May 1835 he reached a compromise agreement with Dingane. In effect, Gardiner was to become responsible for the good conduct of the white trader-hunters and their black followers at Port Natal. Deserters from the Zulu kingdom were not to be given sanctuary at the white settlement, but were to be sent back across the Tugela. In return, Gardiner was to be permitted to establish a mission station near Nyoni, just north of the Tugela and some miles inland from the coast.

Armed with this treaty, Gardiner returned to the port, persuaded the residents to set up 'Regulations' for the control of the town 'D'Urban', and then departed for Cape Town and England, carrying a petition from the traders which he hoped would assist him in persuading the British Government to annex the territory between the Tugela and Urnzimkulu, and subject it to proper control.

While in England, in 1836, he published his Narrative ofa Journey to the Zoolu Country and gave evidence before the Aborigines Committee of the House of Commons, which was influential in the passing of the famous Cape of Good Hope Punishment Act. He also remarried. And when he returned to Natal in 1837 he brought with him his family, including the children of his first marriage, and a commission appointing him a Justice of the Peace under the Punishment Act.

His visit to England had also been used to make arrangements for the Rev. Francis Owen of the Church Mission Society to join him in the Natal-Zululand field. Owen was able to secure the permission that had been denied to Gardiner, to settle at the royal capital, Mgungundhlovu. Gardiner established himself on the hills overlooking Port Natal at a site which he called 'Berea' - the name by which the area is still known. But his efforts to exercise his authority as a justice of the peace were unsuccessful, and he moved off to another station closer to the Zulu country. This was 'Hambanati' ('Go with us') near present-day Tongaat.

The lack of an effective controlling authority over the growing numbers of white adventurers and their black followers in Natal was one of many factors that had begun to alarm Dingane, and strain his patience, before ever the Trekkers appeared on the scene.

In the debate over the Zulu king's motives for murdering Retief and attacking the Trekker encampments, dark suggestions had been made that he was urged to these deeds by the machinations of Gardiner. That Gardiner was no lover of the emigrant Boers is clear from some of the comments in the little 'Natal Journal for 1838', but there is no hint of any connivance on his part at the onslaughts of February 1838. Indeed, the evidence of a man disconcerted and dismayed by 'the wanton massacre of Retief and his party' should help to dispel any lingering suspicions about his role at this time.

7 Editorial

The 'Journal' also throws interesting new light on Gardiner's reasons for abandoning all thought of resuming the Zulu mission.

Except for minor amendments to paragraphing and punctuation, we offer the'Journal' without editorial change.

"" * * Sir Theophilus Shepstone and Native Policy in Natal

Readers who welcomed the reprint of the 'Reitz-Shepstone Correspondence' in Natalia No. 2 will be gratified by the appearance of its sequel in this issue. To a generation raised on 'news headlines', 'book digests' and 'points from correspondence', there may also be some fascination in discovering the leisurely expansiveness of our forebears when they turned to print. Our letters to the editor are shortened if they exceed a couple of hundred words in length. Editorial response to a 10 000 word epistle defeats imagination!

That the editor of the Natal Mercury and his readers in 1892 viewed things differently is cause for sincere gratitude. Had their demands corresponded to ours, one of the most important nineteenth century statements on native policy in South Africa might not have seen the light of day, and would not have been available for reprinting now.

In his 'Reply to President Reitz' (Natalia No. 2), Shepstone was concerned to expose the flaws in a particular white supremacist policy which he believed to be morally wrong and dangerous in practice. But the 'Reply', in its turn, roused a host of opponents, whose fire was directed from a variety of new positions. The letter which we reprint in this issue reveals Shepstone counter-attacking on all these different fronts, and is, in effect, the final manifesto of the man whose reputation as a native administrator surpassed all others. Shepstone died on 23 June, 1893, a little over a year after his letter to the Mercury was published. Whether he was a doctrinaire, committed to the system that bore his name, or whether a cautious pragmatist working for constructive change within the limits imposed by circumstances, we leave our readers to judge.

* "" "" One Hundred and Fifty Years

Next year being the 1SOth anniversary of the establishment of the white trading settlement at Port Natal, we hope to make something of a bumper issue of Natalia No. 4.

Included in the contents, as the piece de resistance, will be another unpublished manuscript from the recently discovered Gardiner papers. This is an account of Captain Allen Gardiner's life written for a grandson by his second wife, Elizabeth.

We will also offer brief biographies of leading figures among the early traders and hunters, and longer articles by well-known scholars and writers.

We hope that the ranks of our readers may also hold potential contributors to this special issue. Articles need not be tied specifically to 1824, or to the white adventurers who arrived in Natal in that year. Contributions on the background to the settlement, on the human and environmental conditions in the territory at the time of the arrival of the whites, on ships and trade, on aspects of Natal's development since 1824, will all be favourably considered-but, if possible, should not exceed 2 000 words in length!

8 Editorial

Farewell to R. A. Brown and Serendipity

After eleven years as University Librarian in Pietermaritzburg, Mr. R. A. Brown has now retired and is moving to take up a new appointment in Oxford. His association with the Natal Society thus comes to an end, making this the last issue of Natalia to which he will contribute as a member of the editorial board.

Our debt to him is enormous. The seed from which Natalia has grown he planted in March 1969 with a mimeographed leaflet under the title Natal Notes and News. It ran to four issues which he produced virtually single-handed, and demonstrated the existence of a real demand for a journal devoted to the dissemination of information of Natal interest.

Collaboration with Ron Brown has been an extended demonstration of the meaning of Horace Walpole's word 'serendipity'. Recognising that some men more than others are blessed with a genius for making 'discoveries, by accident and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of', and remembering the fairytale of The Three Princes ofSerendip, Walpole in 1745 coined a new word for the English language. R. A. Brown's capacity for chancing upon new information, for turning up a happy, but unexpected, discovery, for pulling the right thing out of the hat at just the right time, has been uncanny. If serendipity is one of the qualities that made him an outstanding librarian, it is also one of the qualities that has made him an invaluable editorial colleague.

We shall miss him greatly. And we wish him welL C. de B. WEBB

Note:

1. Lugg, H. C, Historical Natal and Zululand, (Pietermaritzburg, 1949), p. 21.

9

Captain Alien F. Gardiner's Natal Journal for 1838

ALTHOUGH I had to struggle against every obstacle which was thrown in my way by the white inhabitants of Port Natal, the natives continued to arrive at my settlement of Hambanati. A village had already been built and a considerable tract of land in patches brought under cultivation. On our first arrival (1837 5th June) the grass was as high as our heads and we lived partly in tents and partly in the waggon. A house of native construction but on my own plan ... was built, which we inhabited until a more substantial one of wattle and daub was completed into which we then removed, the first being pervious to every hard shower which frequently caused us great inconvenience. As soon as we had quitted our long thatched abode, the partitions were taken down and the whole thrown into a place of worship; it served also for a school room. The Sunday services had previously been held in the open air. Our family prayer which was at 8 o'clock in the morning was held in the native-built house and was always open to them. Several attended besides our own native servants. Every part was interpreted. For some time school was held every day, but feeling that this trenched too much upon the time which should have been devoted to the acquirement of the language, it was changed to each alternative day. As the crops however began to ripen, the children gradually fell off, and as their attention was requisite in order to guard the corn from the birds it was at length discontinued for the season.

The system in the school was entirely oral. Catechisms were translated and the children taught to repeat the answers etc. The routine of public instruction was the following. A general subject was selected for consideration throughout the whole of each week, and appropriate portions of Scripture, illustrating and inforcing the doctrine or duty involved, expounded on each alternate morning throughout the week. On the Sabbath morning a text embodying all was expounded, and the whole subject matter with the three other portions of Scripture explained during the past week were brought under review in the discourse. At the intermediate weekly services the portion of Scripture explained the preceding morning was again read and a brief abstract of the exposition repeated, after which the people were invited to ask questions and were in return questioned as to what they had heard the day before, and explanations given. The same method was pursued on the Sunday afternoon when the whole of the people were present, and it was surprizing to find how much Scripture knowledge they had thus acquired in a very short time. It was some time before I hit upon this method, but I have been much encouraged in following it upindeed on its very commencement it was evidently acceptable to the people and calculated to interest and encourage them. On the very first day on which it was adopted some of them immediately said, 'Now we shall know the words. We could not understand before but now we shall understand'. As I have so fully tried the effect of this method and fee] persuaded that it is well adapted for the

10 Gardiner's Natal Journal

instruction of the heathen, I will just give an example of the routine General Subject (Faith)

Monday John 3 v 14-16 and 36 Tu Do. Questions W Mark 10 v 46-52 Th Do. Questions F Mark 2 v 1-12 Sa Do. Questions Sunday Acts 3 v 1-16

Afternoon Do. Questions

Until the arrival of the Dutch emigrant Boers all was going well and we had much to encourage us in the work; but after the wanton massacre of Retief and his party and the war which ensued, the minds of the natives were so possessed with the desire to profit in the struggle by the pillage of cattle that it was with the utmost difficulty I could restrain them from joining the Port Natal people and engaging in the war. The white inhabitants of Port Natal having set the example and accustomed their native clans to attack Dingarn it was no longer prudent for me to remain in an insulated spot 30 miles distant from Europeans and within a night's march of the Zulu army. Instead of defending Hambanati I had every reason to believe that the greater part of my people would run away upon the appearance of a hostile force, and as Dingarn had taken offence at my having received for one night a runaway chief named Issegwabana with his people, who had fled for their lives, we were in nightly expectation of an attack from the Zulu army. The letter which I subsequently sent to Dingarn explaining the cause of this apparent breach of treaty was never delivered, it having arrived just after the massacre of Retief's party.

It was, however, my positive duty to examine and sift out as far as possible the report brought by Issegwabana, which was no less than an intention on the part of Dingarn to murder the Dutch Boers at the Tugela and the American missionaries in that vicinity. From replies to my letter conveying the result of these enquiries to Mr. Champion and Mr. Owen 1, it was considered by them evident that the tale brought by Issegwabana was a mere fabrication in order to ensure a better welcome on his reaching Port Natal where he and his people immediately afterwards went. As a matter of prudence therefore (Dingarn having already signified his intention of attacking me), as soon as all the missionaries with their families had passed forward in safety, we also removed to Berea. There it was my intention to remain until it should be prudent to return to Hambanati.

On the very next day I rode to the Port, where Mr. Owen was staying, and saw the assembly of the rabble who that evening set out under their white leaders to pillage cattle from the Zulus and cooperate with the Boers in the war. Their heads and loins were bound with strips and shreds of white calico to distinguish them from other black people, and altogether their appearance was most wild and grotesque. They were nearly 1000 men, but not more than 400 or 450 carried muskets; the remainder bore shields and spears.

The mission to the Zulus had already been broken up and the only hope that remained to me was a return to Hambanati at some future period, but from the fuller information recently obtained as to the plans and proceedings of the emigrant Boers it was evident that my work at Hambanati was concluded. Their treatment of the natives, their intention to employ them all either as slaves or as

11 Gardiner's Natal Journal

servants, added to the opposition they have ever evinced to their being instructed, led me to infer that a free settlement such as mine could never exist or at least that the ultimate object would be wholly frustrated immediately on the arrival of the Boers. They would occupy the whole country, absorb all the natives, and thus my whole plan of concentrating them around a mission station would 'be defeated. Already I had contracted for bricks to erect a church-a work which was only suspended on account of the unsettled state of the country - but I considered that it would now become almost useless as it would neither be practicable to collect the natives and protect them as before, or to supply them with the quantity of land necessary for the support of their families.

These were the principal reasons which induced me to decide on leaving the country and propose to the people at Hambanati a plan for removing them in a body to some more secure spot in the neighbourhood of the Cape Colony. With this view I returned to Hambanati to explain the project and obtain their decision regarding it. Having given them sufficient time to deliberate and a distinct intimation that should they engage in the war with the Zulus they would forfeit any claim to my protection, they all unanimously expressed their desire to accompany me. It was therefore agreed that I should go to the Colony and if practicable select a spot for a new settlement - that in the mean time they should rendezvous on the Umzumvubu, where I proposed D. V. to meet them and convey them to their locations. My property was left in their charge and provisions appointed for the journey to the Umzimvubu.

Having returned to Berea and taken my passage by the M ary schooner then in the harbour, we removed to the Point and pitched our tent under some trees where Mr. Owen was also encamped. Here we awaited the sailing of the schooner. On Sunday evening, March 25th, we took leave of Port Natal with feelings that may be imagined better than expressed, accompanied by Messrs. Champion and Venables and Drs. Adams and Wilson, American missionaries, who were also returning to the Colony.

We reached Algoa Bay on the 30th and landed at Port Elizabeth on the following day. Enquiries were immediately set on foot and every effort made for the accomplishment of the object I had in view, but all were equally discouraging. The last six or seven months had been a period of excessive drought, the cattle were lean, many hundreds had died, and every article of consumption had risen in value at least 100 per cent. Butter was scarcely to be procured at any price, and milk was very exorbitant. It was my intention to leave my family at some convenient place on the route and to proceed in the first instance to Somerset. Horses were out of the question but even bullocks for a waggon were not to be procured. My agent, Mr. Button, had actually offered to pay for the cattle that might die on the road, but this was no inducement. Under these unexpected circumstances I made a particular calculation of the total expenses incident upon the whole undertaking, including the six or seven months which it would be absolutely necessary to provision the people (in number about 500) from the period of their actual arrival until their first crops should be gathered. At the present rate of produce and the advanced prices of every article, even in the district to which we proposed going, it was quite evident that my present means would be wholly insufficient. We thought of borrowing money to some extent, but it could not be undertaken. I was therefore, of course, necessitated to abandon it entirely. To this conclusion I came indeed with much reluctance, but still I felt it was a duty I owed to my family, and that if it had been the will of God, a

]2 Gardiner's Natal Journal

way would have been opened for its completion without involving me in debt which I should not have been justified in incurring.

Letters were immediately written to Port Natal explaining the whole circumstances and recommending the natives under my control, as I could not remove them, to adhere to Mr. Owen for instruction. These, by the kindness of Mr. Shaw (Superintendent of the Wesleyan Mission), were sent overland.

Having again with mutual prayer commended ourselves to the Lord and implored His guidance, we felt it was our duty still to devote ourselves to the heathen and under Divine guidance we now look forward to the period when we may commence a similar work among the aborigines of the opposite continent, South America. The Patagonian Tribes of which I had seen something and heard much during two visits to Chili were the especial object of our regard and to them we proposed by the blessing of God to proceed.

A letter was accordingly written to my agent, Mr. Dickson, at Cape Town apprising him of my wish to secure passage to Buenos Ayres, but should there be no direct communication, to Rio Janeiro. We set out from Port Elizabeth on the 6th ApriL but did not reach Rondebosch near Cape Town until the 5th of May. It was a period of great activity among the farmers as the first rains had fallen after a long period of drought and all their ploughs were in requisition, so that we found great difficulty in hiring either horses or bullocks in the course of our journey overland. Sometimes we were stopped entirely for one, two and three days, which occasioned our being so long upon the road on this journey. We crossed the Pass cal1ed Sir Lowrey's over the Hottentot Holland mountains which is exceedingly fine. Two days after reaching Rondebosch, I heard of the loss of several of my people who, contrary to their avowal, joined in the warthus shewing that my hinderance in seeking for them a new settlement was a Providential appointment.

Transcribed and edited by C. de B. WEBB

Note:

1. Rev. G. W. Champion of the American Board Mission, and Rev. Francis Owen of the Church Mission Society.

Suggested reading:

Brookes, E. H. and Webb, C. de B., A History of Natal, (Pietermaritzburg, 1965). Kotze, D. J., Ed., Letters ofthe American A1issionaries, 1835-1838, (Van Riebeeck Society, No. 31, Cape Town, 1950). Cory, G. E., ed., Diary of the Rev. Francis Owen, (Van Riebeeck Society, No. 7, Cape Town, 1962). Wilson, H. C., The Two Scapegoats, (Pietermaritzburg, 1914).

13

Sir Theophilus Shepstone and his Local Critics

Originally published in the Natal Mercury Supplement, 1.4.1892

Maritzburg, March 17

Sir,- My letter in your issue of the 29th January last has been criticised by the Natal Witness, the Times of Natal, and the Advertiser. These journals will naturally be looked upon by outsiders as entitled to special authority. They are conducted by men on the spot, who must be assumed to understand, more or less thoroughly, the subject they criticise.

I am sorry to be obliged in the present instance to demur to this foregone conclusion. In addition to matters of detail which I may have to notice, all their articles seem pervaded by the assumption that my letter was intended to propound a plan which I put forward as a permanent settlement of the native question, in opposition to that of President Reitz. Such an assumption is not complimentary to one's common sense, nor is it warranted by the letter itself.

The least thoughtful among us must know and see the accelerated pace at which change is now sweeping onward; that, therefore, no fixed or permanent plan is practicable; that whatever system or principle may be adopted as an outline of action, the condition of perpetual change will constantly demand administrative changes corresponding to that condition, guided by the main object of so improving and advancing the natives that their existence in the presence of the white man may be safe and profitable to both. Short cuts which ignore the great gulf that separates the social and political ideas of the two races must sooner or later bring about disaster. This is the only system that my experience and observation lead me to believe is practicable; but there must always be present the authority, able and ready, to make these changes when they are required. A system based upon the above principles was in full operation until the enactment of the Law No. 26, 1875. That law put a stop to all improvements not brought about by a specified process; this process could never be set in motion, consequently all assimilative advance has been arrested from that day to this. Even the mistakes of the enactment, and the untoward interpretations put upon it, have become crystallised; and the results, as far as I have been able to observe them, have been retrograde, perplexing, and unsatisfactory.

* * * I fully concede to the Editor of the Witness the right to hold and publish any

opinion he chooses; but his description, of what he calls the 'main gist' of my letter, which he gives for the purpose, apparently, of discrediting it, is a kind of misrepresentation that does not come up to one's idea of legitimate journalism.

It would be tedious, besides answering no good purpose, to traverse all the instances of which I should feel entitled to complain; I shall, therefore, content myself with selecting one instance only, for which, I must, however, admit, the

14 Sir Theophilus Shepstone and his local critics

Editor may have more excuse than the rest. I select this because it has afforded him the opportunity of casting doubt upon what everyone who would be a leader of public opinion in Natal should know to be undeniable fact; whatever the value of the fact may be. He describes me as urging that the natives here are the aborigines of the soil, and, therefore, have clear undeniable rights which may not be alienated or disturbed. He says I assume the possession of the land by our existing natives or their immediate ancestors. He reminds me that as far as Natal is concerned, this assertion is str-.;nuously denied, and that those who do so have adduced no inconsiderable amouat ofproof in favour of what they allege.

Now the truth is that I made no allusion to the aboriginal rights of Natal natives to Natal soil. I assigned no particular locality to any particular tribe, either in Natal or out of it. What I did assume was that all South African tribes, enumerated, or referred to by President Reitz, were aborigines of South Africa, and, as such, had aboriginal rights to the soil of South Africa. Surely this is a self-evident proposition, and very different to what the Editor makes me responsible for.

But since he has introduced a subject which I had not thought of touching, and introduced it, too, with the remark, which, I suppose, is intended as a reproach, that 'as of old' I was begging the question, I may tell him plainly that the bulk of the native tribes in Natal is aboriginal, not only as being South African tribes, but that they are so, as far as Natal is concerned. I assert this to be the case, not from any foregone conclusion or prejudice; indeed, if the reverse were true our policy would be less difficult, but from evidence that cannot be controverted evidence most laboriously collected from living witnesses during several years prior to the date of Governor Scott's despatch of the 26th Feb., 1864, which was transmitted to the Legislative Council in July, 1865. If the Editor will read that despatch with a little more attention than he appears to have given my letter he will gain a great deal of useful informaton. He will find appended to it lists of all the native tribes in Natal, with a description of the locality anciently occupied by each. He will find, too, that the great bulk of these are 'ancient tribes of the country, which never had any other home, so far as is necessary for us to trace their history, than the country now forming this colony, except during the turmoil and disruption caused by the ambitious acts of Chaka'.

The Editor asserts very early in his article that President Reitz has put 'very plainly and very boldly what are well known to be the ruling ideas of many colonists, and the bulk of those who are of Dutch extraction'. I am inclined to doubt this assertion. It does not appear from his article that the Editor has himself a very clear perception of the scope of the President's programme; his authority to speak for others can, therefore, scarcely be accepted; but if it be true, there could be no more complete justification for the anxiety which the Secretary of State shows to protect us against ourselves, in his treatment of the responsible government question now pending, than such a fact.

