Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T07:52:09.786Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Land, labour and capital in Natal: The Natal Land and Colonisation Company 1860–19481

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Henry Slater
Henry Slater
Affiliation:
Kenyatta College, Nairobi
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The history of the London-based Natal Land and Colonisation Company is explored against the background of the evolving political economy of rural Natal. In the early years of the colony, white-controlled farming operations consistently failed. The landholdings of bankrupt colonists passed into the hands of a small group of men with capital. In 1861 this group activated its links with financiers in Britain to float the Natal Land and Colonisation Company. The Company ‘bought’ 250,000 acres of surplus lands from them in return for an injection of metropolitan capital into productive operations to be carried out on the remaining mainly coastal lands, or into further speculative activity. In fact, white-controlled farming activity in the interior continued to stagnate. Money which the Company loaned to white farmers in the 1860s, secured as mortgages on their farms, was not repaid, and the Company took over the lands of the bankrupt until in 1874 it controlled 657,000 acres in Natal. Anxious for a sizeable and more reliable source of income, the Company, in common with some colonists, concentrated on extracting rent from Africans, as yet the only successful farming population of the Natal interior. The increasing importance of this source of income to the Company was rudely interrupted in the 1890s by a fundamental shift in the Natal political economy. New mining centres in South Africa looked to Natal to furnish some of their needs for raw material and labour. The balance of economic and political forces favoured those who demanded labour, not rent, from Natal Africans. The Company switched its capital in good time out of renting land to African farmers and into renting and property development in the growing urban areas of white South Africa. Its properties were brought within the empire of the Eagle Star Insurance Company in 1948.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 16 , Issue 2 , April 1975 , pp. 257 - 283
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1975

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

2 Not least by Cape and British officials trying to support a case for annexation; Napier to Stanley 25.7.1842, quoted in Welsh, D., The Roots of Segregation: Native Policy in Natal 1845–1910 (Cape Town, Oxford, 1971), 9.Google Scholar

3 Wilson, M. and Thompson, L. (eds.), The Oxford History of South Africa, Vol. I (Oxford, 1969), 368.Google Scholar

4 Brookes, E. H. and Webb, C. de B., A History of Natal (Pietermaritzburg, 1965), 43–8.Google Scholar

5 In the course of the first two years of the Republic of Natalia, 1838–40, 2·5 million acres were registered in favour of 254 persons. Only 49 of these seems to have chosen or been able to personally occupy their claims; Hattersley, A. G., The British Settlement of Natal: A Study in Imperial Migration (Cambridge, 1950), 46–7.Google Scholar

6 Public Records Office, C.O. 179/5 Cloete, to Montagu, 10.11.1843Google Scholar enclosure in West to Maitland, 31.3.1846Google Scholar; C.O. 179/6 Moodie, to Land Commission 23.3.1848Google Scholar in Minutes of the Natal Land Commission p. 25Google Scholar; A. W. J. Pretorius to Land Commission in ibid.; Natal Archives MSS. new acc. no. 13 Pretorius, A. W. J. to Pottinger, 16.10.1847Google Scholar; Bird, J. (ed.), The Annals of Natal 1495–1845, II (reprint, Cape Town, 1965), 201–2, 483–4.Google Scholar

7 This was a favourite strategy amongst the richer claimants. African servants were used for the purpose; Hattersley, , British Settlement, 76.Google Scholar

8 C.O. 48/224 Smith, to Napier, 18.9.1842Google Scholar enclosure in Napier, to Stanley, 24.10.1842Google Scholar; C.O. 48/246 Smith, to Montagu, 8.1.1844Google Scholar enclosure in Napier, to Stanley, 7.3.1844Google Scholar; Bird, , Annals, II, 396–8.Google Scholar

9 Natal Archives GH/I Napier, to Russell, Lord 6.12.1841Google Scholar; Bird, , Annals, II, pp. 212–3.Google Scholar

10 Bird, J. (ed.), The Annals of Natal 1495–1845, I (Pietermaritzburg, 1888), 514, 520–1Google Scholar. African produce was already playing a key role in the colonial economy at this time. For its importance to the trekkers and others in Pietermaritzburg see Bird, , Annals, II, 360–3Google Scholar. For its role in the economy of Port Natal see ibid. 212–3, and C.O. 179/5 Cloete, to Montagu, 10.11.1843Google Scholar enclosure in West to Maitland, 31.3.1846Google Scholar. The small export trade in maize which had been developed with the Cape by 1846 was said to be dependent upon African producers; Natal Witness 4.9.1846.Google Scholar

11 Oxford History, I, 365.Google Scholar

12 The bartering of agricultural produce from Africans was an essential part of the trek economy; Schoon, H. F. (ed.), The Diary of Erasmus Smit (Struik 1972)Google Scholar, entries for 21.11.1836. 2.9.1837, 18.10.1837, 13.12.1837. When trade goods were exhausted, payment was made in livestock, though cattle seem to have been parted with only as a last resort; ibid. entry for 15.11.1837. (Transl. W. G. A. Mears.)

13 This began as soon as the trekkers crossed the Drakensberg mountains into Natal; ibid., entries for 30.1.1838, 24.3.1838, 9.4.1838, 23.6.1838, 4.7.1838, 10.7.1838, 23.7.1838. The fact that the first expropriations recorded by Smit took place some days before Relief's negotiations with Dingaan were completed may partly explain the bloody fate of Relief's party and some of the Voortrekker encampments. The Zulu state was not used to men claiming precedence over itself in expropriating surplus from Natal kraals. In his earlier travels through Natal, Fynn had sometimes come across the operation of elaborate systems of ‘corn laws’ under which the new crop could not be consumed until the Zulu state had sent a military expedition to supervise the collection of tribute; Watt, E. P., Febana: The Story of Farewell (London, 1962), 96.Google Scholar

14 The expropriation of cattle and ‘apprentices’ began after the Voortrekkers' victories over the Zulu army, but seems to have become an established aspect of the economy; Agar-Hamilton, J. A. I., The Native Policy of the Voortrekkers (Cape Town, 1928), 32, 34, 140, 159, 172–3, 175Google Scholar; Bird, , Annals, I, 563–4, 600–602, 623–4, 727Google Scholar; II, 58, 61, 68, 69–72, 117–20, 281.

15 Bird, , Annals, I, 413–4, 515, 635.Google Scholar

16 110 land sales were registered with the Volksraad between June 1841 and July 1844 at prices averaging between £20 and £50 a farm. Much the same process may have attended imperial expansion elsewhere. The land speculation which preceded the annexation of New Zealand in 1840 is one example which comes to mind; Christopher, A. J., ‘Natal: A Study in Colonial Land Settlement’, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Natal (Durban), 1969, 2.Google Scholar

17 In particular, the condition of twelve months bona fide occupation before the arrival of the British Land Commissioner in Natal in 1843, a condition which African resistance in the countryside had made difficult to fulfil; Bird, , Annals, II, 167–8, 277–80Google Scholar; C.O. 48/246 Smith to Montagu 18.11.1843, enclosure in Napier to Stanley 15.1.1844; ibid. Smith to Montagu 8.1.1844, enclosure in Napier to Stanley 7.3.1844. Some were also too poor to meet survey fees and quit rent; C.O. 178/9 Moodie to Montagu 6.11.1849 enclosure in Smith to Grey 12.12.1849; Natal Archives MSS. ace. no. 152 John Fleming to Father 25.4.1846.

18 Bird, , Annals, II, 355–6.Google Scholar

19 Grahamstown Journal 9.1.1847Google Scholar. See also C.O. 179/4 Harry Smith to Grey 10.2.1848.

20 Francis Collison, J. C. Zeederberg, and Edward Chiappini were three of these. Through the agency of the secretary to Henry Cloete, the British Land Commissioner, Collison obtained 14 farms totalling 84,000 acres; C.O. 48/246 Smith to Montagu 11.12.1843 and 8.1.1844 enclosures in Napier to Stanley 7.3.1844; C.O. 48/247 Cloete to Montagu 16.3.1844, enclosure in Maitland to Stanley 21.6.1844; Brit. Parl. Papers, 1850, XXXVIII (1292), 154Google Scholar; Bird, , Annals, II, 353–4Google Scholar. For the origins of Zeederberg's 76,000 acres see C.O. 179/3 Moodie to Montagu 29.4.1847, enclosure in Pottinger to Grey 21.7.1847. For Chiappini, see Hattersley, , British Settlement, 78Google Scholar. Most of the claims to Pietermaritzburg town lands were made by people not resident in Natal, Cloete amongst them; Bird, , Annals, II, 192, 413.Google Scholar