* * * The Times of Natal, Feb. I, 1892

As to the article in the Times of Natal, Feb. 1, 1892, the Editor thinks that 'in matters of policy such an overwhelming knowledge of native manners, customs, and laws' as I possess is not supremely necessary. 'We have to deal with a practical subject,' he says, 'and it must be dealt with in a practical manner. South Africa


will have to settle its native problem sooner or later. It is obviously impossible that the present relations of whites and blacks can continue for an indefinite period.'

Suppose all this to be admitted, what solution would the Editor propose? Wha t is the practical manner in which he would deal with this 'practical subject' ? Does he mean to assert that the solution would be easier if we knew less than we do know of the peculiarities of the people whose presence creates the problem? He appeals to farmer experience and opinion as to the operation of the tribal system in the case of stock thefts. He says the natives 'protect each other, and unite to avoid detection; that they form as it were gigantic checks to assist each other in plundering the white farmers,' a most unjustifiable assertion; and then sums up a string of sensational statements with the very self-evident proposition, that 'when tribes unite to shelter criminals from the clutches of the law there can only be one opinion, that the system which allows it as an evil system'. No one will deny this proposition; but is the inference meant to be conveyed by it true? Can the Editor state one case while Natal has been a British colony in which 'tribes have united to shelter criminals'? It is an assumption for which he has no warrant. Such statements are calculated to estrange races, who, whether for good or for ill, must live together. The European race, guided by what it will consider the superior knowledge of an editor belonging to it, will believe and act upon its belief; the natives will see that whether innocent or guilty, they are equally blamed, and grow reckless. Surely the function of editor has moral responsibility serious enough attached to it to induce him to ascertain the truth of such statements before he makes them. He asks 'In how many cases are native informers found, and why is it next to impossible to get one native to give evidence against another in country cases l' The reason is, he says, 'that the native informer would be sent to coventry, at least by the members of his tribe, and his life rendered miserable and unendurable.' Is the reluctance to become informer peculiar to natives? Is the public virtue of the editor himself such as to compel him, should he see a crime committed by a European, to become one? Of course I quite understand that his duty would be clearer to him if the delinquent were a native. The difference between civilised and native law is very marked in this respect. Under the former a man may see the perpetration of a serious crime, pass on and keep silence with no more responsibility or compunction than his conscience might inflict, and that perhaps would not be very hard to bear. Under the latter such silence would be punishable. This law applies to all organised native communities. I do not, of course, include temporary squatters.

Perhaps I may be allowed to tender a little personal evidence on this matter. I presided for many years over the Combined Court, and tried many cases of both cattle and sheep-stealing. That court was established with its peculiar constitution, at my suggestion, to check stock thefts, knowing as I did from my experience on the Cape frontier how dangerous to the peace of the country the crime might become. I do not believe that one case in 50 was convicted on other than native evidence; nor do I remember one in which the chief, who sat as assessor, and who, in each case was the chief of the prisoner's tribe, was not inclined to severer punishment than the Magistrate or myself. Indeed it has happened in cases of second or third convictions that the chief has suggested the uselessness of letting such culprits live any longer.

It may be safely said that if only a very small proportion of what the Editor


avers with regard to the protection afforded by chiefs and tribes and locations to stock thefts were true, there would have been an end of cattle farming, together with the peace of the country, long ago. That there are stock thefts there can be no doubt; but to beat the air and grope in the dark for the root of the evil is not the cleverest way of tracing it. .

The Editor denies without qualification my description of the position of the native chiefs in NataL I 'enter into the domain of theory,' he says, 'the native chiefs should fill the bill which I have drawn up, but in practice they do not.'

I must, however, adhere to my description, nevertheless. It is, of course, easiest to write about that of which we know least; but let me assure him that although he would have to forego this advantage, a little more of the knowledge that he despises would do him no harm. In support of his denial he cites the common practice of sheep-stealing. 'How is it,' he asks, 'that we do not find the native chiefs correcting the criminal propensities of their followers, and handing them over to justice?' The answer is not far to seek. The country is studded with farms occupied by native tenants. These live under the aegis of the proprietors. They pay their rent, and the owner is satisfied. They are removed from the control of any chief, or direct supervision of any kind, and the proprietor very naturally resents all interference with the source of his income. They form small mixed communities, located, perhaps, in the neighbourhood of farmers, to whom, if they become stock thieves, they are a perpetual scourge. They of necessity protect each other; probably furnish labourers to the farms near them, who co-operate with the communities by intimidating the native servants on those farms who may not belong to them; and so they flourish upon what they steal, and the little they cultivate.

It is by this class of native that most of the stock thefts are committed. When ejected from one farm they will arrange for the occupation of another; but the last place they wiiI think of going to is a recognised location, because they know that there they will enjoy no such immunity. I do not assert that thefts are not occasionally committed in locations, but the Editor will find on enquiry that they are far less freq uent, and much more capable of detection. Another source of protection to these thievish communities is the disinclination which the farmers themselves naturally feel to interfere with the rights of ownership and tenant; they will grumble and bear a good deal, but they shrink from the onus of acting.

The Editor of the Times ofNatal undertakes to interpret the words of President Reitz. He explains that there are other methods of breaking up locations than by summarily ejecting the natives therefrom. One of these methods has, he says, 'been mooted in Natal of breaking U~J locations by surveying them, dividing them into lots, and settling those lots in freehold upon the heads of kraals, to be disposed of as the latter think fit!' and a novel plan it is! What if the grantees thought fit to sell their grants to white men, as they most assuredly would? and what if the white purchasers should require the Government to respect its own title deeds by removing the natives from the land they had purchased? This would certainly be an effective as well as summary way of breaking up the locations; but such a questionable course is not likely to have been in the mind of the President. There is nothing furtive about his proposals, whatever else may be said of them.

The Editor thinks that the plan he has described would give a blow to the power of the chiefs, because it would take the land out of their hands. A little


more knowledge would have shown him that the land is not, and has not for many years been, in the hands of the chiefs, and that they have no more authority over the fee simple of it than any of their people. This appears to be the only practical suggestion which the Editor makes; but it is not an honest suggestion and, therefore, is unworthy of any consideration. We may be content to await President Reitz's own interpretation of his words.

* * * The Natal Advertiser, February 9.

It is disappointing to find, after reading that long article on the 'native problem' in the Natal Advertiser of the 9th February, that it does not rise above the level of a theoretical essay; that it shows no special acquaintance with the problem it professes to discuss, and therefore that it sheds no light upon the most serious of South African questions. It condemns completely and without hesitation everything that has been done in native management by both colonies from the beginning until now; but it is not difficult to condemn, and besides that it has the merit of being popular. Towards the two republics the Editor uses language which must be held to be both unfair and unjust, because he omits to take into account the circumstances of their existence, and he institutes comparisons which are a little too pharisaical to be in the best of taste.

I find one, and only one, practical suggestion in this article, and strangely enough, although it is recommended as a new departure, it is one that has been acted upon from the earliest days of the colony. It is embedded, however, in a most unpractical question. The Editor asks 'if they (the natives) can be brought - as they have been to recognise in the Governor their supreme chief, without his, however, recognising their distinct nationality, why cannot they further be taught to see in the Magistrate their local chief, while he on his part purposely ignores any recognition of their tribal organisation l' The gist of this suggestion for the supposed new departure is to induce the natives to look past their own chiefs to the Government and its officers as wielding the supreme authority. The Editor does not, of course, know, but there is no excuse for his not knowing, that the natives all do this already, and that for more than 40 years they have appreciated the protection which the putting in practice of this suggestion has afforded them. They appeal from their chiefs to their magistrates, and from their magistrates to higher courts, still further removed from their chiefs; or they may pass by their chiefs, in the first instance, and go direct to magistrates if they choose. Such is the practical working of the suggestion.

There remains to be noticed the impractical part of the Editor's question. It is difficult to see how the Governor can avoid recognising the 'distinct nationality' of a people over whom he is appointed Supreme Chief because of their distinct nationality. The Editor leads us to infer that he does. To ordinary minds it seems impossible for even a Govenor to ignore so patent a fact; but suppose the feat to be accomplished, what good would be gained by it?

Then, again, why should the magistrates 'purposely ignore any recognition of tribal organisation'? The immediate results would be to render the administration of the government of their districts impossible. As well might they 'purposely ignore any recognition' of family names among Europeans, and issue their summonses to Tom, Dick or Harry, blank. People living in towns frequently complain of the desertion of their native servants. They go; no one knows where, and then there is no remedy. The reason in most cases is the systematic B


ignoring of the tribal organisation by the employers. Durban has tried to remedy this by establishing a system of registration. It is a practical remedy. Whether it has brought any improvement I am not aware. If it has not, either the registration is imperfect or the native labourers of Durban have their h9mes outside the colony, or registration is neglected.

The Editor proceeds to say: 'Having thus brought the natives within the pale of civilisation, let us then proceed to raise them gradually and steadily by means of well applied technical education'. Ifby the establishment at present, ofwhat he suggests as something new, we should bring our natives 'within the pale of civilisation', Natal may fairly claim, upon the Editor's own showing, and despite his condemnation, that it achieved this more than 40 years ago. As to the technical education which he recommends, a little more definition would have made his meaning clearer; but as I understand it, I must ask where is the colony to get the thousands upon thousands sterling that would be annually required for such a gigantic enterprise? And in the light of that question I am bound to decide that the suggestion is chimerical in the extreme. For such instruction the colony must depend, as it ever has depended, upon the thousands of points of contact that take place daily between the races in their capacities of employer and employed. This is the most practical and therefore the most useful technical education that can be given; because it will enable the natives ultimately, if they are capable of doing so, to rise naturally and healthily to the conditions ofa more civilised and artificial life. It is the business of the Government to regulate this in so far only as not to interfere with the healthy development of the process. The great teachers are, and ever will be, the colonists themselves.

One more point I wish to notice; the Editor seems to believe that so long as the natives continue under their present form of government they are a huge organisation, and that until they have advanced very much further out of their barbarism they will continue to be a constant element of danger. I cannot help thinking that if the Editor would look at the matter in the light shed by daily facts in Natal, he would think a little differently. All tribes, are, like families, minor organisations. They cherish the special rivalries, jealousies, and feuds which usually exist between them; and bitter enough these frequently are. They are kept within bounds by the central authority to which they all look up. It is obvious that so long as this lasts the only power that could give coherence to any 'huge organisation' among the tribes must be that central authority. This authority can be superseded only by a feeling, or apprehension strong enough to overwhelm tribal aversions. Such a condition could be brought about by some huge mistake or injustice, or by the provocation produced by a policy, the obvious aim of which was their oppression as a race, so that the bringing about of such a condition is very much in our own hands. It would, therefore, be the wildest of experiments to attempt to break up their tribal organisation. A state of tutelage such as theirs is, requires more or less of special control. Their tribal organisation places this in the hands of the Government. Our system of civilised laws supplies no such facility.

* * * My letter, that has evoked so much local criticism, contains nothing that was

intended to be a defence of what my critics choose to call my native policy. Its object was, as appears on the face of it, to protest, on the grounds set forth therein, against President Reitz's paper in the Cape Magazine. It is, perhaps,


possible that the results which the President says should be the aim of civilised man in South Africa may in the end become, more or less, what he wishes them to be; but if they do, it will be by the operation of irresistible natural laws; and the process need not be embittered by proclaiming ourselves successful robbers and potential tyrants. .

When civilised government is called upon to undertake the control of an inferior race, and that race is found to be possessed of an organisation, built up by its own needs; suited to its ideas, habits, and circumstances, including the most effective machinery for its internal control, and easily adaptable to our civilised methods; when, moreover, it is optional with such government to take into its own hands that organisation, and to ensure that the control it affords shall be wielded by itself, it seems the height of folly to reject it for the illogical reason that its methods are not those of our higher civilisation. How long the organisation should last must depend upon its value and the use that can be made of it. The object being always to replace in it that which, from time to time, may become obsolete or decayed, by what civilisation may judge wise and prudent, the methods in it repugnant to civilisation having been eliminated from the beginning. One thing is beyond doubt that to suppress native management by their own laws in Natal would be to release every native in it from all the special personal control that he fully understands, that he so much needs, and that he has all his life looked up to. Civilisation is advancing with rapid strides in these days. When its methods are found more suited to changed circumstances, the natives themselves will be glad to adopt them. Tribalism and chieftainship having become unnecessary and inconvenient to all concerned may then be left to die out for lack of use.

* * * I had written thus far and was waiting for the exciting discussions on re

sponsible government to subside, when a second article on the native question appeared in the Natal Advertiser of the 4th inst., inspired by a letter from Mr. John W. McKenzie, of Richmond. The Editor describes the letter as a 'scathing reply to my contentions,' and the writer of it as a colonist in close touch with the native question. What the close touch consists in does not appear. It has been close enough, however, to satisfy the Editor, and to induce him to adopt Mr. McKenzie's questions as well as his views. Our natives, he asserts, are 'no better today, in any sense of the word than they were 50 years ago,' and that 'they could not be in a much worse condition of stagnation than they are to-day.' These are assertions which may be allowed to pass for what they are worth. Possibly the maker of them was not born 50 years ago. The editor tries to justify them by putting several questions, to which short answers may perhaps be found.

'How many of the barbarian customs have been destroyed?' he asks. The answer is that every custom that is revolting to civilised ideas is rendered illegal, and the practice of it punishable. I exclude of course polygamy. Judging from what I see and know, I am not quite sure that it should be ranked among customs revolting to civilised ideas, or whether its morality or its inconvenience is most objected to by civilised man. He next asks 'how much higher are they (the natives) in the scale of civilisation?' What is civilisation? What are the Editor's and Mr. McKenzies' ideals of civilisation? Let us have their graduated scale with clear definition, and the relative positions will soon be found.

Again, he asks, 'How many have received any education or training?' Here


again definition is necessary; but in any case he must be referred to the Council of Education, to the various religious bodies whose money and energies are expended among and for the native population of this colony, and to every individual colonist.

He further asks, 'What percentage of them are earning a livelihood in a way which can permanently benefit the white community or themselves?' It may be asked, in reply, whose labour made our railways, our public roads, our bridges? Whose labour is now contributing to the prosperity of the colony by bringing into it large sums of money earned at the gold fields? Where do the direct taxes, now nearly £100,000, paid regularly every year by the natives, come from? And whence the large annual proportion of indirect taxes paid also by the natives through the Customs, but from their labour for the Europeans, or exchange of commodities with him? May it not be assumed that the white community reaps some permanent benefit from these services, and that a little may remain to the natives?

The Editor's eloquent utterances about chastity and morality; his strictures upon our widening the latitude of unchastity among the natives are based upon what he supposes to be two facts (l) that Mr. McKenzie's statement of the amended native law is correct, and (2) that the original native law took more care of a woman's chastity than our own does. With regard to the first, Mr. John W. McKenzie's statement of the law as quoted by the Editor is not true; and with regard to the second, I regret to say that the original native law is not, as Mr. McKenzie and the Editor between them try to make out, one whit better than ours. Loss of chastity has its social bar and social penalty, as with us. His superstructure must, therefore, go with the foundation upon which it is built.

* * * I am overtaken by the Natal Mercury of the 7th inst., with its leading article

and a letter on the 'Native Question,' by Mr. William Grant. Mr. Grant twits the Editor with an inclination to 'sustain' my argument in favour of 'the continued maintenance of the tribal system among the natives', and 'as a similar assumption or impression', the Editor says, 'has been expressed in other quarters', he hastens to purge himself of the offence, for such I am sorry to find it is considered to be, by straightway adopting, in a general way, all 'the five points put by Mr. Grant, as embodying essential principles that should be kept in view in any sound and far-reaching native policy.' Points which he goes on to assert have been contended for by the Mercury 'ever since it came into existence 40 years ago'; which have been insisted upon in days 'when to do so seemed like a mere crying in the wilderness, so little response did the appeal evoke, and so hopeless seemed the prospect of any administrative reform.' A most hearty welcome is therefore given to Mr. Grant, who 'today feels constrained to add his voice to the forces that have so long contended for those principles which represent essentially the policy of the forward party.'

I do not feel inclined to permit, silently, the forward party, or the Editor, or Mr. Grant, much as I respect them all, to plume themselves with feathers that do not belong to them.

As in the first part of this letter, so in the last, I have to complain that all my critics insist upon treating my letter on President Reitz's paper as a defence of the native policy of Natal, in spite of my distinct disavowal of its being so in the letter itself.


But let us examine Mr. Grant's five points: 1. 'Natal is in the legal occupation of a power representing an advanced

civilisation; it is therefore incumbent on its Government to create and administer laws which are in harmony with the traditions of a civilised people'. Mqst admirably stated, and no one can well quarrel with this axiom; certainly the Government of Natal which has acted upon it from its first establishment is not likely to do so.

2. 'The maintenance as at present of what is practically a dual administration, in as far as it relates to the natives, is highly pernicious and to be strongly deprecated. The effect of it weakens the authority of the dominant power, and invests the chiefs under the tribal system with authority to enforce and perpetuate traditions, customs and practices which are the creation of savage minds, and are in consequence repugnant to civilised laws.' Had this paragraph been written by a newcomer I should not have been surprised; it would have accorded with the judgment usually pronounced without hesitation by the average self-sufficient conscientious Briton upon everything not British; but Mr. Grant is no novice. His conclusions would be quite right if his premises were not quite wrong. He reasons upon a set of circumstances which he has allowed himself to imagine. The chiefs have no power to enforce anything except what may be conferred upon them by the Magistrate for a specific purpose, and that which they are clothed with to maintain public order; and with regard to this latter they as often as not try to get the approval or direction of the Magistrate before they exercise it. The effect therefore cannot, as Mr. Grant says, be to weaken, but it must strengthen the dominant power.

As to perpetuating traditions and customs and practices which are the result of savage minds, I have no doubt that they do perpetuate the memory of them in recounting their family histories, as any head of a family would, and does, whether civilised or savage, if he has any history to tell; but they have no more power to enforce them than any head of a family in the three kingdoms.

3. 'The maintenance and impartial administration of laws are the first essentials to the well-being of a state. The mouthpieces of law are our magistrates; to them every citizen should look as the source of authority; any intervening power, such as native chiefs exercise, can but enhance the influence of the chief and proportionately weaken the prestige of the magistrate. I maintain that it is of the highest importance to train every member of a subject race such as our natives, to look direct to the European Magistrate as the one source of authority and power.' This is very prettily and logically written, as everything Mr. Grant carefully writes always is; but it is destroyed by the same fallacy that is fatal to number two, his next preceding point. Mr. Grant misapprehends the position of the native chiefs in this colony. They can no more be rivals of the magistrates than the sheriff can be the rival of the judges of the Supreme Court. Surely Mr. Grant has heard, as most of us have, of magistrates arresting tribal chiefs on criminal charges; of detaining them in gaol for preliminary examination and until brought to trial before a civilised jury. He should know therefore that the criminal law of the country operates, in all the most serious cases, equally upon native and European. For the rest every native, chief or common man, knows and looks to the Magistrate of his district as the authoritative exponent and dispenser of the central authority.

4. 'Although our laws have swept away some of the more diabolical of native customs, many which are offensive to right sense and feeling are retained,


and so long as locations and tribal systems are perpetuated these cannot be successfully attacked much less abolished.'

It would have been more satisfactory if Mr. Grant had mentioned a few at least, of the 'many' that he says 'are retained'. He must have had, or thought he had, some ground for writing this; what was it?

5. 'Circumstances for a time might justify for politic reasons the not too rigid enforcement of a policy which strikes at the abolition of customs pertaining to a largely preponderating portion of native subjects; but this should not prevent the initiation of a distinct policy having for its object the complete uprooting of savage customs inimical to civilisation.'

Mr. Grant writes as if no thought had ever been bestowed upon the subject; or that if it had, no action had ever been taken. He suggests the 'initiation' of a distinct policy, etc. It is a fact, however, that long before even the 'crying in the wilderness' of the Mercury 40 years ago, a very distinct policy was initiated, and every native law, practice, and custom repugnant to civilised ideas was, one after the other, as opportunity occurred up to the passing of the Law No. 26, 1875 sternly prohibited, and when thereafter practised punishment followed. If any have escaped, Mr. Grant will do a public service by pointing them out.

Perhaps no public officer has been so mercilessly criticised on any subject as I have been in this very matter. The view I have always held and acted upon was that a civilised government had no right to experimentalise with the lives and properties of its subjects, whether native or European; and the Government coincided in my view. It would surprise your readers to know the many proposals, like cut paper patterns, for 'elevating the natives in the scale of civilisation,' that were offered" during my administration of native affairs in this colony, all involving serious social experiments upon an overwhelming native population, entirely ignoring the interests or safety of the few Europeans living in their midst, or the consequences to the natives that must inevitably have followed later on.