21 Commandant Gert Rudolph, for example, laid claim to forty farms totalling some 250,000 acres. Some of these had been obtained in lieu of a debt of 5,722 rixdollars (a rixdollar was worth about is 6d in the period). Nine of these claims were subsequently ratified; C.O. 179/2 Pottinger to Grey 19.5.1847 and enclosures; Brit. Parl. Papers, 1847–1848, XII (980), 125Google Scholar; Hattersley, , British Settlement, 62, 76Google Scholar. In 1844 P. A. R. Otto was claiming eleven titles to farms by right of purchase; C.O. 48/247 petition of Otto 8.4.1844, enclosure in Cloete to Montagu 21.6.1844. Otto, a member of a prominent Dutch family from the eastern Cape, became an important landowner and public figure in colonial Natal. Pretorius laid claim to ten farms; Bird, , Annals, II, 190–2Google Scholar. The various local firms in which Jonas Bergtheil had an interest, some of them linked to Cape merchant houses, began to acquire land at this time; Natal Witness, 11.1.1850; Kemp, B. H., ‘Jonas Bergtheil in Natal 1843–1866’, unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Natal, 1953, esp. p. 58Google Scholar; Byrne, J. C., Emigrant's Guide To Port Natal (London, 1850), 90.Google Scholar

22 Rudolph, having left Natal early in 1845, sold four of his claims the following year to the Cape Town merchant firm, Handel Maatschaapy (General Handling Company); C.O. 179/2 Pottinger to Grey 19.5.1847 and enclosures.

23 Byrne, , Emigrant's Guide to Port Natal (1848 ed.), 69.Google Scholar

24 C.O. 179/3 comments of West 8.11.1847 on Memorial of Certain Landed Proprietors to Grey 13.7.1846, enclosure in Pottinger to Grey 4.12.1847; C.O. 179/6 West to Smith 21.2.1848 enclosure in Smith to Grey 30.3.1848; ibid. Moodie to Montagu 22.7.1848; C.O. 179/8 Moodie to Montagu 6.11.1849, enclosure in Smith to Grey 12.12.1849; Brookes, and Webb, , History of Natal, 64.Google Scholar

25 C.O. 179/6 Petition of Certain Landed Proprietors and Residents to Grey 13.7.1846, enclosure in Pottinger to Grey 4.12.1847; ibid. Petition of Collison 23.7.1847 and of G. W. Prince, on behalf of Collison, to Smith 3.12.1847 enclosures in Smith to Grey 31.7.1847

26 Natal was annexed to the Cape rather than directly to Britain and was administered as an integral part of the Cape Colony until 1847 when a separate legislative body was set up in Natal; Eybers, G. W. (ed.), Select Constitutional Documents Illustrating South African History 1795–1910 (London, 1918), xlix, 182Google Scholar. Although a separate Lieutenant Governorship was established in 1845, the incumbent was obliged to route all his correspondence with London through the Governor at the Cape, whose additional comments carried heavy weight. For the relationship in practice see C.O. 179/4 Grey to Smith 19.6.1848 and enclosures. The constitutional structure is significant for it enabled Cape interest groups, through the Governor-in-Council, to influence imperial policy towards Natal. Although the annexation of Natal is usually seen to be the result of ‘strategic’ or ‘humanitarian’ considerations, a good case can be made for the colonization of Natal as the product of the commercial expansion of the Cape, an argument I am developing elsewhere.

27 Moodie, W. J. D. (ed.), Ordinances, Proclamations etc. Relating to the Colony of Natal, I, (Pietermaritzburg, 1856), 515.Google Scholar

28 C.O. 179/7 Smith to Grey 29.8.1849. In fact very few emigrants ever returned to Natal, and of those that did, at least some stayed just long enough to sell their grants to speculators; C.O. 179/5 West to Smith 23.5.1848, enclosure in Smith to Grey 14.2.1849.