Let me quote some passages from a leading artic1e of the Natal Advertiser, now my assailant, headed 'Native Law,' written on the occasion of the introduction into the Legislative Council of the Law No. 44 of 1887. It is dated the 14th June, 1887.

I must premise that I do not even now know who the writer was, and that I was not personally acquainted with the person whom I supposed, and still suppose, to have been the author, so that his testimony is at any rate independent. ' ... Native law is either a good or bad thing intrinsically, and that apart from its technical mystery. If it is a good thing, then the Bill sent to the Legislature by the Governor is a farce, and whether it is a good or bad thing, if it becomes law is likely to lead to tragic events. Native law as native law, is a simple code of strict equity, and rules of inheritance and status of individuals previously were as well known by every adult native as the multiplication table is by the advanced boys in a primary school. Native law as administered, however, by the grace of the Legislature of Natal is quite another matter, and a very simple code has become transformed into a mystery all but inscrutable. Previously there was but one system common through our natives from Tongaland to St. John's River; now, however, in Natal there are many systems, many codes of native Jaw. To find their exact number would require a commission of enquiry, but a rough estimate might be found by multiplying the number of administrators of native law by the number of cases they try in a year, and the result would give a fairly approximate total of the number of codes of native law now


harassing and worrying the native subjects of her Majesty in Natal. Previous to 1875 Sir Theophilus Shepstone was the chief arbiter of native law, and with true wisdom he best fulfilled his duty by gradually eliminating all savage excrescences from the Zulu corpus juris, and left a code which gave the natives justice and Natal safety. In 1875 this power was arrogated by the Legislature; a code of so-called native law drawn up and declared law, only to be contemned and ridiculed by the very men who were appointed to administer it. The result is that native law by statute is a blank letter, and is now quite left to the caprice, instinct, prejudice or digestion of the individual administrator. Law No. 26 of 1875 appointed a Board who were to make native laws, that is to say the Council claimed and were allowed to exercise a most important function, and forthwith delegated that power to a board which up to this time (11 years afterwards, and to these may now be added more than four years up to the present date) has practically done nothing, as Mr. Binns elicited last session. Such is native law as it is ... The Board contemplated by the Bill is but a repetition of the old Board which was born dead, and so remains. The civilisation of a people marches with the proper codification of their laws, and it is the duty of the colony to stop at once the present abortion called native law, to codify the native law itself and insist that it, and it alone, shall be administered. The few who clamour for the bringing of the native population under colonial or Roman Dutch law, but propose a social impossibility, and seek to emulate Samson of old when a social and general upheaval was the only policy at hand. Native law is the right of our natives. With it our control of them will be complete, without it our control will wane as it is waning now, thanks to the irresponsible measure which rings its changes in the guise of native law.'

The above quotation very clearly and very ably sets forth the difficulty and the mischief of the position since 1875. Although I am unable to reproach the Legislative Council for accepting the responsibilities which law No. 26, 1875, imposed upon it, there can be no doubt that it never discharged them. The process which until then had been gradually but continually going on, of adapting native law or usage to the everchanging circumstances of the civilisation with which they were in contact, was suddenly arrested. The opportunities of improvement which 16 years would have afforded have been lost. Meanwhile gigantic influences upon the native mind developed themselves at the diamond and gold fields, while our power to assimilate or guide remained at a deadlock.

Perhaps the functions accepted by the Legislative Council were not such as it could either efficiently or conveniently discharge. The question is too wide to be discussed in the compass of even so long a letter as this; but the fact of its failure should teach a practical lesson, and that lesson should have prevented the difference that has so seriously compromised the position of the forward party.

* * * After stating his five points, Mr. Grant proceeds to criticise my letter; but

before doing so administers a rebuke which he thinks I need, for not having been sufficiently courteous to President Reitz. He may be right. I quite admit that Mr. Grant's courtesy exceeds mine, and I am sorry to have been outdone in this respect.

He finds fault with my declaration that it is impossible to effectually abolish hereditary chieftainship; alludes to my citing the non-success of the Zulu King Chaka in his attempts to do so, and credits me with the conclusion that therefore chieftainship and the tribal system must always remain. He emphasises his


repugnance to this in impassioned language, in which 'elevating influences; Christian and philanthropic efforts' are expressions duly marshalled to captivate whom they may. Now at the risk of incurring another rebuke, I must say, that if Mr. Grant had read my letter fairly, without prejudice, and with the iI.J.telligence which I give him credit for, he would have seen that I referred entirely to the failure of the violent modes of abolishing those ancient institutions, which were used by Chaka in older, and which have been occasionally adopted by civilised governments in more modern, times; I moreover described those modes. It was a protest against President Reitz's summary proposals, intended to show their impracticability. There was no need to offer opinions as to what could, or ought to be done, when the object was to show what could not. In like manner Mr. Grant suggests that I have shown but one side of the shield as regards the tribal system, and seems to suggest that I conceal for a purpose, the other, which he says is the darker side. I had no intention of covering the whole ground; it was not possible, nor was it necessary to my argument to do so. I presented that side of the shield which the Government of Natal has made what it is; fit to carry out its behests, and to enforce its authority; and that was the only side which my argument required me to present. I have, however, shed some light upon Mr. Grant's dark side in some of the preceding paragraphs. I hold that so long as the social condition of the natives is what it is chieftainship and tribalism are necessary. They are necessary to give us proper control of them, and proper control they must have. I do not believe in the efficacy of violent measures to destroy prejudices; to efface barbarism, or to commend civilised ideas and habits to a barbarous race. Such means are only the loading of shells with shorter or longer timefuses.

Their ancient institutions may be faulty, but they are efficient, and can be made so for the purposes of enlightened government. Reform them and use them so long as they answer that purpose. Civilisation will undermine them by the gradual but sure process of enforcing the fitness of things. They will become obsolete; useless to the natives themselves, and the practical extinction of them will take place when they are no longer of use to you.

The only 'serious outcome' that Mr. Grant adduces against the Tribal System is 'faction fights'. If he can instance nothing worse, or if he rightly classes these among the worst, there is not much harm in the Tribal System. Faction fights may be between tribes or between sections of one tribe. The causes are invariably local, or personal, or both. They have no connection with the politics of the country, and are of no political significance, except to show that those who compose the factions are much more ready to quarrel among themselves than with us.

Mr. Grant's observations on the tendencies of the rising generation of natives I fully agree with: they are, as he says, growing up with all the liberty our protection affords, and are far less amenable to law and order than their forefathers were; and he very rightly remarks that 'any hesitation or flabbiness in dealing with them will certainly produce disaster.' It is in the nature of things that it should be so. During a period of 16 years when corrective measures were most needed, the legislative power was in a state of collapse. A period long enough to give a generation a wrong bias has thus been lost. Meanwhile deteriorating influences daily increased in strength and number. Mr. Grant will probably be surprised to hear that no class feels and complains of this more than the chiefs themselves.

25 Sir Theophilus Shepstone and his .local critics

Mr. Grant quotes a scheme propounded to him by a member of the Cape Parliament, and an influential member of the Bond, for the universal apprenticeship of native youths under a certain age in the colony. Whether this is likely to cure the evil complained of, or to be successfully carried out I need not discuss. We shall at least gain experience if the attempt is made. .

I can understand a condition of things in which State reasons might justify a civilised government in applying some indirect, but efficient pressure to minimise the mischiefs of barbarous idleness; but it would have to be fenced about with many precautions.

Although Mr. Grant disclaims all intention of discussing polygamy, he devotes the longest paragraph in his letter to the object of proving that to Natal belongs the 'credit' of originating the idea of buying and selling. He says it has done this 'by having legally fixed a certain number of cattle to be given by the man for the woman'. He gives in the main a good but rather euphemistic description of Zulu marriages, that is, marriages in Zululand, and concludes by saying that 'to fix a certain number of cattle constitutes a buying and selling transaction'; but Mr. Grant has, quite unconsciously of course, misrepresented what Natal has done. It has not 'legally fixed a certain number of cattle to be given by the man for the woman'. What it has fixed is, that whatever the number agreed upon by the families may be, it shall not exceed ten. It may be one only if they agree. That I think is a very different thing. I found that without this restriction, avarice induced the fathers of good looking girls to demand so large a number of cattle that only rich, generally old, men could marry them. The inclinations of the girls were entirely disregarded, and a serious restraint was placed upon marriages; not only was the number of cattle restricted, but it was legally provided that no marriage should be valid at which the girl had not declared publicly before, and under the protection of, an official witness, her consent to the marriage she was engaged in celebrating; so that she has full liberty of choice. Another regulation is that whatever number of cattle may have passed on the day of the marriage, whether only one, or ten, no more can thereafter be demanded in respect of that marriage.

The effect of these two provisions is to free the girl from any undue pressure, and to relieve her parent from the temptation to apply any for the sake of gain. I am afraid that the model Zulu son-in-law, whom Mr. Grant describes as having such a happy lot, is not so well off as the Natal youth. The process which he describes as purely native custom becomes an intolerable tyranny. It is true, as he says, that in many cases not a single head of cattle is given to the father of the girl on the girl's marriage, or for several years after. I am afraid, however, that this is not due to the forbearance of the father, but to the fact that there are none to give, and because no suitor is likely to present himself who has any. Mr. Grant significantly adds, that the relationship between the son-in-law and father-in-law is nevertheless 'kept active by the fact that he' (the son-in-law) 'is looked upon as a standing source of help. When cattle are asked for' (and they always will be when there are any to get), 'one, three, or more head may be given, and this process continues all through the life of the woman, and after death.' A most effective way certainly of keeping the 'relationship active!' The unfortunate son-in-law is never released from legal liability to the avaricious demands of his wife's father or brothers. I speak from the experience which the trial of every kind of native dispute has given me. I have had to adjudicate on scores of cases arising out of this custom, some of them more than 50 years old.

26 Sir Theophilus She pstone and his local critics

I found that instead of producing domestic or social harmony, as Mr. Grant pictures, it is most prolific of family feuds and bitter discord. One generation hands on its quarrels to another, exaggerated by the accretions of time. It was surely necessary to restrict this source of constant irritation; to relieve the magistrates of the overwhelming work it imposed upon them, and ultimately to put a stop to it altogether, by taking a step in the direction of civilised usage. Would Mr. Grant have us retrace the step?- I am, etc.,

T. SHEPSTONE.

DEVELOPMENT IN NATAL

TRANSVAAL " NGWANE. \

fREE

STATE

RICHARDS BAY

~ N

~

Growth Centres c;:r)

Growth Points •

Development Axis ~ CAPE

50 o SO 100 PROVI NeE I !

Kilometres

27

Town and Regional Planning in Natal ABSTRACT

The Province of Natal has an organisation for physical planning which is unique in the Republic ofSouth Africa. It is built around the Town and Regional Planning Commission, a statutory body which is responsible for advising the Administrator-in-Executive Committee of the Province on physical planning policy, and for guiding local authorities in the exercise of their town planning powers. This article sketches the physical background, administrative setting, problems and achievements of the Commission during its 21 year life as well as proposals for its future activities.

The Background to Development in Natal

Natal covers an area of 8 700000 ha, making up seven per cent of the total area of the Republic. It stretches from the sea to the Drakensberg escarpment which rises to a height of 3 400 metres and forms the watershed between eastward and westward flowing rivers. Considerable variation in altitude and land-form in a comparatively small area results in a wide range of local climates ranging from sub-tropical to alpine and from humid to dry, and a correspondingly wide range of soils, vegetation and farming and forestry activities.

The port of Durban is the busiest in Africa. The city of Durban and its metropolitan hinterland have a population of I 189 500 which makes it South Africa's third largest metropolitan area after Johannesburg and Cape Town.

The State, as part of its policy of industrial decentralisation has recently launched two new growth points of major significance in Natal. One is Richards Bay, where a bulk port is being established and an aluminium smelter is already in production. The next oil refinery will be built there and this will stimulate development of the Zululand hinterland.

The other is at Newcastle in the Tugela Basin where South Africa's third integrated steel works is being built at a cost of some RIOO 000 000 per year over the next ten years. This, together with ancilliary, deVelopment, is likely to boost the town's population to 255 000 in 1990.

The Planning Set-up in Natal

Ultimate authority over physical planning in Natal rests in the Administrator-in-Executive Committee, but in order to assist it a statutory body known as the Town and Regional Planning Commission was created by the Town Planning Ordinance (Natal) No. 27 of 1949.

The Commission meets monthly, and consists of up to eleven members appointed by the Administrator. They are prominent laymen, selected from various walks of life and from as wide a geographical range over the province as possible. The Commission is provided with office accommodation and its work is performed at the cost of the Natal Provincial Administration but under the

28 Town and regional plannirzg in Natal

direction and control of the Commission, by officers and servants appointed by the Administrator in terms of and subject to the laws governing the public service of the Republic. Apart from its running expenses, the Commission is provided with an annual grant voted by the Provincial Council, currently amounting to some R178 500 which it spends mainly on sponsored research by outside agencies, and on publication of this research and its own reports.

The Commission advises the Administrator on all questions of policy affecting physical planning and land subdivision. It is responsible for advising local authorities on town planning. It may itself prepare town planning schemes for areas outside local authority control. The Commission is responsible for conducting regional surveys and preparing regional plans. It may enter into contracts with any persons or organisations for the performance of its functions.

A body, known as the Private Township Board is responsible for advising the Administrator on technical details of applications for permission to subdivide land. The Board consists mainly of officials and is served by its own staff, but the staff of the Commission advise it on the planning implications of any applications to subdivide land.

Finally, completing the picture, there is a special Town Planning Appeals Board to which individual citizens may appeal if they are aggrieved by a decision of a local authority to grant or refuse permission to develop or use land of a town planning scheme. The Commission's representative attends the hearing of all appeals.

At first sight, this organisational set-up may appear to be unnecessarily complicated, but it works well - at any rate in the local conditions in Natal. The main reason may be that it brings into the planning process a finely balanced amalgam of politician and layman, professional planner and allied technologist, civil servant and informed private citizen, without allowing anyone group to dominate the process. It certainly creates a stimulating and challenging environment for the professional planner.

Regional Planning

The Commission's activities in the regional planning field have been devoted to the following main objectives: (a) Liaison - to maintain contact with and interchange information with

authorities, institutions and individuals on planning matters. (b) Environmental Preservation - to sponsor surveys and research aimed at

discovering what natural, unpolluted and undisturbed conditions are in rivers, sea, air, soil and plant communities and what steps may be taken to rehabilitate disturbed areas and prevent future degradation.

(c) Planning of regions - to survey resources, measure development potential and prepare regional, sub-regional and metropolitan plans to guide future development of those areas into the most satisfactory pattern.

(d) Provincial Administration to advise the Administrator on physical planning policy.

(e) Information - to maintain an information bank in connection with its functions.

The Commission's past work is summarised in the list of publications which appears at the end of this article.

For many years efforts were concentrated particularly on the Tugela Basin, a

29 Town and regional planning in Natal

promising but undeveloped region covering about a third of Natal. The potential of this region has now been recognised with the decision to establish a steelworks at Newcastle and to stimulate the development of several points. Apart from making an analysis of the region's development potential, the Commission's main concern has been to plead for comprehensive planning and development, taking full account of ecological factors.

A study of the 80km stretch of coastline north of Durban was published in 1962. Its main objective was to establish development criteria for this, at that time little developed resort area and to lay down a policy to guide decisions on development applications. The report has had a strong influence on thinking about coastal resort development and has enabled provincial authorities to maintain firm and consistent control.

The accent has now shifted to rounding off many years of planning work on the highly urbanised Pietermaritzburg - Durban region. An outline regional plan and a first report on a metropolitan plan for Greater Durban are being produced. These plans will do no more than set out principles and propose a general development pattern, but if they are approved they will form a firm base for the preparation of more detailed plans.

A report with similar aims is being prepared on the planning of the South Coast, but the problems are different. This stretch of coastline has a tremendous natural potential which was all but wrecked by a speculative land subdivision spree in the late 1940s which left a ribbon of over 20000 small plots in ghost townships along the sea shore. Strict control over land subdivision and development is now exercised by provincial authority, based on a requirement that a would-be developer must prove necessity for development purposes and desirability in the public interest, but along the South Coast positive rehabilitation will be needed.

A study has recently been published which outlines the concept of a green belt system to the north of Pietermaritzburg. This embraces special features such as Midmar and Albert Falls Lakes, Otto's Bluff, the Voortrekker routes and the northern tree-clad escarpment. It is hoped to encourage public authorities and private individuals to co-operate in conserving these historical and natural amenities which fringe the city's intensive urban development.

There is an exploding interest in recreation in Natal which boasts a seaboard of 480km, 34 wild life parks and nature reserves and the spectacular Drakensberg. Research and planning are being undertaken to introduce the public to these recreation, natural and historically interesting areas while still preserving wilderness areas.

In the remaining areas of Natal basic resource surveys and data collection proceed as staff and financial resources permit.

Town Planning

The Town Planning Ordinance authorises local authorities to prepare and enforce town planning schemes, which have largely taken the form of use-zoning plans, reservation of land needed for public purposes and the preservation of basic amenity.

Public opinion and that of specialist departments appear to be ripe for a step forward into more positive master plans and development programmes in which local authorities, provincial and government financing and executive depart


ments are drawn more closely into the physical planning process. A pilot study is being carried out in Estcourt to develop a procedure for the systematic collection of town planning data. The application of this procedure to other local authorities will materially assist in making this wider integration possible.

Durban and Pietermaritzburg employ their own planning staff. Almost all the smaller towns and villages employ consultants or have been lent the services of the staff of the Director, Town and Regional Planning, for which they pay a proportion of the actual cost ranging from twenty-five per cent to the full amount depending on their financial strength. This latter arrangement is popular and 69 local authorities receive professional advice in the preparation of their town planning schemes and their implementation.

The Commission is conducting pioneering work into formulating policy statements to guide local authorities in accommodating new types of development. A report on cluster housing is to be issued which will set out guide lines to be followed in permitting this form of medium density development which falls between the customary single dwelling house on its own lot and the block of flats. A similar report is being prepared on the planning, density and controls to be considered if a local authority wishes to allow mobile home parks within its boundaries.

The Commission has the responsibility of ensuring that all local planning authorities make use of their planning powers to best advantage. No town planning scheme in the Province may be adopted or amended without reference to the Commission which thereby keeps a watching brief on local authorities. This it has always done without fear or favour, and its obvious objectivity and concern for the public welfare have given the Commission an excellent public image.

R. A. PISTORIUS, Director, Town and Regional Planning, Natal.

NATAL TOWN AND REGIONAL PLANNING REPORTS

Volume The Tugela Basin. First Interim Report. 1953. R3,50 Volume 2 Pietermaritzburg Central Area Survey. 1960. R4,00 Volume 3 Industry in Greater Durban, Part I. 1961. R4,90 Volume 4 Industry in Greater Durban, Part If. 1959. R2,25 Volume 5 Towards a Plan for the Tugela Basin. Second Interim

Report. 1960. R3,00

Volume 6 The Population and Labour Resources of Natal. 1961. R4,50 Volume 7 Water Resources and Water Requirements within the

Umgeni Catchment. (out of print). 1961. Volume 8 Natal North Coast Survey. 1962. R4,OO Volume 9 Railway Rates and the Location ofIndustry in Natal. 1966. R4,OO

Volume 10 Plant Ecology of the Tugela Basin. 1967. R4,OO

Set of 6 map-sheets in full colour. Rl,30

Separate sheets each. RO,22


Volume 11 The Possibility of Integrated Forestry Industry Tugela Basin. 1965

in the

Volume 12 The Water Resources of the Illovo River. 1965. Volume 13 Water Quality and Abatement of Pollution in Natal

Rivers. Part I. Objectives of river surveys. Description of methods used and discussion of water quality criteria. 1968. Part 11. A survey of the 'Three Rivers Region' of Natal, the region between the Tugela and Umkomaas rivers. 1968. Part Ill. A survey of the Tugela river and its tributaries. 1968. Part IV. A survey of the rivers of Northern Natal and Zululand 1969. Part V. A survey of the rivers of Southern Natal. Part VI. Factors Affecting Water Quality in the Sugar Growing Areas of Natal.

Volume 14 The Disposal ofEffluents into the Sea off the Natal Coast. 1969.

Volume 15 Soils of the Tugela Basin. full colour.

1969 with 13 map sheets in

Maps per sheet

Volume 16 Diversion of Water to the Upper Region of the Tugela Basin. 1969.

Volume 17 The Water Resources of the Coastal Areas of Northern Natal and Zululand. 1971.

Volume 18 The Water Resources of the Natal South Coast. 1971.

Volume 19 The Agricultural and Related Development of the Tugela Basin and its Influent Surrounds. 1972.

Volume 20 Town and Regional Planning Study Tour, November, 1971. Chairman's Report 1972.

October

Volume 21 Town and Regional Planning in Natal. A Study of the Commission's activities in its Twenty-first year. 1972.

Volume 22 Storage of Water on the Zululand Coastal Plains.

Volume 23 A Survey of the Upper Umgeni River Catchment.

RO,85

RO,60

R3,40

R7,15

R2,80

R2,OO

R6,40

R7,20

R9.50 RO,50

RO,45

R3,50

R7,OO

R20,OO

Rl,OO

Rl,OO

Rl,20

Rl,OO

32

A Note on the Centenary of a Famous Natal School

THERE are four schools whose names have become the proverbial household words in the comparatively short history of education in Natal. In anticipation of the criticism such a bold statement must inevitably incur, we hasten to add that there were and are several other schools, both for boys and for girls, which are remembered and are still well known for this particular reason or for that. The best known, however, whether justifiably or not, are undoubtedly, in order of seniority: Maritzburg College (originally The Pietermaritzburg High School); Durban High School; Hilton College; and Michaelhouse.

~College', as it is universally and affectionately called in Natal, was founded under Government Notice No. 30 of 1863. D.H.S.- or simply 'The Schoor to thousands of boys was founded in 1866. Hilton College - plain Hilton-andno-nonsense to all its boys and masters and friends - was founded in 1872. Michaelhouse began its life in Pietermaritzburg as Bishop's College in 1872.

College, a history of Maritzburg College written by R. W. Kent, was published to mark that school's centenary in 1963. The D.H.S. Story, by H. D. Jennings, was similarly published in 1966. Michaelhouse, by A. M. Barrett, appeared in 1969 when the school was seventy-three years old. Hilton was exactly a hundred years old in January 1972. The title of its centenary history is Lift Up Your Hearts the words traditionally used in its grace after meals. A shorter history, Hi/ton Portrait by Professor A. F. Hattersley, was published in 1945.

Of these four, the two oldest are state-owned orgovernment schools. Hilton and Michaelhose are what are called public schools in England and private or independent schools in South Africa. Michaelhouse belongs to the Anglican Church. Hilton belongs to The Hiltonian Society whose members are former pupils or masters of the school.

Superficially the histories of all our notable boys' schools are very similar: the influence, the strength or the weakness, of this headmaster and that; a changing curriculum to meet changing times; old buildings giving place to new and better buildings; achievements in scholarship and games,-lists of Rhodes Scholars and of Springboks; the fortunes and misfortunes of war - a V.C. or two, and a Roll of Honour; prominent Old Boys distinguished in various fields of public service and the Public Service; the main body of ordinary, comparatively insignificant, loyal members of the school community.

But each of these schools has also something peculiarly its own; its own personality developed by its own unique heredity and environment. 'It is', to quote from Lift up Your Hearts, 'a quality which leads a man to choose this school, or that, for his son and his grandson, forsaking all others, in sickness and in health, because he knows in his heart, though not necessarily in his judgment, that for him and his descendants this school is the best of all'.

Hilton is unique among the famous Natal schools we have mentioned in that it is the only one of the four that remains on the site of its foundation. When

Centenary of a famous Natal school 33

William Orde Newnham established his Collegiate Institution on 29 January 1872 with fifty boys on the roll and £50 in his pocket, he opened such doors as he had in a farmhouse and some stables on 'Upper Hilton'. This was part of an original Voortrekker farm called 'Ongegund' which had been bought as a s<?rt of hunting lodge, certainly unworked and undeveloped, by Newnham's friend Gould Arthur Lucas. Lucas was a survivor of the Birkenhead disaster, who had subsequently been appointed adjutant to the garrison in the fledgling town of Pietermaritzburg. Lucas leased his property to Newnhan at a purely nominal rental, and the lease was taken over and the whole place eventually bought outright by Henry Vaughan Ellis, the second headmaster. So Hilton College still stands where it began, on the hilltop of a magnificent estate of over 3 000 acres overlooking the Umgeni river.

Hilton is also unique in its ownership. Committed to neither church nor state, it was originally the personal property of its first two headmasters. Then it was bought from Ellis by 140 of its prominent Old Boys, led by Ernest Acutt, mayor of Durban, who formed a limited liability company named Hilton College Ltd. On 31 March 1928 a 'Solemn Covenant of Dedication' was signed by a strong group of Old Hiltonians, led by Dr. Archibald lY1cKenzie as chairman of the board, by which all the shares in Hilton College Ltd. were transferred to The Hiltonian Society, This was, and is, a non-profit-sharing association which assumed complete control of the school and 'the title to all its assets present and future'. The original shareholders in the company magnanimously made a gift of their shares to the Society.

Hilton College has had nine headmasters during its first hundred years, from W. O. Newnham to R. G. Slater who was appointed in 1967. One of them, G. E. Weeks, M.A., RD., lasted for only a year before returning to parochial duties in the Church of England. Two, H. V. Ellis and William Falcon, between them controlled the school for fifty-four years of that hundred. One, E. L. Harison, died on duty after ten years' service. Another, J. W. Hudson, came to the magnificent rescue of the school in trouble after he had reached the departmental age of retirement as headmaster of Maritzburg College. Of the nine, seven have been Englishmen by birth. Only Ellis (who had no academic or paper-pedagogic qualifications whatever), Hudson, and Slater have not held Cambridge degrees. T. W. Mansergh, one of Hilton's 'great" qualified professionally as an engineer. J. A. Pateman, with a degree in Classics, was appointed after a distinguished military career in World \Var n. Slater is the second South African and the first non-Anglican to hold the post.

The regime of both Newnham and Ellis - until he ceded his crown to Hilton College Ltd. towards the end of his reign - was an absolute monarchy. The Headmaster not only controlled Hilton College: he owned it. Since then the monarchy has become constitutional, subject to the parliament of The Hiltonian Society and the cabinet of a Board of Governors; but a virtual monarchy it remains. Unlike his colleagues in government schools who are subject to and controlled by multitudinous departmental regulations, the headmaster of Hilton has great power in and over his school. He selects and, subject to the benevolent approval of his Board of Governors, appoints his staff without even minimal reference to a staffing clerk in a distant head office. Again, subject to the same benevolent approval, he admits, or rejects, applicants for admission to his school in terms of broad and Board policy and with a complete disregard for the mysteries of 'Zoning'. He carries a tremendous load of responsibility. The c

34 Centenary of a famous Natal school

magnitude of his task reminds one of Ian Hay's famous dictum that the man who can run a great public school can run an empire. Although there have been troubles too well known to be glossed over (if the glossing over of troubles were ever desirable), Hilton has been fortunate indeed in the men who have g~ided its development and inspired its achievement since 1872.

Immediately following the British military disaster at Isandhlwana in 1879, Hilton College was regarded as one of the look-out outposts in the probably necessary defence of Pietermaritzburg against hypothetical invading impis. Members of the Hilton College Guard, an armed and mounted cadet corps only seven years old, went out on patrol to the top of the Town Hill. The first name on the school's Roll of Honour is that of lames Whitelaw, killed at Isandhlwana.

During the second South African or Boer War, several Hilton boys were called up to join their commandos in the Republican forces. It is on record that their contemporaries, keenly awaiting their own chances to join the British forces, gave these young burghers a very cordial send-off at the school gates and urged them to 'fight like hell', which, from the account of his experiences on commando sent to the school magazine by Thys Uys, they certainly did.

There have been some dramatic episodes in Hilton's history, and some tragedies as well as triumphs. Perhaps because triumphs are fairly commonplace, the former tend to loom larger than the latter.

What its greatest headmaster, William Falcon, described as a disaster hit Hilton late in 1920. This was an outbreak of enteric fever, a direct consequence of the primitive sanitary arrangements which had apparently escaped the attention of public health authorities for forty-eight years. Five boys died, and for three months the school, closed during the first term of 1921, became a hospital camp with a resident doctor and nurses in attendance. Hilton College faced its darkest hour. The devotion of its members and friends and the dedication of its Headmaster and Dr. McKenzie, Chairman of the Board of Governors, alone saved the school from extinction before its fiftieth birthday. But survive it did. At the Jubilee Celebrations in 1922 Falcon was able to say to the most representative gathering of Hiltonians the school had yet seen: 'It was as though Hilton had been purified in some way by the trial through which it had passed.'

A sad affair which brought the school unwelcome pUblicity in noisy headlines throughout the country was the so-called BRUSHING INCIDENT and its sequel in 1950: a minnow among the Tritons. As a result of his son having been hit by a prefect on the buttocks with the back of a hairbrush, an indignant father brought an action against the Hiltonian Society. The charge was dismissed in the magistrate's court, upheld on appeal in the Natal Supreme Court, and finally dismissed again on final appeal to the Supreme Court of South Africa some two years later. A Pyrrhic victory, if ever there was one. During the centenary celebrations at the school in 1972 THE BRUSH itself was once again on display as 'Exhibit Number One' - a rather moth-eaten relic of

... old, unhappy, far-off things, and battles long ago.

Most damaging of all. perhaps, in the eyes of its enemies and what venerable foundation has no enemies ?-was Hilton's notorious 'Walk Out' in 1953, when some 200 boys staged a mutiny by blatantly defying authority and spending a very cold August night in the plantations beyond the school gates. Critics of Hilton College, and other schools like it, had the time of their lives.

35 Centenary of a famous Natal school

But, as a famous headmaster at another place has aptly remarked, a great school can stand criticism equally with praise.

The criticism has probably had more than a reasonable share of attention outside the school because it is more dramatically 'news' than the steady pr9gress and quiet achievements of a century. Like its contemporaries, Hilton can justly claim much that is worthy of praise. But little good purpose would be served by listing such achievements as academic distinctions and sports-field triumphs reckoned statistically by the number of names on its honours boards. All good schools can do that. Hilton has had its fair share of notable Old Boys in parliament and provincial council, * with an exceptionally high proportion, perhaps, on the judiciary; it has probably more Springbok cricketers to its credit than most other South African schools. On the other hand, in contrast to the more sophisticated city schools, Hilton from its rural cnvironment has as yet produced no significant figure in the world of literature or art. Unlike D.H.S., it has suckled no Roy Campbell or Fernando Pessoa. Unlike Maritzburg College, it can claim no Alan Paton.

But essentially its virtues, outweighing its more spectacular vices of the past, are to be seen in its quietly strong identification with the growth and development of the Colony of Natal towards its adult status as an integral part of the Republic of South Africa; in the fact that it has provided and continues to provide its quota of decently - dare we say liberally? - educated citizens to the country of its birth one hundred years ago.

Natal's debt to all its schools is obviously very great ~ not least to what it is irresistibly tempting to describe as its Big Four.

In 1867 the man who founded Hilton College five years later unsuccessfully applied for the vacant headmastership of the (then) Pietermaritzburg High School.

There is a very beautiful stained-glass window in the Hiltonian College chapel which was donated by Michaelhouse. There is a Hilton window in the Michaelhouse chapel.

All three of its friendly rivals prescnted gifts to Hilton on the occasion of its centenary.

The inter-relationship between Hilton and other schools performing a similar function in Natal and beyond the provincial borders could hardly be more neatly illustrated than it is in the fact that Hilton's present Headmaster, its Second Master (who would be called the Vice-Principal elsewhere), two of its Housemasters, and even the author of its centenary History - all matriculated at D.H.S.

NEVILLE NUTTALL

'" Newnham himself accepted nomination to the Legislative Council in 1875, 'to set a conservative example', at the invitation of Sir Garnet Wolseley. He used to walk the twelve miles from Hilton and back, to attend its 'often tedious sessions'.

36

Speech by His Honour the Administrator of Natal

AT THE OPENING OF THE HALL OF NATAL HISTORY AT THE NATAL NIUSEUM ON THE 8th NOVEMBER, 1972

THERE are various approaches to history and therefore various definitions, and often the word conjures up only thick tomes of recorded dry facts which some people regard as irrelevant in the modern context. Similarly, many people think of museums as collections of old bones and stuffed animals and birds and outdated objects. But there are others of us who regard and experience history as a living social science reaching back into the past, with its lessons teaching us how to handle the present and how to formulate guide lines for the future - but it is more than that.

History is that subject which teaches us - if I may use the word in a special sense - which teaches us our pedigree, culturally, amongst other things. It records man's greatest achievements, his finest creative moments and surrounds us with the evidence of a worthwhile past which enriches the present with the best of that which has been. The urge to preserve, to enjoy, to fill the present with links with the past, links that give us a sense of belonging, is, I think, natural and instinctive in man. Therefore, man has over the years established archives and musea for both natural and cultural history and this dates back over the centuries to the days of the ancient world.

The Past-Dead but not done with In a fairly recent publication under the title The Aims of History by the late

David Thomson, lecturer in history at Cambridge University, I find this extremely interesting approach to the subject. I quote a few sentences:

The past is dead but not done with. It is dead because it cannot now be changed in any detail whatsoever. It is not done with because its relics and its consequences surround us in our daily lives and, as already shown, it is believed, and with good reason, to matter greatly to us. The social task of the historian (and of his vast army of helpers, from archaeologists, epigraphers and anthropologists to archivists, librarians and curators) is to make sure that we do learn whatever can be learnt about the past, and that such knowledge and understanding of it as we have is accurate, trustworthy and precise. It was widely held, even by leading professional historians at the beginning

of this century, that 'the only source worthy of the historian's serious attention was documents'. No historian would maintain this attitude today.

Dit is hierdie bewustheid van die geskiedenis en van die waarde daarvan wat ook die besieling was vir hierdie museum en hierdie Saal vir Natalse Geskiedenis wat ongeveer 6 000 vierkante voet beslaan. Dit is gepas dat hierdie Saal

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The Natal Museum. Mr. W. S. Rees poses for a smoking scene of the late Victorian period. (Courtesy of The Natal Witness)

The Natal Museum. Yellow-wood fireplace, late Victorian period. (Courtesy of The Natal Witness)

37 Hall of Natal History

in die hoofstad van die provinsie, hierdie stad Pietermaritzburg, moet wees wat so ryk aan geskiedenis en tradisie is. Hierdic saal is beplan om in drie fases voltooi te word; die eerste fase was die restorasie en bewaring van sekere aspekte van Shepstone-oord. Die derde en finale fase sal aan die vroee geskiedenis van Natal gewy word.

Vandag het ons die voorreg om by die voltooiing van die tweede fase in die ontwikkeling van hierdie saal teenwoordig te wees. Hierdie fase is aan die Goewerneurswoning en sy meubels gewy.

Daar is mense wat onder die wanopvatting verkeer dat ons voorvaders, as pionicrs, minder gesofistikeerd was as wat ons is. Die reproduksie van 'n deel van die Goewerneurswoning behoort egter enige sodanige illusies dadelik uit die weg te ruim. Dit is uiters interessant en insiggewend om die geskiedenis en sommige van die gebeure na te gaan wat om die Goewerneurswoning gesentreer was.

Government House, 1859

The first section of Government House was built in 1859 and further additions were made in 1870 and 1888 and the last part was completed in 1901.

Each change of Governor probably also involved certain alterations and additions to the interior decorations and furnishings. In its final stage the building included the following rooms, furniture and fittings:

Diningroom with an expanding table and 60 diningroom chairs, etc. Drawing-room with numerous easy chairs, whatnot, sofas, etc. Morning-room with couches, easy chairs, bookcases, etc. Smoking room. Twelve bedrooms, with 50 single beds and all the relevant furniture and fittings. Billiard room. Governor's office well-furnished including 50 inkwells. Council chamber. Ballroom with 50 bentwood charis. Numerous rooms for the household staff such as butler and house-keeper. Kitchen: well equipped with pots, pans, kettles, mincers and included 415 cake tins, 10 sets of carvers for meat, 8 sets of carvers for poultry.

Government House provided a home for the Governor and his family. Every important person who came to Pietermaritzburg either visited or stayed there.

Its Visitors

Among the more important visitors were: Prince Alfred the first Royal visitor to Natal in 1860, the Prince Imperial of France in 1879, President Kruger in 1891, Buller, Roberts and Winston Churchill in the period 1899-1902, the Duke and Duchess of York, later King George V and Queen Mary. The Empress Eugenie also stayed at Government House where she was lent certain items such as a commode for her long journey by road to visit her son's grave. All the later governors arranged receptions, balls and other such social functions at Government House. These were usually to honour a celebrated visitor or to commemorate an important event such as the Queen's Birthday. These were always glittering and spectacular occasions and invitations were keenly sought after. The Commanding Officers and military personnel lent colour to such occasions.


Die Natalse Opleidingskollege wat voorheen in verskillende geboue gehuisves was, het die Goewerneurswoning op 3 Februarie 1912 betrek. Die personeel en studente het al die meubels en toerusting gebruik wat beskikbaar was.

Met die verloop van tyd het baie artikels soos tapyte, gordyne, lakens, potte en panne gedaan geraak en breekgoed is beskadig. Ongelukkig is sommige meube1stukke ook verkoop omdat hulle as ouderwets of nutteloos beskou is. Baie van die groot en aantrekliker stukke is egter behou en is net in die personeelkamers gebruik. Rier was hulle veilig teen beskadiging en is hulle sorgvuldig bewaar.

Raad van die Natalse Museum-Nuwe Gebou

In 1962 is die Raad van die Natalse :Museum in die bep1anning van hierdie nllwe gebou betrek. Daar is besluit om een groot saal van sowat 6 000 vierkante voet as die Saal vir Natalse Geskiedenis af te sonder. Ongeveer hierdie tyd het die Direkteur van Onderwys die Raad versoek om 'n inventaris van die goewerneursmeube]s op te stel sodat hulle geldentifiseer kon word. Die identifisering van hierdie meubels het ernstige vraagstukke opgelewer aangesien daar geen merke of nommers van enige aard op enige van die stukke was nie. 'n Inventaris, gedateer November 1911, wat deur dr. J. B. Leverton in die argief ontdek is, het uiters waardevol geblyk. Baie men se is geraadpleeg, insluitende mnr. R. W. Wells wat die grootse deel van sy lewe aan die Natalse Opleidings kollege deurgebring het; etIike onderwysers wat in 1912 aan die Natalse Opleidingskol1ege begin het asook vroee personeellede is opgespoor. Rulle het almal gehelp om stukke uit te ken en hul hulp was werklik van onskatbare waarde. Net die items wat met sekerheid aan die goewerneurstydperk behoort het, is opgeneem en enige twyfelagtiges is weggelaat.

Government House Furniture in Hall of History

With this list of valuable historical furniture and a large empty hall, it was inevitable that these should be combined.

An approach was made to the Administrator-in-Executive Committee, who realised the enormous educational value of this project, and thereupon the furniture was granted to the N2tal Museum on the following conditions:

Only such pieces of furniture as would actually be displayed and the list of items agreed upon by the Director of Education and Director of the Museum would be transferred; The Director of the Museum would submit a list of items required as and when such furniture could be displayed;

No item or items of the above furniture would be removed from Pietermaritzburg. The items of furniture loaned could be recalled in whole or in part should circumstances arise which justified such action, provided that six months' notice of intention to recall, would be given.

On 17th November, 1971, all the 35 items were transferred to the Museum. The five period rooms to hOllse this furniture were actually planned for this purpose. Only the walls and floors were completed by the contractors. All the other structural fittirigs were completed by the Museum staff and include the ceilings, doors and windows, wall coverings, skirting boards, fireplaces, picture


rails, etc. The planner and driving force behind all this work was Mr. W. S. Rees, officer in charge of the Cultural History section, assisted by Mr. C. Crane. Mc Rees was confronted with many problems; he had to construct these rooms in the period of about 1870; all the materials and reconstruction had to be of the highest standard of workmanship to conform with the requirements of the Governor's residence; and he had to locate (;ertain items such as lamps and ornaments which were not included in the items of furniture.

Salvage from old Buildings

Most of the doors, windows, skirtings and ceilings were rescued or purchased from old buildings in Pietermaritzburg and Durban in process of demolition. These were all renovated, repaired and installed. The quality of the workmanship in all the structural fittings is also, in fact, a link with the past, for this quality we have to a large extent lost with our modern approach to cost and speed.

Baie van die items van hierdie meubelment het 'n mate van reparasie nodig gehad en is met groot sorg en deeglikheid gedocn. Al hierdie items is nou in dieselfde toestand so os hul1e was in die tydperk van die Goewerneurs.

Die 35 items wat ons onvang het was nie voldoende om die vyf tydvakkamers vol te maak nie: aangesien dit die neiging in daardie dae was om die kamers met grotcr en kleiner artikels van allerlei soorte vol te maak. Elke kamer is derhalwe met items uit die museum se eie versameling of uit spesiale aankope aangevul. Die stoele vir die eetkamertafel was nie meer beskikbaar nie maar 'n ste1 is aangekoop. 'n Groot aantal groter sowel as kleiner artikels word nog benodig om hierdie tydvakkameL-; te meubileer.