29 C.O. 179/4 Edward Chiappini to Smith 13.2.1848, enclosure in Smith to Grey 10.2.1848 [sic?].

30 C. O. 179/8 Smith to Grey 24.11.1849 and enclosures; Brookes, and Webb, , History of Natal, 64.Google Scholar

31 The condition of the non-alienation of grants for seven years and the demand that land be ‘occupied’ in some fashion hampered the speculators' freedom of action, and a further struggle was fought for the removal of these obstacles; Young, L. M., ‘The Native Policy of Benjamin Pine in Natal 1850–55’, University of Natal, thesis, pp. 4–5Google Scholar reprinted in Archives Yearbook For South African History, II (Cape Town, 1951).Google Scholar

32 The firm of Jung and Co., for example, in which Bergtheil had a substantial interest, was in this position. It was obliged to mortgage many of its lands; Kemp, , ‘Jonas Bergtheil…’, pp. 67–74Google Scholar. Coqui, another prominent landowner, seems eventually to have found himself in similar circumstances; King, R. H., ‘The Career of Adolph Coqui in Southern Africa’, University of Natal (Durban), B.A. (Hons.) thesis, 1973, pp. 69, 72, 76Google Scholar. The need of some of the landowners to sell or mortgage their lands meant that there was a tendency towards a further concentration of holdings in the hands of the larger Cape capitalists. By the 1850s metropolitan capital was also becoming involved; Kemp, , op. cit. pp. 70–4.Google Scholar

33 See, for example, Bergtheil's case in Hattersley, , British Settlement, 227.Google Scholar

34 Ibid. 85; Leverton, B. J. T., The Natal Cotton Industry 1845–75: A Study in Failure (Pretoria, 1963), 26Google Scholar; Kemp, , ‘Jonas Bergtheil …’, pp. 13–20.Google Scholar

35 See, for example, Collison, Francis, A Few Observations On Natal (London, 1848)Google Scholar; Christopher, J. S., Natal, Cape of Good Hope … Comprising Description of the Colony etc. (London, 1850)Google Scholar. Apparently Bergtheil also published a volume at this time though I have been unable to trace a copy.

36 W., and Chambers, R. (eds.), The Emigrant's Manual (London, 1848), 110Google Scholar; Byrne, , Emigrants' Guide (1850), 84Google Scholar; Hattersley, , British Settlement, 225.Google Scholar

37 These included some of the Protestant churches; Byrne, , Emigrants' Guide (1850), 87Google Scholar; Hattersley, , British Settlement, 89Google Scholar; Hattersley, A. J., The Natal Settlers 1848–51 (Pietenmaritzburg, 1949), 3, 4, 7, 15, 16Google Scholar; correspondence of William Irons cited in Park, M., ‘The History of Early Verulam 1850–60’, University of Natal, thesis, pp. 15, 34Google Scholar, reprinted in Archives Yearbook For South African History, II (Cape Town, 1953)Google Scholar. On the involvement of shipping, merchant and other metropolitan interests see Hattersley, , Natal Settlers, 2, 17, 18Google Scholar; and British Settlement, 136. The emigration entrepreneurs sought also to persuade both the state and the more well-to-do sections of metropolitan society that their interests would be well served by supporting emigration to Natal, which would help to develop colonial trade and remove the potential for social unrest at home brought on by the ‘Hungry Forties’; C.O. 179/5 Christopher to Moodie 18.9.1848, enclosure in Smith to Grey 15.1.1849; Christopher, J. S., Natal Cape of Good Hope …, 3, 4, 5, 15, p. 19, 21–24Google Scholar; Byrne, , Emigrants' Guide (1848)Google Scholar, front endpaper; Park, , ‘History of … Verulam’, p. 15Google Scholar; Hattersley, , Natal Settlers, 3, 4, 15, 16Google Scholar and British Settlement, 96, 97, 121, 189.

38 Hattersley, , British Settlement, 78Google Scholar. The emigration entrepreneurs also bought land from the speculators on which to settle colonists. The major scheme of J. C. Byrne was linked to Collison in this way; ibid. 78, 209–10. See also Natal Settlers, I, 2, 77.

39 Natal Blue Book 1852, 101. The emigration from Europe to Natal between 1848 and 1852 was dwarfed by the great emigrations to North America and Australasia at about the same time; Hitchins, F., The Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners (London, 1931)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, Appendix 10.