Appeal for Pieces of NataIia

The Council of the Natal Museum and its Curator. Dr. Pringle, and his staff must be congratulated on and thanked for their enthusiasm and hard work. In this spectacular and very scientific way they have made a valuable contribution to the annals of our province. But is it their sole responsibility? I am sure there are many Natalians who have in their possession items which belong here and would feel happy to have these valuable pieces of Natalia safely housed and preserved in this Hall for the benefit of all Natal and all South Africa. On behalf of the Council of the Natal Museum I issue an appeal and an invitation to those of our people, who have suitable items, to avail themselves of an opportunity to make a personal contribution to the splendid and unique Hall of Natal History.

It affords me much pleasure to declare the second phase of this project, namely, the restoration of certain aspects of Government House and its furniture as displayed in this unique Hall, officially opened.

Acknowledgements. We should like to express our thanks to His Honour The Administrator, Mr. B. Havemann, for permission to reprint the text of his speech delivered in November 1972; also to Dr. J. A. Pringle, Director of the Natal Museum, and the Editor, The Natal Witness, for information, photographs, and other assistance.

40

History of the Wattle Industry 111 Natal AL THOUGH tradition has it that John Vanderplank was responsible for sowing the first black wattle seeds in Natal, it is by no means certain that this was the case. Unfortunately, contemporary records are lacking, and Vanderplank's claim to be regarded as the founder of the wattle industry in South Africa is based on an article in The State published some 70 years after the events which it records took place. l This article relates that Vanderplank took a cargo of wattle bark from Australia to England in his own ship, where he sold both vessel and cargo ~',nd purchased another ship with the proceeds in which he sailed to Cape Town. "Not long after his arrival there, he was asked by a merchant named Smith - aftenvards Sir Owen Smith to carry supplies to the Dutch settlers in Natal, and arrived ,vitlI this cargo in Durban a month after the massacre of Weenen. In recognition of his services, he was granted certain farms in the Camperdovvn district by the Dutch government, and presumably settled in Natal for a time, since the article states that he revisited England a few years later. There he met his brother Charles, who had recently arrived from Australia and had with him some seeds of the black wattle, and Vanderplank persuaded him to return with him to Natal, promising him a farm at Camperdown. The brothers arrived in 1864, and in that or the following year the black wattle seeds were planted on John Vanderplank's farm at Camperdown, probably near the site of the present Camperdown Hotel.

If this account is a true representation of the facts, it would seem that the real credit for introducing black wattle to Natal should go to Charles Vanderplank. It was Charles who brought the seed from Australia, and although John must have known of the value of black wattl\~ bark as a tanning material prior to his arrival in Natal in 1838, and had owned land there for about 25 years, he apparently did not think of trying to grow the tree until his brother returned with him to Camperdowl1 in 1864.

That the sowings of black wattle seed at Camperdown were not necessarily the first in Natal is suggested by Honey. who stated that Mr. Medley Wood, Curator of the Dnrban Botanic Gardens, received two unlabelled packets of seed from Australia in the early sixties of last century. 2 As he was unable to identify them, he offered them to a Mr. Forbes of the farm Killiecrankie near the Noodsberg who planted them on a sod bank near his house. Seed from the resulting trees, which proved to be black wattle, was collected by Mr. lames H. Holley when they were about three years old, and sown on his farm Broadmoor, near Wartburg in Natal. Since neither of these two accounts gives specific dates, it is impossible to say which of these two seed introductions can claim priority. It would seem, however, that Vanderplank's trees at Camperdown, which was on the direct wagon route to northern Natal and the Transvaal, provided most of the seed for early plantings of black wattle for shade and shelter on farms in these areas. The earliest plantir;gs in plantation form were probably those made by Mr. Fl1erker in the Noodsberg area with seed from Camperdown, 1 and a six· acre plantation established on Broadmoor by Mr. James H. Holley with seed

41 History of the wattle industry in Natal

collected from the trees which he had raised from the KiIliecrankie seed. 2 There is no record of the dates of these plantings, but it is likely that they took place about 1870. A letter from Mr. G. M. (later Sir George) Sutton to the Colonial Secretary indicates that he first established black wattle plantations on his fa,rm Everdon near Howick in 1876,3 and it was he, apparently, who first recognized the commercial potential of the tree in Natal. Other pioneers were :Mr. F. T. Angus, who established a plantation at Ral'ensworth about 1879 with seed imported from Australia by his father-in-law, Mr. Nicholson, and by 1884 had about 1 200 acres under wattle, 2 Mr. G. Angus, who had 1 500 acres planted to black wattle in the Noodsberg by 1891,5 and Mr. H7lIley who raised a plantation on the One House estate in the Noodsberg area with Killiecrankie seed in 1880. 2

The Angus brothers were the two largest growers at the time, but plantations had also been established by Mr. H. A. Carbutt at Harden Heights, W. L'Estrange at Fawnleas, and G. Potter in the Noodsberg area. 4,

Mr. George Sutton, who had made a study of the available Australian literature on wattle, and had given much encouragement to local growers, also instigated the first tanning trials with locally-grown bark. These were carried out by Mr. Hallen at Lyle's Tannery in Pietermaritzburg in December, 1884, using a mixture of black and silver wattle bark supplied by Mr. Sutton. 5 Subsequent trials in 1886 with bark of the two species tested separately, showed that silver wattle bark was of very little value for tanning compared with that of black wattle, and the tannery refused to buy any but black wattle bark thereafter. The price of £4 per ton offered locally for black wattle bark, however, was so low in comparison with the figure of £15 per ton then being offered for Australian bark on the London market, and the local demand for bark was so limited, that growers in Natal began to consider exporting their bark.

Messrs. Angus of Noodsberg sent a small trial shipment of bark to England in 1886, but freight charges on this consignment were so high that it realised only £11. However, representations to the shipping company led to the introduction of more reasonable freight rates in the following year, and a second consignment by Messrs. Angus in 1887, of 10 tons of chopped bark packed tightly in muid sacks, realised excellent prices in London. 5 Encouraged by the success of this export transaction, other growers shipped their bark overseas and the quantity of bark exported rose sharply from 449 packages in 1887 to 13 972 packages in 1891, and 57 666 packages in 1895. 6 This profitable export business stimulated enormous interest in wattle growing throughout the Natal Midlands, and planting took place at a great rate. Apart from planting by individuals, several companies were formed during the nineties for the express purpose of growing wattle. Among these were the Town Hill Wattle Company at Hilton, the Clan Syndicate, established by the Mackenzie brothers near Cramond, and the Durban Wattle Syndicate at Hillcrest. Thus, by the turn of the century, the annual value of bark exports from Natal had risen to nearly £70000, and today Natal provides about 60 per cent. of the total bark production of South Africa, with a value around R 7 000 000.

Because wattle bark from Australia in ground rather than chopped form was fetching the highest prices on the London market at the time, an attempt was made in 1886 to float a company to grind wattle bark in Natal. This failed for lack of financial support, and interest in improving packing methods waned because freight charges at the time were based on weight, so compact packing was of no great importance in terms of expense. Sutton, however, commented


on the saving in freight charges which could b~ effected if the tannin could be extracted from the bark and exported as such, 5 and his son, W. H. Sutton, sent samples of wattle bark and wood to McArthur Scott & Co. of Glasgow in 1895 to determine whether an extract could be made from them. The firm reported having been able to make a satisfactory liquid extract from the bark, and expressed the view that, if similar bark could be supplied at a landed cost of £6 per ton, a liquid extract could be manufactured and marketed profitably in Europe. However, this offer was not taken up, presumably because the price quoted was not considered sufficiently attractive.

The formation, in 1907, of an organization called the Natal Wattle Bark Union, with the object of furthering the interests of wattle growers, was probably stimulated by the difficulties in marketing wattle bark overseas which were beginning to be experienced at that time. These marketing difficulties led to a fresh investigation of the possibility of preparing an extract from wattle bark, and the Union decided to form a syndicate to conduct experiments 011 extraction of tannin from wattle bark and, if these proved successful, to erect a factory for extract production in Natal. This proposal evoked a flood of correspondence in the local press from bark importing and extract manufacturing firms in England and Germany, advising strongly against any attempt to manufacture wattle extract in Natal. Though obviously motivated by selfinterest, this campaign had the desired effect, and the idea of manufacturing extract locally was abandoned for the time being. However, in spite of this setback, it was not long before the production of solid wattle extract became an accomplished fact through the development of a successful process by Mr. Owen WaIters of Pietermaritzburg in 1913. 2 The outbreak of the first World War, which placed a considerable premium on shipping space, provided the stimulus necessary to implement this discovery and resulted in the flotation of the Natal Tanning Extract Company by Messrs. O. WaIters, T. J. Allison, and A. Hime. A factory was erected at Pietermaritzburg in 1915, much of the plant being manufactured locally, and the first solid extract was produced in February, 1916. Fol1owing this development, several other interests attempted to enter the field of extract manufacture, but few of these attempts were successful. Nevertheless, by 1950, there were five large concerns manufacturing wattle extract in Natal in eight factories strategically placed to serve the wattle-growing areas, and four of these factories are still operating today.

As long ago as 1892, Sutton had recommended that wattle plantations should be thinned relatively early in life to between 450 and 500 trees per acre and, ten years later, Angus was advocating a final thinning to not more than 600 trees per acre before plantations had reached five years of age. 7 However, few growers followed their recommendations and, after the turn of the century, plantations were often thinned very lightly and carried 1 000 or more trees per acre to maturity_ As a result of these retrograde cultural practices, most wattle plantations in Natal had become very run-down by the middle nineteen twenties and were producing uneconomically low yields of bark and timber. A new body representing the interests of wattle growers, the Wattle and Timber Growers' Association, which had been formed in 1925 to replace the then defunct Natal Wattle Bark Union, therefore, made representations to the State Department of Forestry to provide technical assistance in the rehabilitation of growers' plantations. In 1928, the Department appointed Dr. I. J. Craib as the first of a series of forest research officers stationed in Pietermaritzburg and


delegated to conduct silvicultural research on behalf of the wattle industry. Craib entered upon his task with enthusiasm and soon won the co-operation

of a number of leading growers, who applied his recommendations to their own plantations. The resulting enhanced growth of these better-managed plantations served as an example to neighbouring growers, so the general standard of wattle culture in Natal improved rapidly. The realisation that yields of bark and timber could be materially improved, simply by the application of correct thinning methods, helped to dispel the natural pessimism engendered by the reduced bark prices resulting from the economic depression of the early nineteen thirties. In consequence, when the Second World War broke out, the industry was in a much better condition to meet the demands which were to be made upon it than would otherwise have been the case.

The demand for tanning materials rose sharply after the outbreak of war, and tribute must be paid to the leaders of the wattle industry at the time who imposed a voluntary system of price control, which obviated the need for State intervention to control the price of wattle bark and extract throughout the period of hostilities. When the war ended, this price control was relaxed, and the greatly increased demand for tanning materials brought about by post-war stockpiling, especially in countries which had been under German occupation, caused a rapid rise in wattle bark and extract prices. Thus, by 1951, the price of wattle bark reached the highest level recorded in the history of the industry up to that time, and this price has only recently been exceeded.

Under the stimulus of these price increases, many established growers expanded their wattle acreage, and speculators purchased vacant land wherever it was to be found and planted it up to wattle as fast as they could. This period was a repetition of the boom period in the eighteen eighties, but at this time, unfortunately, much land which was not well suited to wattle growing was planted. The result of this hectic afforestation was to increase the area under wattle, not only in Natal but also in other parts of the country, by many thousands of acres in the space of a few years. By 1958, therefore, when substantial quantities of bark from the earliest of these new plantings were beginning to reach the market, the world demand for tanning materials had fallen materially and bark supplies considerably exceeded the demand. It became necessary, therefore, for the industry to introduce a quota system controlling sales of wattle bark, and growers were then able to market only a portion of their annual bark production. Quotas were applied impartially to all wattle growers, irrespective of the length of their association with the industry. Thus, speculators who had entered the industry only a few years since, purely to exploit the abnormal price of bark for personal gain, received similar consideration to that accorded the grower whose forebears had been pioneers in the industry and had seen it through its many vicissitudes over almost a century.

The imposition of the quota system, apart from the fact that it brought about an immediate and substantial reduction in the i!1come of all growers, had other repercussions which affected not only the individual grower, but the industry as a whole. Thus, most established growers, whose plantations were divided into ten approximately equal portions, one of which was felled each year as it reached ten years of age, could fell only as much of this mature acreage as was necessary to supply the amount of their bark quota. In consequence, some acreage had to be carried forward to the following year, to be added to the normal area of newly-matured trees available for felling in that year. This resulted in a gradually


increasing acreage of older and older trees being accumulated, with the risk that, sooner or later, some of these would become too old to make it possible to strip their bark, or, indeed, for them to produce marketable bark, even if this could be harvested.

Because of this risk, since it was clear that the potential bark production of the industry was far greater than the market would be able to absorb in the foreseeable future, growers were advised to fell their entire mature acreage each year and to market the best of the bark from this area to supply their bark quota, discarding the remaining bark but selling the timber from the whole area. They were advised further to re-establish to wattle each year only sufficient acreage to supply their annual quota in future, and to convert the balance of the felled area to other crops, in order gradually to reduce the acreage under wattle in conformity with the market demand. Many growers in Natal took this advice, and those in areas where this was climatically and topographically practicable, converted their surplus land to sugarcane, whereas those in colder areas or where the land was too steeply-sloping to plough without serious risk of erosion converted to other tree crops. Today, these growers have rationalized their wattle areas and are receiving a financial return from the alternative crops they have established on their surplus wattle land. Those, however, who could not bring themselves to fell more trees than were needed to furnish their bark quota and to discard the surplus bark, are now saddled with considerable areas of overmature trees which are difficult to harvest and produce low yields of salable bark. Furthermore, they are receiving no supplementary income from alternative crops and much of their land is virtually unproductive. Fortunately, such growers were in the minority, and enough acreage has been converted to other crops to reduce the area under wattles in Natal today to a figure slightly lower than that obtaining at the end of the Second World War, which approximates more closely to the acreage required to supply current market requirements.

Because the demand for vegetable tanning materials appears to be gradually falling, as leather becomes more and more a luxury product and is being replaced in so many of its traditional uses by synthetic materials, intensive research is continuing with the object of discovering alternative uses for wattle tannin. Very promising adhesives have already been developed from wattle extract and, if these are adopted on a sufficient scale by the industries using such materials, the wattle industry may once again enter a period of expansion, though the the planted area is unlikely to be as large as it became after the post-war planting boom. Wattle-growing is still a lucrative pursuit in Natal, however, and is likely to remain so for many years to come. S. P. SHERRY

REFERENCES 1. ANON. 'NatalIndustries, IV. Wattle Bark.' The State VI (2), August, 1911. 2. HOLLEY, J. HUNT The Wattle Industry in South Africa: Its Early History and the

Development of Modern Methods. (Roneo issue for private circulation, 1947)

3. NATAL BLUE BOOK, 1884. Correspondence on tree planting in Natal, between the Colonial Secretary and Mr. G. M. Sutton.

4. SHAW, H. 'Natal, home of the Union wattle industry'. Rep. Wattle Res. Inst. for 1951-1952, pp. 33-38.

5. SUTTON, G. M. Wattle Bark: A Paying Industry. 2nd Ed., 1892, Pietermaritzburg: P. Davis & Sons.

6. SIM, T. R. 'Tree planting in Natal.' Natal Dep. AgrEc. Bull. No. 7, 1905. 7. ANGUS, F. T. 'The Wattle Industry.' In the Natal Almanac, Directory and Yearly

Register, 1902. Pietermaritzburg: P. Davis and Sons.

45

The Origins of the Natal Society

CHAPTER 2

1845 - 1846

WE TURN now to the story of the public library which preceded the foundation of the Natal Society. No records of the Committee have been traced, so the account of its meetings is taken entirely from current newspapers. The library was initially called the Reading Room, but the name was to change over the six years. The first meeting took place on 1 April 1845. This date precedes the arrival of Lieutenant-Governor West (with the British administration) by more than six months, and fell during that period of stagnation already referred to. On 28 March 1845 the following notice appeared in De Natalier:

Reading Room. By sanction of the Landdrost, a public meeting will take place at the public office on Tuesday morning next at 10 o'c., for the purpose of ascertaining if funds can be procured by subscription towards the establishment of a Reading Room in the town. The officers of the garrison and the Dutch and English civilians are kindly requested to attend to promote this desirable object.

There were three landdrosts appointed by the Volksraad-one in Pietermaritzburg, one in Port Natal, and one in the Weenen area. Their job was the local administration of justice, and a hard task it proved to be. The landdrost of Pietermaritzburg remained in office until the British administration arrived. In the above notice, the Dutch were mentioned before the English as they were still far more numerous. The flood of British emigrants, which reached a peak at the end of the decade, had not yet begun.

A week later, it was briefly reported that the meeting had taken place.! A meeting had been 'holden' to frame regulations for the establishment of a Reading Room, but it had been decided to leave this to the committee that had been elected. The following gentlemen formed the committee: J. P. Zietsman, J. M. Howell, J. P. Muller senior, P. Ferreira, H. G. Muntingh, P. H. Zietsman and A. de Waal. The committee duly carried out its task, and a notice appeared in English and Dutch calling the public to attend a second meeting in May. 2

Apart from the fact that a library room was hired, this is all we know about library activities in 1845.

The initiative for the founding of the Reading Room clearly rested with Dutchmen. J. P. Zietsman was the hard-working, long-suffering Landdrost of Pietermaritzburg, who had recently played a large part in persuading the Dutch to accept British rule. Zietsman Road in Pietermaritzburg is named after him.

46 Natal Society History

1. M. Howell played many parts in his adventurous life, but at this stage he was a lawyer, in partnership with 10han Petrus Muller. 3 Muller became insolvent in 1846 which was no great disgrace and a frequent occurrence at this period. Philip Ferreira had come to Natal in 1839. A well-known auctioneer, 4 he had premises on the site of the present Standard Bank of South Africa in Church Street. He became town treasurer, 5 and a member of the first Board of municipal commissioners for Pietermaritzburg.

Paul Hermanus Zietsman was the son of the Landdrost, 10han Philip Zietsman. He had fought under Pretorius against Dingane, and played a big part in the affairs of the Volksraad. Although long a bitter enemy of the British government 6, he was won round by Cloete during his difficult term as special commissioner and was much praised by him as a true friend to the welfare of Natal. 7

In view of the fact that we owe the foundation of the library so largely to the Dutch, it is ironical to read a comment by Sir Peregrine Maitland, Governor of the Cape of Good Hope, who was giving his views on suggestions for securing the allegiance of the Boers to the British government. 'Nriting in April 1845 he says:

I do not deem that the time is yet ripe for the foundation of a library for the use of the Boers in Natal at the public expense; they are not yet in a condition to profit by such an institution. 8

At this stage, Natal was a mere district of the Cape, and such a pronouncement from the Cape Governor to Lord Stanley in Britain was final. However, at the date of this despatch, a library had already been formed, though not, as we have seen, 'at the public expense' and only in Pietermaritzburg. D'Urban still had no library.

So far as can be judged, this early reading room was no better and no worse than similar libraries that were springing up in the Cape and in Britain. However, it had the supreme virtue that it survived.

A very encouraging meeting was held in February 1846 at the Court house, with Henry Cloete in the chair. At this date, Lieutenant-Governor Martin West had just arrived, and Henry Cloete was installed at the Court house as Recorder to administer the law of the Cape Colony. Cloete was very sympathetic to library development and countless library meetings were to take place in the Court house which was the old Volksraad building, standing on the site of the present City Hall. The meeting was duly reported in the first issue of the Natal Witness. 9 By this time, the Rev. Daniel Lindley had become secretary and treasurer. He was none other than the famous American missionary who had become predikant to the V oortrekkers in 1 an uary 1841. 10 Lindley reported that although only half the subscribers had paid their annual contributions, the institution was still solvent.

One of the Zietsmans (probably Paul Hermanus) informed the meeting that the room rented for the library was required by the proprietor for other purposes. Several members then mentioned the cost and inconvenience of frequent removals, and it was suggested that the Committee would do well to apply to the government for a piece of ground for the purpose of erecting a public library. How frequently, over 120 years, such a suggestion was to be made! And always it was to be fruitless - the government never did provide either land or a building. But in the 1960s, the municipality began to speak about providing a mag

Henry Cloete, Recorder or Natal

Dr. William Stanger, first Surveyor General of Natal (1845-1 854}. A family oil-painting which shows him as a young man brimming over with health and energy.

(Courtesy of Mrs. D. Strutt, Curator, Local History Museum, Durban)


nificent library building on the market square if the Natal Society would hand over its building and site at 20] Longmarket Street. The meeting continued with the untiring James Howell, seconded by John D. Marquard, moving a resolution that the Committee should try to collect the unpaid subscriptions. Marquard, who gave faithful service over the years to the public library, was to become 'the first government schoolmaster in 1849. So important was this meeting that the Lieutenant-Governor had been expected to attend, but at this point, WaIter Harding (Crown Prosecutor) referred to West's unavoidable absence (indeed, he 'had just left His Honour busily engaged') and said he was at liberty to disclose that the government was disposed to render every assistance in promoting such objects as that coatemplated by the meeting. To round off a very satisfactory meeting, Cloete offered to lend the library 200 volumes from his own collection, an exceedingly generous gesture. The Natal Witness summed up the meeting:

With encouragement on so liberal a scale, the Committee will, doubtless, be able to carry out plans of usefulness to an almost indefinite extent. It is scarcely necessary to remind them that their work need not be confined solely to the purchase and circulation of books. Nor should the neat and commodious edifice which is soon, we trust, to embellish this Capital of our new Colony, be designed as a mere bookcase. Provision should be made for its being used, as soon as required, as a lecture room, museum, depository for philosophical apparatus, with a laboratory. Literature, Science and the arts are the Faith, Hope and Charity of the intellectual world, and must not be separated; and where can a more fit asylum be found for them than in a public library? 11

The Recorder kept his word. A few weeks later a notice appeared in the newspaper stating that a handsome addition of about 200 volumes, kindly lent by the Hon. H. Cloete, had been received, and that onc of the committee would be in attendance to issue books from six till eight every evening. 12

The next meeting of which we have any report was held on 28 May 1846. 13

Donald Moodie (Secretary to the government) was called to the chair. Among others present were Henry Cloete, Dr. William Sta'1ger (Surveyor General in the new administration), Mr. T. Shepstone (Diplomatic agent to the natives) and the Rev. Daniel Lindley. A donation of £5 towards the funds of the library was received from the Lieutenant-Governor through Donald Moodie. John D. Marquard had apparently taken over the secretaryship from Daniel Lindley, and he read a statement about volumes in the library; there were 192 books in English, 79 in French, 4 in Latin, 144 in Dutch and 155 in German. He added that the number of subscribers exceeded fifty. It was then decided to hold a ballot for the new committee and the following were elected: the Rev. John Richards (Wesleyan missionary), Dr. Benjamin Blaine, \Villiam Hursthouse (Chief clerk at the Colonial Office), James Howell, John D. Marquard and David Dale Buchanan (fiery editor and founder of the Natal Witness). So Howell was the only 'survivor' on the committee, and all the Dutch names had vanished already. The committee was asked to revise the present regulations, and to submit them at a meeting of subscribers to be held fourteen days hence.

At this same meeting, talk now turned on the rea.ding matter to be provided from funds. Writing in De Natalier, Arthur Walker gives a lively picture of this part of the meeting. I4 Like Howell, Walker was a flamboyant character. Popularly known as 'Hookey' Walker for his aquiline nose, he was a well-known


attorney, a steward of the Pietermaritzburg Turf Club and for a time editor of De NataUer. Walker says that the Rev. Mr. Richards felt that orders to England should be confined to periodicals, in view of the limited funds. This was apparently the approved policy both of this meeting and of later meetings over the years. Walker was critical of the two lists of periodicals submitted by the' Rev. John Richards and he stressed the need for general literature as he feared that SUbscriptions would drop if general taste were not catered for. There should not be more than one specialized periodical in each field:

Divinity can have one, Law one, Physic one, Sport one, and general literature for the rest.

Judge Cloete entirely agreed about the need to purchase periodical literature rather than books:

With the scanty means at the disposal of the Committee, it is in vain to expect that any addition can be made to the standard works of the library, and the funds which are collected, should be directed to give the community the general information which is so readily furnished through the periodical literature of the day.

Cloete went on to support Walker; a broad distinction should be made by the committee between periodicals which embrace general literature, and those which relate to a particular profession, and every effort made to meet the wishes of the great mass of readers. He has a gentle dig at Walker:

But the question is very different when the scanty funds of the Committee are to supply the desires of every profession; Law, Divinity, Physic, and from what fell from Mr. \Valker, who just spoke, I should say a fourth estate has sprung up in society (that of the Sporting gentlemen) who wish to have periodicals exclusively belonging to their professions. But it is clear that our funds are not sufficient for this ... and the periodicals thus obtained would only gratify three or four readers, and afterwards be unread ... One periodical for each of those professions appears to be quite sufficient in the present scanty state of our funds.

The meeting then adjourned until the Committee had had time to revise the rules.

The adjourned meeting took place promptly on 12 June 1846. 15 The venue was the Court house again, and Donald Moodie took the chair. Moodie was then Secretary to the Government. The Committee presented a new set of fifteen rules which were discussed and adopted after a few alterations. The society was henceforth to be called the 'Natal Reading Society', having for its object the procuring and circulation of useful periodical literature. The Society was to be composed of individuals subscribing £1 annually to its funds. Donations and loans of books were to be accepted. There would be a committee of six chosen annually by ballot, and the committee would elect from its members, a Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer. Provision was made for general meetings, and the Reading Room was to be open two evenings in the week. The periodicals were to remain in the Reading Room one week after their arrival, during which time all subscribers would have access to them, and they would then be circulated. Any surplus funds were to be used for the purchase of books. Fines were allowed for.


The meeting also approved the following list of periodicals for purchase:-The Quarterly Review Douglas Jerrold's Magazine The Edinburgh Review United Service Magazine The Westminster Review The Athenaeum The Foreign Quarterly Review Literary Gazette The New Quarterly Review Chambers' l11iscellany The North British Review New Sporting Magazine The British Quarterly Review Ainsworth's Magazine Silliman's Journal The Monthly Times Blackwood's Magazine Illustrated London News Fraser's Magazine Punch Dublin University Magazine The Temperance Advocate Tait's Magazine Honigbij Colburn's New Monthly Magazine The Spectator Penny Magazine Commercial Advertiser Mechanic's Magazine Graham's Town Journal

The Natal Witness went on to comment:In the Natal Reading Society, we have the first symptom of a desire among the Natal Colonists to keep pace with the civilized world in the establishment of public institutions. This desire has led in the present instance to the adoption of prompt, vigorous and successful measures for its gratification. The whole aspect of the Society's affairs is encouraging; and the prosperity of one such association will not fail to prepare the way for others of a similar character. 1 6

The rules approved at this last meeting had mentioned that the Reading Room would be open two evenings a week. A notice duly appeared dated 18 September 1846. 17 This informed subscribers that the Librarian would attend on Tuesday and Saturday evenings from 7 to 9 at the Reading Room. Also the keys of the room could be obtained from Mr. Landsberg from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily (Sundays excepted). No books or papers were to be taken in the absence of the Librarian. The notice was signed by Benjamin Blaine, as Secretary.

All in all, the first two years of the library seemed to show an encouraging start, and optimism for the future ran high. Affairs, however, were to take a discouraging turn as the years went by.

U. E. M. JUDD, Natal Society Library.

Notes: 1. De Natalier, 4.4.1845. 2. Ibid., 3.5.1845. 3. Ibid., 4.7.1845. 4. Hattersley, A. F. The British settlement of Natal, p. 83. 5. Ibid. 6. Bird, J. The Annals of Natal, Vol. 2, p. 233. 7. Ibid., vol. 2, p. 348. 8. Ibid., vol. 2, p. 461. 9, Natal Witness, 27.2.1846.

10. Brookes, E. H., and Webb, C. de B. A History of' Natal, p. 27. 11. Natal Witness, 27.2.1846. 12. Natal Witness, 10.4.1846. 13. Natal Witness, 29.5.1846. 14. De Natalier, 2.6.1846. 15. Natal Witness, 19.6.1846. 16. Ibid. 17. De Natalier, 22.9.1846. Natal Witness, 26.9.1846. o

50

Natal Mission Stations (Excluding Zululand)

NA TAL is remarkable for the great variety of its mission work, which grew up in the last century in the space of fifty years.

This short list makes no pretence at deep research. It is published simply as an outline guide and ready reference with a short list of books for further reading.

Denomination Place Date Missionaries 1. American Board Umvoti Mission Reserve 1836 Grout

Congregational Amanzintoti Mission 1836 Reserve 1847 Adams

Inanda 1858 Lindley

2. Methodists Indaleni 1846 Allison 1846 Edendale 1847 Allison

3. Berlin Emmaus 1847 Posselt 1847 Guldenpfennig

New Germany 1849 Posselt Koenigberg, Ladysmith 1868 Prozesky

4. Norwegian Mapumulo 1850 Schreuder Lutheran Ntunjambili ]879 Schreuder 1850

5. Hermannsburg Hermannsburg 1854 Ludwig Harms Lutheran Luneberg 1854 1853 Etembene 1856 Kohrs, Meyer

6. Anglican Umlazi 1856 Robertson 1856 Springvale 1858 Call away

Emhlonhlweni, Ladysmith (1890) Thompson

7. Dutch Reformed Ladysmith 1861 Church Grey town 1867 1861

8. Presbyterian Msinga-Gordon memorial mission 1870 Dr. Dalzell

9. Swedish Lutheran Rorke's Drift 1876 O. Witt 1876 Appelbosch 1886

Dundee 1889 Emtulwa, Umvoti 1896

10. Roman Catbolics Mariannhi11 1882 Pfanner 1882 Mariathal, Ixopo 1887

Reichenau 1886 Mariatrost 1896

51 Natal mission stations

SHORT READING LIST

BROOKES, E. H. Native Reserves of Natal, 1957, gives details of Mission reserves.

DU PLESSIS, J. History of Christian Missions in South Afrlca, 1965, reprint.

FROST, P. J. Bibliography ofMissions and Missionaries in Natal. 1969.

SALES, J. M. Planting of the Churches in South Africa, 1971 (ch. 9.)

SUNDKLER, B. G. M. Bontu Prophets in South Africa, 1961.

Compiled by R. A. BROWN

52

Notes and Queries Pioneers and Settlers

1974 WILL be the 150th anniversary of the establishment of the white trading settlement at Port Natal. To plan and co-ordinate a programme of suitable commemorative activities in the province, a committee has been set up under the chairmanship of His Honour the Administrator, Mr. W. W. B. Havemann. Those interested in the Natal heritage can look forward to a feast of exhibitions and entertainments.

Our own contribution to the occasion has been outlined in the editorial column of this issue.

By happy coincidence, the 1820 Settlers National Monument Foundation is organising a National Conference to be held in Grahamstown from 15-19 July, 1974. The Conference will follow upon the official opening by the State President of the 1820 Settler Monument on Gunfire Hill, Grahamstown. In the words of the Chairman of the Planning Committee, it 'will inaugurate the conference facilities to be provided at the Monument.' The theme of the Conference is 'English-speaking South Africa Today'. Distinguished scholars from many fields will be participating, and there should be much in the programme of lively interest to Natalians. Enquiries should be addressed to: The Secretary, 1820 Settlers National Monument Foundation, 42 Beaufort Street, Grahamstown, Cape.

Professor A. F. Hattersley: Settler Historian

That patient recorder of Natal history, Professor Alan F. Hattersley, reached his 80th year last April. He was born at Leeds on April 6, 1893. The day, though not the year, is the one on which Van Riebeeck made his landing at Table Bay. Professor Hattersley's forebears were associated with the manufacture of textile machinery in the Yorkshire of the 1830s and suffered losses in the machinebreaking riots of out-of-work weavers.

After a distinguished career as a student of history at Downing College, Cambridge, Professor Hattersley emigrated to South Africa in 1916 to teach at the Natal University College. In 1923 he was appointed to the Chair of History and Political Science.

He has written 23 books, many of them authoritative works on Natal and the British settlement, and has made frequent visits to England to trace the background of settlers who emigrated to Natal in the mid-nineteenth century. His latest work is the Illustrated Social History of South Africa (Balkema, 1969), which has already exhausted its first edition. It is a substantial piece of scholarship. His own favourite is perhaps Portrait of a Colony (Cambridge, 1940), a charming and gently humorous account of Natal society in the 1850s.

Last year the city of Pietermaritzburg honoured him by inscribing his name on a special register of civic honours in recognition of his research into the city's history. He is also a Fellow of our own Natal Society.

Notes and Queries 53

When he was a schoolboy in the top form of Leeds Grammar School he regularly won the Henderson history prize. He recalls with a smile that one of these prizes was two volumes of Stubbs's monumental work The Constitutional History of England, published in 1874-78. He has come a long way since the!}. We salute him with affection and admiration.

Some of his books are: More Annals of Natal (London, 1936) Later Annals of Natal (London, 1938) Portrait ofa Colony (Cambridge, 1940) The Natalians: Further Annals of Natal (Pietermaritzburg, 1940) John Sheddon Dobie - South African Journal, 1862-1866 (Cape Town, 1945) The British Settlement of Natal (Cambridge, 1950) Convict Crisis (Pietermaritzburg, 1965)

More about Settlers

~ ' The Hattersley tradition is still strong in Natal. For the last ten years Mrs.

Shelagh Spencer, working on a part-time basis, has been gathering information .. \ 1 for the production of a Register ofBritish Settlers in Natal, 1824-1857. Her aim \\ is to provide a concise biography of each settler dates of birth and death,

ship of passage, date of arrival in Natal, career in the colony, name and dates and places of birth and death of wife, date and place of marriage. In addition there will be notes on historically significant aspects of the careers of the settlers and each article will end with a list of children, giving dates of birth, marriage and death, and the names of their spouses.

The period covered by Mrs. Spencer's work is the pioneer phase in which \ individual initiative and private enterprise were principally responsible for I

providing Natal with white settlers. She stops short of 1858, when the character

Iof immigration changed with the arrival of the first shipload of settlers under a scheme sponsored by the Natal Government, in terms of which colonists could stand surety for the repayment of the passage money of relatives and friends in Britain desirous of coming to Natal.

In a note describing her work, Mrs. Spencer writes:

The settlers fall into various groups. Firstly the hunter-traders of 1824, then various other British subjects who made their homes in Natal before the I " large-scale immigration at the end of the 1840s many of these from the I

/'l(,Cape. The period 1849-1851 is significant because it saw the arrival of immigrants, over 2 200 in number, brought to Natal by J. C. Byrne & Co. These, together with settlers who came at this time under smaller projects conceived by people such as Richard Hackett, John Lidgett, Dr. Charles Johnston and G. P. Murdoch, and the co-operative emigration scheme organised by Henry Boast, considerably increased the European population of the young colony. Thereafter until 1858 when the Phantom brought the first of a new batch of settlers under the government-sponsored scheme, immigration continued on a much smaller scale.

Another important constituent in the composition of the white population of the new colony was the discharged British soldier. The 45th Regiment (the Nottinghamshire) in particular, on its departure from Natal in 1859 after a sixteen-year period of service here left behind many N.C.O.'s and men who had taken their discharge and become colonists. Another regiment which

54 Notes and Queries

provided Natal with a number of settlers was the 27th (Royallnniskilling Fusiliers), two companies of which, under the command of Captain T. C. Smith, had been involved in the battle of Congella in 1842. Sources used for the project include: the Natal Archives with its vast-collection of official documents and early newspapers; the family papers, diaries and letters housed in the Local History Museum and Killie Campbell Library in Durban; church registers; official government registers of births and deaths kept in the various magistracies; memorial inscriptions in cemeteries; wills filed in the office of the Master of the Supreme Court; and last, but by no means least, family Bibles, diaries and scrapbooks kept by descendants of settlers. As the last sentence indicates, the success of Mrs. Spencer's endeavours

depends very materially upon the help given to her by persons possessing family records. Through the good offices of Professor K. H. C. McIntyre of the History Department, University of Natal, Durban, monies have been made available by the Natal University Research Fund and by the Oppenheimer Trust, enabling Mrs. Spencer to employ student assistants, particularly for research in outlying districts. But, valuable as such aid is, it will not produce the rich dividends that Mrs. Spencer's project deserves unless those who possess documents and

I~ I information come forward to help, too.

Correspondence should be addressed to Mrs. Spencer at 371 Loop Street, Pietermaritzburg.

The Four Books of the Prophet Ignoramus

That the Prophet Ignoramus should be another of Mrs. Spencer's interests is not mere aberration. This rare work, a satire on life in Natal under LieutenantGovernor R. W. Keate (1867-1872), first appeared in instalments in the Natal Witness, beginning in July 1869. Later it was published by the Pietermaritzburg firm of Keith & Co. in a paper-bound volume \of 132 pages, the full title being The Four Books of the Prophet Ignoramus, being the Chronicle of the Reign of Er Keet in Ophir, by 'Eureka'. The Natal Society Library and the Natal Archives both have copies of this edition. But such deliciously scurrilous writing was bound to be in great demand, ar::d it also appeared in another format. It is this that interests Mrs. Spencer, who writes:

The first and second Books also appeared in pamphlet form in 1869. Both were published in Maritzburg, the first by Keith & Co., and the other by Peter Davis & Sons. The Natal Society Library has a copy of the former and I have a defective copy of the latter. Presumably the third and fourth Books were similarly published, but I have been unable to establish this or to ascertain whether any copies are extant. I should be very interested to know of the existence of an unspoiled copy of the second Book, and of copies of the third and fourth.

Beyond the White Horizon

After all that has been said about settler history, it is only right to record that pioneering of a new sort is well under way in Natal. The University History Department in Pietermaritzburg, in its teaching programme as well as in a number of research projects, is exploring the history of the indigenous peoples


of the province. A special field of interest is the study of the part played by environmental factors in shaping the history of the inhabitants of south-east Africa. In addition, a documentation programme has been launched, the purpose of which is to assemble, and ultimately if possible to publish, an 'archive' of source materials relevant to the history of the Zulu people in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. While oral traditions feature prominently in this project, they are not the only source. Much evidence of great value is tucked away in the papers of missionaries, traders, magistrates, farmers - indeed all who have been closely associated with the indigenous peoples. To facilitate the programme, such material is photocopied in the University Library and then returned to the owners. Any reader who knows of diaries, letters or other papers that might be relevant to the project is asked to write to: Professor C. de B. Webb, Department of History, Natal University, Pietermaritzburg.

LangalibaJeJe and the Hlubi

With attention already focusing on settler commemoration in 1974, it has gone almost unnoticed that 1973 is the centenary of the so-called Langalibatete revolt. We understand that the Ladysmith Historical Society is planning to mark the occasion, and we wish them every success.

Much has been written about the crisis and its aftermath. It was precipitated by Langalibalele's refusal to comply with instructions for the registration of guns, but was clumsily handled by the Natal government. It brought down bitter retribution on Langalibalele's Hlubi and their neighbours, the Putili, who were driven from their lands in the foothills of the Drakensberg. It brought Bishon Colenso into the field as the champion of the Hlubi-Putili cause. It led to the recall of the Lieutenant-Governor, Sir Benjamin Pine. And it brought to Natal the redoubtable Sir Garnet Wolseley, whose 'sherry and champagne' campaign ended in the Natal colonists signing away a large measure of their legislative independence.

Some of the descendants of Langalibalele and the Hlubi are, for the moment, still in occupation of lands in the Drakensberg. Theirs is an unusually interesting history, and we hope they will find an historian equal to the task of telling it.

Suggested Reading: Brookes, E. H. and Webb, C. de B. A History of Natal, (Pietermaritzburg, 1965). Colenso, J. W., Defence ofLangaIibalele, (Bishopstowe, 18751). Colenso, J. W., Langalibalele and the Amahlubi, (London, 1874). Guest, W. R., The Langalibalele Rebellion and its Consequences, (Unpublished B. A. Hons.

dissertation, Natal University, 1962). Preston, A., ed., Sir Garnet Wolseley's South African Diaries (Natal) 1875, (Cape Town, 1971). Welsh, D., The Roots ofSegregation, (Oxford, 1972).

If Thine Enemy Thirst Give Him Drink

While on a visit to Stirling Castle Museum, Mrs. M. H. Bush of Pietermaritzburg noticed a medal presented by J. J. Prinsloo to Captain J. Paton of the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders. The inscription reads:

In appreciation and personal respect for honourable and humane services bestowed towards women and children during the Boer War.


Professor R. G. MacMillan, vice-principal of the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, to whom Mrs. Bush conveyed this information, writes that near Loch Awe at S1. Conan's Kirk, he came across the following epitaph:

In loving memory of lan Alastair Camp bell M ortally wounded at the close of the Victory of Elandslaagte

While giving water to a wounded enemy foe October 21 1899

If thine enemy thirst give him drink

The war on the Natal front must have been the occasion for many similar acts of common humanity across the battle line. One hopes that the clashes between black and white had their moments of compassion, too. We look forward to hearing from readers who know of such incidents.