40 Most of the immigration schemes offered plots of only twenty acres compared to the several thousand acres which was the norm amongst those white farmers who had already established themselves in the interior of Natal; Hattersley, , British Settlement, 209.Google Scholar

41 For the attractions of the African trade and examples of involvement in it, see Natal Archives, Moreland Papers, ‘Essay on the Condition of Natal’ n.d. p. 62Google Scholar; Byrne, , Emigrants' Guide (1850), 89, 108Google Scholar; Park, ‘History of … Verulam…’, pp. 73 n, 108; Hattersley, , Natal Settlers, 31Google Scholar. For general comment on the central role played by African produce in the colonial economy of Natal at this time see Natal Witness, 12.4.1850, 17.5.1850, 23.8.1850, 18.10.1850; Natal Mercury, 7.2.1855; C.O. 179/6 Minutes of the Natal Land Commission, evidence ofShepstone 25.3.1848; Moreland, , ‘Essay’, op. cit. 37Google Scholar; S.N.A. 1/3/7 no 121 Fynn to S.N.A. 30.8.1858; Proceedings of the Natal Native Affairs Commission 1852–3 (Pietermaritzburg, 1853), part 5, p. 73Google Scholar, evidence of Fynn; S.N.A. 563 p. 295 Shepstone, memorandum 23.1.1854; Ploughman, A Perthshire, First Impressions of Natal (Edinburgh, 1850), 12Google Scholar; Methley, J., The New Colony of Port Natal (Leeds, 1850), 24Google Scholar; Byrne, , Emigrants' Guide (1850), 137Google Scholar; Hattersley, , Natal Settlers, 32Google Scholar. For hunting on snares see Methley, op. cit., 46. For the involvement of new settlers in other economic activities see Hattersley, , British Settlement, 148, 225, 229;Google ScholarByrne, , Emigrants' Guide (1850), 108.Google Scholar

42 See, for example, the correspondence of Macleod, Ellen in Gordon, R. E. (ed.), Dear Louisa, History of a Family in Natal, 1850–88 (Cape Town, 1970).Google Scholar

43 For stagnation of white farming activity and speculation in land claims, see Robertson, H. M., The 1849 Settlers in Natal (Cape Town, 1949), 421, 426, 429, 437Google Scholar; Hattersley, , Natal Settlers, 31Google Scholar and British Settlement, 108, 110, 114, 142, 168, 175, 189, 193, 215, 225, 229; Park, ‘History of … Verulam’, 41–2.

44 Christopher, A. J., ‘Colonial land settlement’, 191.Google Scholar

45 For a short discussion of the shortage of local capital see De Kiewiet, C. W., A History of South Africa: Social and Economic (Oxford, 1966), 67Google Scholar. For the perennial settler complaint of ‘labour shortage’ see especially N.N.A.C. 1852–1853, op. cit.

46 A. J. Christopher, ‘Colonial land settlement’, 191, lists the leading eight speculators in 1860 as: J. Bergtheil, 106,100 acres; A. Coqui, 62,165 acres; H. Nourse, 61,638 acres; F. Collison, 59,496 acres; P. Zeederberg, 56,487 acres; P. Van der Byl, 54,969 acres; W. Nosworthy, 49,805 acres; J. Van der Plank, 47,319 acres.

47 On Coqui see King, , ‘Career of Adolph Coqui’, pp. 54, 58, 71Google Scholar; and on Bergtheil, , Kemp, , ‘Jonas Bergtheil’, pp. 82, 87–9, 90–93, 97.Google Scholar

48 For early attempts to impose this kind of relationship see Natal Archives, C.S.O. 20 no. 53 Shepstone to Colonial Secretary, 17.2.1850; S.N.A. 1/3/2 no. 54 memo of Acting Crown Prosecutor 19.8.1853; ibid. no. 56 Mesham to Milner 1.8.1853; ibid. nos. 57 and 58 Milner to Mesham 30.7.1853 and 28.6.1853; ibid. no. 60 Maritz to Fynn n.d.; ibid. no. 61 Fynn to Shepstone 23.7.1853; ibid. no. 62 Zeederberg to Fynn 23.7.1853; S.N.A. 1/3/3 no. 11 Milner to Mesham 14.1.1854; S.N.A. 1/3/7 nos. 87, 91, 101; Natal Archives MSS. acc. no. 152 John Fleming ‘Journal’, entries for 7.8.1858, 9.10.1858, 26.11.1859, and John Fleming to his brother 2.8.1858; Natal Witness, 30.3.1855; Correspondence… re the £5,000 Reserved by the Charter For Native Purposes (Pietermaritzburg, 1859), 84Google Scholar. Two-thirds of the African population was said to be living outside the locations on Crown Land or settler farms in 1851; S.N.A. 584 p. 292 Shepstone to Col. Sec. 7.4.1851.