A Bright Little Light

The magazine N.E.O.N. published by the Natal Education Department is now in its third year of existence, having first appeared in December 1969. Its main purpose is to provide the public with information about schools and the educational facilities and services supplied by the various administrative sections of the Natal Provincial Administration. But it also publishes articles of general interest. A recent issue contained articles on Australia's 60 000 aborigines, on Africana in the school libraries, on a South African emigrant's impressions of New Zealand society, and on Alfred County as a relatively unknown part of Natal. Well-illustrated and produced, it appears three times a year and is distributed free of charge among professional people, mostly.

Blue-Chip Investment

Africana is a subject of such wide interest that it has even come to the notice of the South African financial press, the reason in this case being that it falls under the heading of a blue-chip investment. Recent prices in dealers' catalogues confirm that 'within the last twelve months a massive move upwards has taken place in the value of books, pamphlets, maps and other items connected with African history. From recent catalogues the following titles and prices have been selected to show what is happening;

Ten Weeks in Natal. J. W. Colenso. 1855 R60,00 My Early L!fe. W. Churchill. 2nd Imp. R37,50 More Annals of Natal. A. F. Hattersley R15,00 History of the Colony ofNatal. Rev. W. C.

Holden. 1855 R50,00 The Kafirs of Natal and the Zulu Country. Re~ J. Shooter. 1857 R100,00

Long Long Ago. R. C. Samuelson. 1929 R72,00

Gone are the days when the youthful Miss Killie Camp bell browsed among the shelves in the London second-hand bookshops spending her dress allowance not for the purpose it was meant, but on such gems of Africana as The Kaffirs Illustrated for which she paid £12.0.0.

If these inflationary trends are to be regretted, so are two other current phenomena - the unscrupulous dealer, and the undiscriminating buyer. Both


have been much in evidence at recent sales in Natal, the one buying in bulk in the hope of cornering the market, the other bidding well beyond the mark at which identical items are to be obtained in reputable bookshops. We urge our readers to use discretion at so-called 'African a' sales, and to compare catalogues carefully. Some traders in Africana offer a far better deal than do others. .

Zulu War Artists

In 1969 the University of Natal Press published the Zulu War drawings of John North Crealock. About the same time, as so often happens, the Africana Museum, Johannesburg, acquired an album of Zulu War sketches by Captain Edward Thomas Henry Hutton, 3rd Bn., 60th Rifles. Some fifty water-colours and pen and ink drawings illustrate the activities of Major-General Henry Hope Crealock's right-hand column. Included are sketches of Wolseley, John Shepstone, John Dunn, Cetshwayo, and others. These works are fully listed, and reproduced in miniature, in the Catalogue of Pictures in the Africana Museum, Vol. 7, published by the Museum in 1972.

In Africana Notes and News, No. 19, 6 June 1971, Major Southey commented on the historical inaccuracies perpetrated by Alphonse de Neuville in his two Isandhlwana paintings 'Saving the Queen's Colour' and 'Last Sleep of the Brave'. This was followed by 'Henry Charles Harford's Account of the Finding of the Queen's Colour after Isandhlwana' with notes by Daphne Strutt in issue No. 20, 1 March, 1972.

It should be of interest to many people in Natal to know that the originals of these two paintings are now in the province. They were recently acquired by Mr. R. E. Levitt ofWestville. They measure 90 x 125 cm and were lost sight of until 1969, when they came into a Johannesburg sale room from a deceased estate (the owner had bought them in London about 1937).

Oleograph copies of these two paintings (50 x 68 cm) were made in 1882 by the National Fine Arts Association. It has not yet been discovered how many copies were made, but there are several scattered in different parts of South Africa, and one set hangs in the entrance of the University of Natal Library, Pietermaritzburg.

A composite copy of the two pictures with de Neuville's signature hangs in the Grahamstown City Hall, but until someone is available to spend a considerable time looking through the municipal records, its provenance will remain unknown.

The original of 'Rorke's Drift' by Alphonse de Neuville is in the museum of the 24th/41st Foot (Royal Regiment of Wales) in Brecon. Etchings of this painting made by Leopold Flameng can also be found in South Africa. One measuring 90 x 60 cm is in the possession of the Natal Parks Board. These etchings were made by the Fine Art Society. The original prices were: Artist's Proofs £10.10.0; Lettered Proofs £5.5.0; and Prints £2.2.0. A copy of this painting was made by Vyvyan Relph for the Natal Carbineers in 1958 and is now in the possession of Captain Tod Newey of Stutterheim.

Elizabeth Butler's painting of the 'Defence of Rorke's Drift' is now at the Staff College, Camberley.

Though not an artist, the photographer George T. Ferneyhough should not be forgotten. He published an album of 55 views of the Zulu War in 1886 entitled Catalogue of Photographic Views of the Zulu War. Further details can be found in Africana Notes and News, No. 20, 5 March, ]973.


Listing Natal's Artists

In Natalia No. 1 we published 'A First List of Natal Artists 1824-1910', compiled by Mrs. J. A. Verbeek. A supplementary list appeared in this column in our 1972 issue. It seems Natal has inspired more artistic endeavour than we imagined. The list continues to grow, and must now be supplemented by the following names:

ANDERSON, Andrew Arthur DUNSTONE, Albert Edward AUSTIN, W. EGGERSDORFER, Heinrich BANTJIES, Mrs. Max ERSKINE, R. H. BUCKLE, Katherine Mary Helen FOGG, Carl BUTLER, Lady Elizabeth FOWLER, William James CHRISTIE, Ella FRIPP, Charles Edward CHRISTOL, Frederic GRAY, Sophia CHURCHILL, Sarah LEGAND, Jules CLAYTON, Ida May LANDSBERG,Otto COLENSO, Frances Ellen SHAKERLEY, C. H. COLENSO, Harriette E. TULLOCH, Lt.-Col. Alexander Bruce COLENSO, Mrs. Sarah Frances WALKER, (pseud. P. J. W.) DADD, Frank WATSON, Coral DE BRUIN, Cornelius WIGRAM, Mrs. Eliza DINLAY, Dr. Archibald WILLIAMS, Antonia

Any information about these artists and their works, or about those listed in earlier issues, or about others whose names have not yet been listed, will be very welcome, and should be addressed to: Mrs. J. A. Verbeek, clo University of Natal Library, P.O. Box 375, Pietermaritzburg.

Local History Societies

We welcome CABO, the journal of the new Historical Society of Cape Town. Amongst other journals of a similar nature the following must be mentioned:

Botswana Notes and Records Coelacanth (East London) Lesotho Notes and News Looking Back (Port Elizabeth)

As a glance at the 'Register of Societies and Institutions' will show, Durban and Pietermaritzburg, unlike many of the smaller towns of Natal, still lack local history societies. It is our hope that they may be formed, and that Natalia will serve as a forum for all such bodies in the province.

Compiled by R. A. BROWN J. CLARK C. de B. WEBB

THE EDITOR WILL GLADLY RECEIVE NOTES AND QUERIES ON ANY TOPIC OF NATAL INTEREST

59

Register of Societies and Institutions THE PURPOSE of this register is to list for general information the numerous organisations that are engaged in preservation, conservation and research, and in the promotion of scientific, artistic and creative endeavour in Natal.

The organisations listed are asked to check the accuracy and adequacy of the information given, and to supply the editor with amendments.

Organisations and institutions that have not been listed are invited to furnish information for inclusion in the next issue.

1. Ancient Africa Club. Secretary: Mrs. N. Ogilvie, 21 Burger Street, Pietermaritzburg.

2. Botanic Gardens. Swartkop Road, Pietermaritzburg. 3. Botanical Research Unit. Botanic Station (Natal Herbarium), Botanic

Gardens Road, Durban. Regional Office for Natal of the Botanical Re~ search Institute, Department of Agricultural Technical Services, Pretoria. The Natal unit is active in research and the naming of indigenous plants.

4. Campbell Collections of the University ofNatal. 220 Marriott Road, Durban· Three collections are housed together: the Ki1lie Campbell Africana Library; the Mashu Bantu Museum (ethnological specimens); and the William Campbell Museum (furniture, objets d'art). The Africana Library serves as a repository for family papers and other historical documents, which may be housed there on loan or donated. The collections are accessible on application to the Africana Librarian at the above address.

5. Colenso Historical Society. R. E. Stevenson Museum, Colenso. 6. Durban Civic Orchestra. City Hall, Durban. 7. Durban Local History Museum. Old Court House, Aliwal Street, Durban. 8. Durban Museum and Art Gallery. City Hall, Durban. 9. Durban Municipal Library. Houses a valuable collection of Africana, as well

as some official records. 10. Durban Old House Museum. 31 St. Andrews Street, Durban. A settler

homestead, housing a valuable historical collection. 11. Federation of Women's Institutes of Natal, Zululand, East Griqualand and the

Transkeian Territories. Fraser's Building, Longmarket Street, Pietermaritzburg. The Federation has been responsible for organising the compilation of 'Area Annals', recording the history of country districts in Natal, East Griqualand and Zululand. Copies are being housed in: Government Archives, Natal Depot, Pietermaritzburg; Natal Society Library, Pietermaritzburg; University of Natal Library, Pietermaritzburg; Killie Campbell Africana Library, Durban; Local History Museum, Durban.

12. Grey town Historical Society. The Hon. Secretary, Mrs. Jean Tatham, Greytown.

60 Societies and Institutions

13. Historical Association, Pietermaritzburg Branch. The Hon. Secretary, Mr. J. M. Sellers, 9 Vere Road, Scottsville, Pietermaritzburg. The Association is an affiliate of the British Historical Association, and serves as a forum for the reading of papers and the presentation of talks by local and overseas speakers. At present it is also actively engaged in plans for the commemoration of the 150th anniversary of White settlement in Natal.

14. Historiese Genootskap (Natalse Tak). Local representative: Mr. L Adendorff, c/o Werda Skool, Posbus 3, Malvern. The Genootskap has been involved in the restoration of Commandant General Andries Pretorius' house at Welverdient (now Edendale).

15. Ladysmith Historical Society. The Hon. Secretary, Mr. G. F. N. Tatham, P.O. Box 200, Ladysmith. Conducts tours of the local battlefields and has as one of its objectives the publication of maps, diaries and other records relating to the history of the area. In co-operation with the Ladysmith Town Council, the Society also maintains a museum in part of the old Market Hall.

16. Military Historical Society. Local representative: Mr. M. C. Carter, 30 Sea Doone Road, Amanzimtoti.

17. Mountain Club ofSouth Africa. Natal headquarters: P.O. Box 4535, Durban. Articles on Natal appear in the annual Journal of the Mountain Club.

18. Natal Depot, South African Government Archives. Private Bag 9012, Pietermaritz Street, Pietermaritzburg. In addition to official papers from the colonial period, the Archives houses a valuable collection of newspapers, private papers and published works.

19. Natal Development Board. Private Bag 9037, Pietermaritzburg.

20. Natal Museum. Loop Street, Pietermaritzburg. Houses scientific and historical collections.

21. Natal Parks, Game and Fish Preservation Board. P.O. Box 662, Pietermaritzburg. In addition to maintaining anumber of game parks and nature reserves, much scientific research is conducted under the auspices of the Board.

22. Natal Performing Arts Council. 480 Berea Road, Durban.

23. Natal Society Library. P.O. Box 415, Longmarket Street, Pietermaritzburg. A copyright library, housing a large and valuable collection of Nataliana, newspapers, journals, etc.

24. Natal Town and Regional Planning Commission. Private Bag 9038, Pietermaritzburg. Has published a number of reports on the economic resources and potential of Natal.

25. National Monuments Council. Natal representative: Mr. G. A. Chadwick, c/o Natal Educational Activities Association, 480 Berea Road, Durban. The Council's main function is to preserve the heritage of South Africa in respect of: (a) geological features; (b) biological associations; (c) archaeological phenomena; (d) historical sites ; (e) important buildings; (f) relics. Excavations are at present in progress at Dingane's Mgungundhlovu kraal. Sites and other objects considered worthy of preservation should be reported to the Natal representative.

Societies and Institutions 61

26. Newcastle Historical Society. The Hon. Secretary, Mrs. D. Russell, 5 Majuba Street, Newcastle.

27. Operation Wildjlower. Local representative: Mr. T. Giddy, Gwyddian Farm, Umlaas Road. Chiefly interested in removing, for preservation, indigeno\ls plants that are in danger of being destroyed.

28. Pietermaritzburg Municipal Art Gallery. City Hall, Pietermaritzburg. 29. Pietermaritzburg Philharmonic Society. City Hall, Pietermaritzburg. 30. Pinetown Historical Society. The Hon. Secretary, Mr. A. Atkinson, P.O.

Box 49, Pinetown. Active in collecting and preserving. 31. Queensburgh Historical Society. The Hon. Secretary, Miss W. Jones, P.O.

Box 31, Queens burgh. 32. Simon van der Stel Foundation. Regional Secretary: Mr. A. S. B. Humphreys,

356 Prince Alfred Street, Pietermaritzburg. The aim of the Foundation is the preservation, by purchase or other means, of buildings, historical objects and sites of historical value or great beauty. The restoration of Macrorie House, Loop Street, Pietermaritzburg, has been undertaken by the Foundation.

33. South African Archaeological Society. The Hon. Secretary Natal Branch, Dr. D. E. van Dijk, c/o Zoology Department, University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg. Arranges talks and expeditions.

34. South African Association for Marine Biological Research. Centenary Aquarium, Durban.

35. South African Institute of Race Relations. Natal regional offices: 8 Guildhall Arcade, Durban.

36. South African National Society. Natal branch headquarters: c/o Mr. G. W. McDonald, P.O. Box 135, Durban. The Society was founded in 1907 'for the preservation of objects of natural historical interest'.

37. South African War Graves Board. Private Bag 236, Union Buildings, Pretoria. Amongst other activities, the Board is undertaking the restoration of the graves of British soldiers in Natal.

38. University of Natal. Pietermaritzburg and Durban. Many of the academic departments of the University are engaged in research relating to the natural and human resources of Natal, its environmental conditions and its history. In addition to the academic departments, there are the following research institutes; Meyrick Bennett Children's Centre (Durban); Oceanographic Research Institute (Durban); Paint Industries Research Institute (Durban); Institute of Parasitology (Durban); Institute of Social Research (Durban); Sugar Milling Research Institute (Durban); Wattle Research Institute (Pietermaritzburg). The various libraries of the University have large holdings of works relevant to Natal subjects.

39. Wilderness Leadership School. c/o Stainbank Nature Reserve, Yellow Wood Park, Durban.

40. Wildlife Protection and Conservation Society of South Africa. Natal Branch: P.O. Box 2985, Durban.

41. Zululand Historical Museum. Nongqai Fort, Eshowe.

Compiled by C. de B. WEBB

62

Register of Research on Natal THE FOLLOWING does not pretend to be complete. It has been compiled from the Human Sciences Research Council Research Bulletin, information supplied from the Archives and individual submissions.

It is a supplementary list to the 'Register' published in Natalia, 2. Persons knowing of research work that has not been listed are asked to furnish information for inclusion in the next issue. For this purpose a slip is provided.

AFRICANS Bantu independent churches Politics in Natal Proses van besluitneming in die ekonomiese lewe

van die Bantoe, met besondere verwysing na die distrik Port Shepstone

Some aspects of the economics of Bantu agriculture in Natal

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF NATAL

BRITISH SETTLERS Biggar family Carbutt, Thomas Brooks Knight, Humphrey Evans

BUCHANAN, David Dale Natal Witness, 1846-56

BUILDINGS Investigation into urban climate and the siting of

buildings on the Natal coast Study of 19th century residential houses

DURBAN Extra-familial kinship among a group of whites Point railway line Social and cultural study of Ngoma dance groups

among Zulus in the Durban area

ECONOMIC CONDITIONS Changing pattern of economic relationships in

rural Natal, 1820-1914 Description and analysis of recent marketing

innovations by certain Natal firms Pattern of agrarian development in the Durban

rural areas on the Natal South Coast Some aspects of the economics of Bantu agri

culture in Natal

B. Sundkler G. R. Cloete

A. O. lackson

R. F. Bates

University of Natal Library, Pietermaritzbutg.

(Mrs.) S. Henderson (Mrs.) S. Henderson (Mrs.) S. Henderson

B. Naidoo

P. R. Stewart V. E. Hopwood

Miss S. B. Clark E. Frangenheim

H. 1. Thomas

H. G. Slater

A. L. Kaplan

Pathma Pillay

R. F. Bates

63 Research

EDUCATION Investigation of the methods by which English

composition is taught, with special reference to secondary schools of Natal

ESTCOURT

HA VELOCK, Sir Arthur Administration as governor of Natal, 1886-89

INDIANS Contemporary political dynamics Indian immigration

MID-ILLOVO

PLACE-NAMES Durban Settlers

POLITICS Politieke woelinge in Natal na 1910

POPULATION, 1950-70 Some aspects of the changing population pattern

in Natal within the period 1950-70

PRETORIUS, Andries

RAILWAYS AND HARBOURS Point railway line Railway and harbour history

ROBINSON, Sir John Responsible government

ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH Early history of Roman Catholic Church in Natal

1846-85

SHEPSTONE, Theophilus Annexation of Transvaal

SOUTH AFRICAN WAR, 1899-1902 Natal en die Anglo-Boere oorIog

THEATRE Natal theatres

ZULULAND Ontstaan, groei en ontwikkeling van Empangeni Swazi history, 1890-99 Vegetation of Tongaland White settlement after 1902

ZULUS Social and cultural study of Ngoma dance groups

among Zulus in the Durban area

J. Zaal

C. F. D. Woods

M. MoodIey

B. Naidoo C. S. N. Reddy

A. E. GouIag

N. T. Hunt N. T. Hunt

A. J. van Wyk

R. C. Sutton

B. J. Liebenberg

E. Frangenheim H. F. Heydenrych

J. Lambert

(Mrs.) J. B. Brain

P. Kennedy

J. G. v. d. Westhuizen

D. Schauffer

J. J. Olivier R. W. F. Drooglever Dr. E. J. Moll W. van der Merwe

H. J. Thomas

Compiled by R. A. BROWN

64

Book Notices IT IS A refreshing change after a spate of historical Nataliana in recent years to return to base as it were. Professor Lester King, for many years Professor of Geology in the University, has published his book 'explaining the origin and scenery of Natal'. It has the somewhat off-putting title of The Natal Monocline, but it is in fact a comparatively simple explanation of Professor King's theories on the geological origins of Natal, followed by a series of route guides and excursions which explain the formation of the spectacular scenery seen along the way. These latter chapters will make motoring in Natal much more interesting.

The story of the land is continued in the nineteenth report of the Town and Regional Planning Commission, entitled Agricultural and Related Development of the Tugela Basin and its Influent Surrounds. This report is the result of more than five years' work by Professor John Phillips, Senior Research Fellow of the University, and is outstandingly the most comprehensive work published by the Commission. To quote from the introduction: 'Professor Phillips' view of an ecosystem in which all forms of life are dependent on, and conditioned by, the environment in an holistic concept, each responding and interacting to the stimuli in which they exist, expressed exactly what the Commission had in mind'. Special mention, too, should be made of the separate volume of maps, which sadly lacks a contents list.

This volume includes the fruits of all previous research done by the Commission on this subject, and points the way to the future.

To draw attention to Green Heritage year, the Midlands Zone of the Natal Branch of the Wild Life Protection and Conservation Society has done a most admirable task in putting forward their Proposals for the Pietermaritzburg Green Belt. This mimeographed publication analyses the northern visual relief scheme in nine sections and the southern in twelve. It reaches as far as Richmond and Byrne. Appendices cover educational considerations, archaeological sites, geological features, flowering plants, trails systems, agricultural usage, administration, etc. There are eight simple, but useful diagrams.

It is good, too, that at long last a comprehensive book on Natal's famous mountain range, the Drakensberg, has appeared. This has been written by Doyle Liebenberg, for long a stalwart of the Mountain Club. His chapters cover many subjects of interest other than mountaineering and it is a book for all types of reader. As often happens, another book on this subject by Mr. R. o. Pearse, for many years headmaster of Estcourt school, is on its way and should be published during the year.

The Zulu war is still claiming attention. David & Charles have published The Zulu War by David Clammer; and Hart-Davis, MacGibbon & Kee are publishing a book by Alan Lloyd with the same title in their new Colonial Wars series. No review copies were at hand when these notes were written.

65 Book notices

Natal military history has been well provided for. Following upon Col. A. C. Martin's magnificent two-volume history of the Durban Light Infantry in 1969, Mr. Eric Goetzsche has now produced his book on the Natal Mounted Rifles. These well-researched works put earlier histories of Natal regiments in the shade.

T. W. Griggs of Durban have reissued photographically three well-known nineteenth century works:

FEILDEN, E. W. My African home, 1887 RUSSELL, George History of old Durban, 1899 RUSSELL, Robert Natal, the land and its story, 1911

State Library reprints of Nataliana include:DINIZULU defendant The trial of Dinizulu, 1910 HOLDEN, W. C. British rule in South Africa, 1879 JENKINSON, T. B. Amazulu, 1882 LUDLOW, W. R. Zululand and Cetewayo, 1882 MANN, R. J. Zulus and Boers of South Africa, 1879 PARR, H. H. A sketch of the Kaffir & Zulu wars, 1880 ROBINSON, Sir John A life-time in South Africa, 1900 ROBINS ON, Sir John Notes on Natal, 1872

C. Struik has recently published Life at Natal A Hundred Years Ago, by a Lady, (the 'Lady' was Sir John Robinson), and Forty years among the Zulus by Josiah Tyler, 1891.

It is to be regretted that the price of reprints in some cases is so high and that they are reissued without new editorial matter or indexes which in most cases would greatly enhance the value and usefulness of the books.

The enterprising Ladysmith Historical Society is steadily publishing a selection of Siege Diaries:

1. Diary of the Siege of Ladysmith by Major G. F. Tatham of the Natal Carbineers.

2. Diary of the Siege of Ladysmith by Miss Bella Craw: a day-to-day account of a young woman resident in the town.

3. Letters from Ladysmith by Lt. Col. C. W. Park to his wife in India. 4. Unpublished letters from the siege, and an extract from Lt. Col. B. W.

Martin's memoirs entitled Old Soldiers Never Die. These are available from the Society, P.O. Box 200, Ladysmith, at the cost of

R3 each for non-members. The Society has also reissued an article originally published in Blackwoods Magazine, April 1939, entitled The Smiths of Ladysmith to celebrate the centenary of Lady Juana who died 10th October 1872.

In The Historical Monuments of South Africa compiled by J. J. Oberholster, and published last year, there are 62 Natal monuments listed and brief descriptions of each.

A second volume of Stanger Area Annals, excellently printed and produced, illustrates once again the value of the 'Area Annals' project inaugurated by the Federation of Women's Institutes. The ladies of Stanger have also produced a E

66 Book notices

special centenary volume, in which the two separate volumes issued in 1967 and this year are bound together in one cover. We hope to publish a full list of Area Annals in our next number.

Steadily, various enthusiasts are working to get the 1849 settlers and others established in their rightful place, and their pioneer efforts in Natal more fully known and recognised. Dr. John Clark's doctoral thesis has been published by Balkema under the title Natal Settler-Agent. It tells of the career of John Moreland, agent for the Byrltc emigration-scheme of 1849-51. This informative work is invaluable for the full passenger list of the Byrne settlers to whom many Natal surnames can be traced.

What can be considered a follow-up to this book is Henderson Heritage by Peter Hathorn and Amy Young, which tells of Joseph Henderson and his wife, their arrival in Natal and the activities of their vast multitude of descendants. This is a magnificent family record, and through their lives the history of Natal can be recreated. The genealogical tables include the names of many well-known personalities in Pietermaritzburg and elsewhere, and link up with Amy Young's history of the Hathorns and the Blaikies. The book includes a fine selection of family photographs.

Charles Scott Shaw has, in his Stories from the Karkloof Hills, told of the famous polo family of Shaws and of his early days in that area. This book, too, has genealogical tables. All together they build up a picture of Natal in the latter half of the 19th century and succeeding years.

By contrast the political thinking of Natal in these years can be found in David Welsh's book The Roots of Segregation; Native Policy in Natal 1845-1910 to which attention was drawn in our previous number.

Natal does not escape the attention of the novelist. lames McClure has followed up The Steam Pig with another talc of Lieutenant Kramer and Sergeant Zondi called The Caterpillar Cop. Tom Sharpc has written another tale of Pietermaritzburg called Indecent EJt"jJosure. Both his books, as one might expect, are banned.

A Natal author, who has come back to live in Pietermaritzburg after many years of wandering, is David Bee. His latest book, The Victims, is not, however, a South African story, though all his books have an African background. Another Natal novelist is Bessie Head who was born in Pietermaritzburg in 1937 and now lives in Botswana. Her first novel When Rain Clouds Gather is a tale of turbulence in Botswana and was hailed by the critics, when it was published in 1969. This was followed by iVlaru in 1971, another tale of Botswana.

Mrs. Nickie McMcnemy, a Durban journalist, has written a novel, Chaka and the Slave-girl, which gives a. somewhat unusual view of Chaka. Nor must we forget Jack Cope who has many stories with a Natal setting. His latest novel, The Student ofZend, was published in 1971.

A book on 19th century emigration published last year has considerable relevance for Natal historians. It is Passage to America: a history of emigrants from Great Britain and Ireland to America in the mid-nineteenth century written by Terry Coleman, chief feature writer of the Guardian, and published by Hutchinson (London). Mr. Coleman gained fame with his first book of social

67 Book notices

history, The Railway Navvies. His new book deals with the exodus of more than two million people from Britain and Ireland during the years 1846-55, the greatest period of emigration known in Britain till then. rv10st of the would-be settlers travelled in w'Ooden sailing ships in intolerable conditions of overcrowding, poor food, and rough treatment from hard-case captains. With the introduction of steam ships about 1855 the trip to America became speedier and the suffering less prolonged. Mr. Coleman deals with the extortion, robbery, and assault carried out by rapacious bands of New York 'runners' who were allowed to have their way with the bewildered emigrants. Similar treatment but to a lesser degree had happened at Liverpool before embarkation. It was years before the authorities on both sides of the Atlantic were able to stamp out these gross abuses. It can safely be claimed that the emigration-promoter Joseph C. Byrne, who brought about 2 500 emigrants to Natal between 1849-51, gave his people better treatment, and that on arrival at Port Natal they were received with more humanity. Ship conditions, however, seem to have been much the same for Natal emigrants as for those who sailed across the Atlantic.

A long-awaited work, Architecture in Natal:from 1824 to 1893, will be eagerly welcomed by Natalians who appreciate the wonderfully rich legacy of buildings left by our colonial forefathers. Written by Brian Kearney, lecturer at the School of Architecture, University of Natal, and pUblished by A. A. Balkema of Cape Town, it is based from start to finish oa original research carried out by the author on hundreds of buildings erected during nearly 70 years of Natal history. The earliest buildings were, of course, of such flimsy construction and made of such perishable materials that they have long since mouldered into the earth from which they ros(~. The clay and cowdung floors, the thatch, the wattle frameworks all have vanished \vithout trace. But with the arrival of the British and other settlers and the gradual rise in the standard of living, the inhabitants of the bigger centres began to build houses, churches, public buildings, bridges, hospitals, shops, and other structures in the style of the mother country from which they had come. For this period onwards Mr. Kearney is an excellent guide to many obscure but valuable buildings. He brings imagination, sympathy, and considerable scholarship to his task, for it is the social history of Natal that keeps creeping in and demanding its rightful place. The whole concept of the Natal veranda 'the transition from the Dutch to the English colonial tradition' - had its origin in the social habits of ordinary people who needed a cool place to sit, talk, work, and even eat. Not only did the veranda cool the walls of the house but it relieved the bareness of a colonial house erected on the veld or on a town erf. The book is provided with over 500 illustrations of excellent quality. It goes without saying that Mr. Kearney's book will take its place as a standard work.

Compiled by R. A. BROWN 1. CLARK

68

Select List of Recent Natal Publications

ALLAN, P. Advancing horticulture; inaugural lecture. Pietermaritzburg, Univ. of Natal press, 1972.

ARNOLD, L. M., andVarty, Alice E. English through activity; first year teacher's manuaL Pietermaritzburg, Shuter and Shooter, (1973 ?).

BEHR, A. L. New horizons in special education. Durban, Univ. of DurbanWestville, 1972.

BELCHER, C. I., Editor. Norman's purchase and sale in South Africa. 4th ed. Durban, Butterworths, 1972.

BENSON, Ivor. A message from Southern Africa. Durban, Dolphin press, (1973 ?).

BIKO, B. S. Black viewpoint. Durban, Spro-cas, ] 972.

BLACK review, 1972; edited by B. A. Khoapa. Durban, Black community programmes, 1973.

BRABY'S Howick directory, 1973. Durban, Braby, 1973.

BRABY'S Pietermaritzburg directory, 1973. Durban, Braby, 1973.

BRABY'S Pinetown, Gillitts, Hillcrest, Kloof, New Germany and Westville directory, 1972. Durban, Braby, 1972.

BROOME, F. N. Speeches and addresses. Pietermaritzburg, Shuter and Shooter, 1973.

CALLAWAY, Henry. Nursery tales, traditions and histories of the Zulus in their own words, with a translation into English, and notes by Canon Callaway. Westport, Negro Univ. Press, 1970. (Reprint)

CALPIN, George Harold. Durham Day. London, Collins, 1972.

CHELlN, Jean, The Hands of fate. Durban, Creative publications, 1973.

CHELIN, Jean. Woman. Durban, Creative publications, 1972.

CILLIERS, H. S., and others. Financial statements under the draft Companies bill. Durban, Butterworths, 1972.

CLARK, John. Natal settler-agent; the career of John Moreland, agent for the Byrne emigration-scheme of 1849-51. Cape Town, Balkema, 1972.

COGHILL, Patrick. Whom the gods love. . . a memoir of Lieutenant Nevill Joseph Aylmer Coghill, V.C., the 24th regiment, 1852-79. Halesowen, Reliance, 1969.

COLENSO, F. E. History of the Zulu war, and its origin. Westport, Negro Univ. Press, 1970. (Reprint)

CONOLLY, Denis. Die Laer suidkus van Natal; 'n gids vir die besoeker. Durban, Spectrum, 1970.

CONOLLY, Denis. The Lower south coast of Natal; a guide for the visitor. Durban, Spectrum, 1970.

69 Recent publications

DURBAN. City Engineer's dept. Durban 1985: a plan for central Durban in its regional setting: a report ... by William Holford and Roy Kantorowich ... Vol. 2, technical appendix. Durban, the Dept., 1972.

DURBAN. Municipal electricity dept. Electricity distribution in the Durban region in the first seventy-five years; a history of Durban municipal electricity department, 1897-1972. Durban, City Council, 1973.

DURBAN. Municipal library. Don Africana collection. List of some of the rare and valuable works in the fields of botany and zoology published before 1900 to be found in the Don Africana Library, Durban. Durban, the Library, (1972 ?).

DURBAN. Publicity Association. Durban holiday guide for Indians, Africans, Coloureds. Durban, the Association, (1972 ?).

GOETZSCHE, Eric. 'Rough but ready'; an official history of the Natal Mounted Rifles and its antecedent and associated units, 1854-1969. Durban, Natal Mounted Rifles, (1973 ?).

GORDON, Doris Trollip. The Trollops of South Africa. Pietermaritzburg, Shuter and Shooter, 1971.

GORDON, R. E., and others. Macrorie gentle Bishop of Maritzburg. Pretoria, Van der Stel Foundation, (1973).

HATHORN, Peter, and Young, Amy. Henderson heritage; being a record of some episodes in the life of Joseph Henderson, the founder of a family in Natal and of his wife and their children. Pietermaritzburg, the Authors, 1972.

JAMES, Alan. The Dictator. Kloof, the Author, 1972.

JAROS, G. G. and Meyer, B. J. Elementary medical biophysics. Durban, Butterworths, 1972.

JENKINSON, Thomas Barge. Amazulu: the Zulus, their past history, manners, customs and language. New York, Negro Univ. Press, 1969. (Reprint)

KERR, A. J. The Law of Agency. Durban, Butterworths, 1972.

KING, Lester. The Natal monoc1ine explaining the origin and scenery of Natal, South Africa. Durban, Univ. of Natal, 1972.

LADYSMITH directory, 1973. Durban, Braby, 1973.

LAMPRECHT, G. J. The Structure of the university chemistry degree; inaugural address. Kwa-Dlangezwa, Univ. of Zululand, 1970.

LANDMAN, W. A., and Roos, S. G. Fundamentele pedagogiek en die opvoedingswerklikheid; met kernvrae. Durban, Butterworths, 1973.

LAWRIE'S Durban directory, 1973. Durban, Lawrie, 1973.

LESLIE, David. Among the Zulus and Amatongas ... New York, Negro Univ. Press, 1969. (Reprint)

LIEBENBERG, Doyle P. The Drakensberg of Natal. Cape Town, Bulpin, 1972.

MANSON, H. W. D. Poems; edited by Christina van Heyningen. Pietermaritzburg, H. W. D. Manson memorial fund, 1973.

MARITZBURG CROQUET CLUB. Pietermaritzburg. Golden jubilee, 1921-1971. Pietermaritzburg, the Club, 1972.

MEESTER, J. A. J. The Human breakthrough; inaugural lecture. Pietermaritzburg, Univ. of Natal press, 1972.


MULLANY, MichaeL Green and gold: a short history of the First Pietermaritzburg scout group. Pietermaritzburg, the Author, (1972 ?).

NATAL. Education dept. Library catalogue. Pietermaritzburg, the Dept., 1973.

NATAL. Stads- en streekbeplanningskommissie. Stads- en streekbeplannings in Natal: 'n studie van die stads- en streekbeplanningskommissie in sy 21ste jaar. Pietermaritzburg, die Kommissie, 1972.

NATAL. Town and regional planning commission. A Survey of the Upper Umgeni River catchment. Natal, the Commission, 1973.

NATAL. Town and regional planning commission. Town and regional planning in Natal: a study of the Town and regional planning commission in its 21st year. Pietermaritzburg, the Commission, 1972.

NATAL. University. Drugs. Durban, Univ. of Natal, 1970.

NATAL. University. Dept. of education. A Study; some aspects of first year student teachers in training in the University of Natal and in the Natal training colleges. Pietermaritzburg, the University, 1972.

NATAL. University. Dept. of Social work. Durban social welfare handbook; a guide to the social welfare agencies of Durban and district, by S. R. Bedford and others. Durban, the University, 1972.

NATAL. University. Dept. of Social work. A Practice of child care services in residential homes and children's institutions in Durban, by Pramda Ramascar. Durban, the University, 1971.

NATAL. University. Students representative council. Why are we concerned? Pietermaritzburg, the University, 1972.

NATHAN, C. J. M. A Handbook on the compulsory motor vehicle insurance act, 1972. Durban, Butterworths, 1973.

NIVEN, J. M. Society, school and university; inaugural lecture. Pietermaritzburg, Univ. of Natal, 1972.

PATON, Alan. Creative suffering: the ripple of hope. Boston, Pilgrim Press, 1970.

PHILLIPS, John. The Agricultural and related development of the Tugela basin and its influent surrounds. Pietermaritzburg, The Town and regional planning commission, 1973.

PRICE, C. H. So you're going to university? Durban, Butterworths, 1973.

RAUCHE, O. A. The Choice. Durban, Drakensberg Press, 1973.

Ross, J. H. The Acacia species of Natal; an introduction to the indigenous species. 2nd. rev. ed. Durban, Natal branch of the Wildlife protection and conservation society of South Africa, 1972.

Ross, J. H. The Flora of Natal. Pretoria, Dept. of Agricultural and Technical Services, 1972.

SAVORY, Phyllis. Swazi fireside tales. Cape Town, Timmins, 1972.

SEED, Jenny. The Red dust soldiers. London, Heinemann, 1972.

SELBY, John. Shaka's heirs. London, Allen & Unwin, 1971.

SIVANANDA, Sri Swami. Science of yoga. Durban, Divine life society, 1972. Vols.I-5.


SOUTH AFRICAN HUMAN SCIENCES RESEARCH COUNCIL. Job opportunities in the border areas of Natal. Pretoria, the Council, 1972.

SWART, Marius J. Wereldleiers. Durban, Butterworths, 1972.

THOMPSON, Molly D'Arcy. Call the wind. Cape Town, Philip, 1972.

VEDALANKER, Pandit Nardev, and Chotai, Sookraj, Editors. Aryan prayer. Durban, Veda Niketan, (1973 ?).

VERNON, C. J. The Birds of Pietermaritzburg, Natal. Cape Town, Percy Fitzpatrick institute of African ornithology, 1972.

VERNON, C. J. The Birds of Scottsville, Pietermaritzburg, Natal. Cape Town, Percy Fitzpatrick institute of African ornithology, 1972.

VERNON, C. J. A List of the birds of Bisley Valley, Pietermaritzburg. Cape Town, Percy Fitzpatrick institute of African ornithology, 1972.

VISSER, J. G. J. The Role of zoology in the Zulu community; inaugural address. Kwa-Dlangezwa, Univ. of Zululand, 1972.

WATTS, H. L. Sociology, the university, and the community; inaugural lecture. Pietermaritzburg, Univ. of Natal press. 1972.

Compiled by U. E. M. JUDD, Natal Society Library.

NATALIA No. 1

Contents Pages

EDITORIAL • 5

John Bird

REPRINT 7

Natal 1846-1851 John Bird

ARTICLES 23

H. W. D. Manson, poet and playwright, and his connections with Natal- C. van Heyningen

Perception of landscape in Natal: the geographer's point of view - N. C. Pollock

A new Cathedral-Centre for Pietermaritzburg Kenneth B. Hallowes

OCCASIONAL LISTS 35

Select list of recent Natal pUblications-U. E. M. Judd

A first list of Natal artists, 1824-1910-J. A. Verbeek

NOTES AND QUERIES 39

REGISTER OF SOCIETIES AND INSTITUTIONS 40

Published September, 1971. Cost: 75 cents.

NATALIA No. 2

Contents Pages

EDITORIAL 7

REPRINT

The Reitz-Shepstone correspondence 10

ARTICLES

A house for Harry; an architect looks at the former residence of Harry Escombe - B. T. Kearney . 21

Lieutenant Joseph Nourse, early Natal pioneer and Port Captain Jean Nourse .

Wilderness and the environment Ian Player

24

27

SERIAL

The origins of the Natal SocietyPietermaritzburg U. E. M. Judd

; Chapter I, Early 30

OCCASIONAL LISTS

Maps of Natal and Zululand, 1824-1910-R. A. Brown 34

NOTES AND QUERIES 37

REGISTER OF SOCIETIES AND INSTITUTIO

C. de B. Webb .

NS

39

REGISTER OF RESEARCH ON NATAL

R. A. Brown 43

BOOK NOTICES

R. A. Brown, J. Clark, C. de B. Webb . 46

SELECT LIST OF RECENT NATAL PUBLICATIONS

U. E. M. Judd . 49

Published September, 1972

Cost: R1,OO

UNIVERSITY OF NATAL PRESS CREALOCK, J. N.

THE ROAD TO ULUNDI An album of sixty-seven water-colour drawings made in Natal and

Zululand during the Zulu War, 1879, by Lieut.-Col. John North Crealock, military secretary to Lord Chelmsford. Edited and introduced by R. A. Brown M.A. Librarian of the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg. 1969. 48 pages of pictures of which 36 pages are lithographed in full colour and 12 pages in two colours. 43 cm by 29 cm. RI9,50.

HILLIARD, O. M. and BURTT, B. L.

STREPTOCARPUS A genus of Gesneriaceae

By O. M. Hilliard and B. L. Burtt, 1971. Full cloth. Numerous line drawings, maps and 15 colour plates. R13,00.

Streptocarpus is the largest African genus of the family Gesneriaceae, and this is the first comprehensive taxonomic account of it since 1883. It is a genus of manifold interest, and attracts the attention of botanists, geneticists, naturalists and horticulturists. The work includes keys to and descriptions of the species, as well as chapters on vegetative morphology, geographical distribution, natural hybridization, and so on.

MANSON, H. W. D.

Four Plays THE COUNSELLORS : THE FESTIVAL

MA GNUS : POTLUCK The four volumes in this uniform edition each contain a bio

graphical note and an introduction by Prof. Christina van Heyningen. 1970. Each volume: full case bound, R3,50; paperback, R2,50.

The Festival, The Counsellors and Magnus are, in their different ways and for all their many-sidedness, plays of tragic intensity. Potluck is a vigorous satire, directed largely at contemporary dramatic fashions.

WRIGHT, J. B.

BUSHMAN RAIDERS OF THE DRAKENSBERG 1840-1970

A study of their conflict with stock-keeping peoples in Natal. By J. B. Wright, M.A. (Natal). 1971. Full cloth. Illustrated. R7,50. This is a scholarly piece of work, interesting both for the new

light it throws on the part played by Bushmen in the history of Natal, and for indicating the effects of contact with Bantu-speakers and other peoples on certain of the Bushman hunter-gatherer communities.

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