49 Natal Witness, 12.4.1850; Hattersley, , British Settlement, 89.Google Scholar

50 He was a director of at least one sugar estate in Natal; Osborn, R. F., Valiant Harvest: The Founding of the South African Sugar Industry 1848–1926 (Durban, 1964), 183Google Scholar; Leverton, , Natal Cotton Industry, 32Google Scholar. He was also a director of the Natal Central Railway Company which was linked to the Natal Land and Colonisation Company; Report of F. B. Elliot to the Chairman and Board of the Natal Central Railway Company (Pietermaritzburg, 1864), IGoogle Scholar. At some stage he came to own land in Natal, ; The Agricultural Journal VIII, 7 (28.7.1905), p. 321Google Scholar. For Pine's ‘native policy’ see Young, ‘Native Policy of Benjamin Pine…’. Even the Natal Witness thought it extreme; Natal Witness, 2.3.1855.

51 For an introduction to this subject see Leverton, , Natal Cotton Industry, 32–3Google Scholar; Correspondence re the £5,000 …, 3, 5, 6, 56–60, 71–4, 81–6, 90–3, 95, 100. Sir George Grey, Governor of the Cape, seems to have had a similar vision in mind; see his Address on the occasion of the opening of the Cape legislature in Natal Witness, 20.4.1855.

52 The struggle dates from the early years of the British presence in Natal. Prior to Harry Smith's appointment as Governor at the Cape in 1847, West not only did his best to frustrate the efforts of the speculators, but an official commission upheld the vision of Natal's African population as free peasant producers of export crops and consumers of imported manufactures; C.O. 179/5 Report of the Natal Location Commission 30.3.1847, enclosure in Smith to Grey 17.7.1849. In 1848 Harry Smith both overrode West's objections to a liberalization of the terms on which land could be held, and stopped the work of the locations commission which had been setting aside the land for Natal's African population which might have made cash crop production a viable prospect; Welsh, Roots of Segregation, 15.

53 S.N.A. Misc. 1/1/11 no. 302 Shepstone to magistrate for Weenen 18.10.1861. This is not to say, however, that magistrates, whose interests were often closely linked to those of the farmers in their area, always carried out these instructions to the letter.

54 Hattersley, , British Settlement, 241.Google Scholar

55 Brookes, and Webb, , History of Natal, 85.Google Scholar

56 See, for example, S.N.A. 1/1/15, 88/1865; S.N.A. 1/1/19, 40/1869; S.N.A. 1/1/16, 16 and 29/1866; S.N.A. 1/1/20, 79/1871. Natal's involvement in the installation of Cetshwayo as Zulu paramount was in part concerned with easing the passage of Tonga labourers through Zululand to Natal; Brit. Parl. Papers, 1875, C.1137 esp. pp. 3, 20. See also Natal Blue Book on Native Affairs, 1904 (Pietermaritzburg, 1905), iii, 113–4, 174; S.N.A. 640 and 709/1906.Google Scholar

57 Something like this system had operated under the Republic of Natalia; Agar-Hamilton, , Native Policy of Voortrekkers, 197Google Scholar. It was adopted by the British in 1848; Select Papers on the Supply of Labour by Chiefs (Pietermaritzburg, 1880)Google Scholar Acting S.N.A. to Bulwer 6.6.1877 enclosure in Bulwer to Carnarvon 10.10.1876. On rare occasions it was suspended or used more directly to the benefit of the farmers; Welsh, , Roots of Segregation, 123Google Scholar. For the exemption of those on private lands see Marks, Shula, Reluctant Rebellion: The 1906–8 Disturbances in Natal (Oxford, 1970), 125Google Scholar. It was not finally abandoned until 1911; ibid. p. 44 n.

58 Natal Witness, 1.4.1859.

59 Natal Witness, 22.7.1859.

60 Natal Archives MSS. acc. no. 209(a), Coqui to Watermeyer 5.1.1861.

61 London, Companies' House, 2066/1, Memorandum of Association of the Natal Land and Colonisation Company, registered 4.12.1860. A copy of this document is in Natal Archives, C.S.O. 137 no. 32/1861. It is conceivable that Thomson was connected to the Cape merchant firm which included a similar name. By 1861 Thomson was no longer a member of the board which had been strengthened by the addition of J. P. Brown-Westhead, an M.P., Manchester merchant and member of an absentee landowning family in Natal; William Miller, M.P.; and J. Gillespie of the Cape Town firm of James Barber and Co.; The Natal Land and Colonisation Company, The Colony of Natal, Compiled for the use of Emigrants from the Most Authentic Sources (London, 1861)Google Scholar, end papers. It seems to have been Company policy to use its directorships to maintain links with other metropolitan-based commercial interests, particularly those with imperial operations. The board in 1895, for example, was linked in this way to the South India Railway Company, the Van Diemans Land Company which operated in Australia, and the mighty Oceana Consolidated Company Ltd. whose land and mining interests were in the Transvaal, ; The Stock Exchange Year Book (London, 1890), 464Google Scholar; ibid. (1895), 808; Who Was Who 1916–1928 (London, n.d.), 586Google Scholar; Natal Archives, Harry Escombe Collection, section 25.

62 Memorandum of Association, op. cit.

63 Natal Parl. Papers, 238 no. 20, Private Bill incorporating the Natal Land and Colonisation Company in Natal.

64 Christopher, A. J., ‘Colonial land settlement’, Appendix II, p. 374Google Scholar. Kemp, ‘Jonas Bergtheil’, p. 120, gives a slightly lower figure.

65 Natal Land and Col. Co., The Colony of Natal, endpapers.

66 King, ‘Career of Adolph Coqui’, p. 70.

67 Ibid., pp. 69–72.

68 Coqui tried to dispose of some of his holdings as early as April 1862 but was persuaded by the Company to wait until June; ibid., p. 74.

69 The three leading Cape and Natal shareholders on 10.5.1862 were A. Coqui with 15,000 shares, P. G. Van der Byl with 2,850 shares and J. Bergtheil with 1,332 shares. There seem to have been ten other colonial shareholders at this time; London, Companies' House, 2066/1, list of shareholders on 10.5.1862. In the next few years only Van der Byl seems to have increased his interest in the Company. In 1866, 22,373 shares were registered in his name, presumably reflecting further land sales to the Company; ibid., list of shareholders on 31.7.1866. By 1870 less than 600 shares were held by Cape or Natal figures; ibid., list of shareholders on 16.8.1870.

70 Osborn, , Valiant Harvest, 62Google Scholar. The average price paid for upland was 7/6 an acre, and £2 an acre for coastland; Kemp, ‘Jonas Bergtheil’, p. 120.

71 Natal Archives, P. H. Zietsman Papers, Fraser to Zietsman 18.3.1889. By this date no property was registered in the Orange Free State under his name; ibid.

72 See share lists of the Company in London, Companies' House, 2066/1.

73 Natal Archives MSS. ace. no. 209(b) Coqui to Watermeyer 4.2.1861; Natal Land and Col. Co., The Colony of Natal, 60. The management committee in Natal in the early years of the Company comprised Behrens, Bergtheil, Kahts and Vause; Kemp, ‘Jonas Bergtheil’, p. 213. Behrens had been a minor land speculator since before the Cape annexation of Natal.

74 Natal Archives MSS. ace. no. 209(c), Memorandum of Agreement 31.12.1861.

75 Ibid. 209(d), J. T. Mackenzie and F. C. Drummond to Bergtheil and Behrens 4.8.1862.

76 Moodie, D. C. F. (ed.), John Dunn, Cetywayo and the Three Generals (Pietermaritzburg, 1886), 57.Google Scholar

77 P.R.O. B.T. 31 600/2508, the Natal Cotton Company registered in Dec. 1861; B.T. 31 735/215c, the Cotton Plantation Company registered in Jan. 1863; B.T. 31 973/1400c, the Natal Investment Company registered in 1864. A number of the interested parties had also been involved in the Natal Land and Colonisation Company scheme.

78 Natal Archives G.H. 69/213, Memorandum of the Directors of the Natal Land and Colonisation Company to Carnarvon, March 1876, in Carnarvon to Bulwer 26.4.1876; The Times, 19.5.1864; Natal Witness, 30.1.1866; Natal Cotton Industry, Leverton, 26–7.

79 Memo of the Directors, op. cit. Leverton, , Natal Cotton Industry, 27Google Scholar and Christopher, A. J., ‘Colonial Land Settlement’, p. 373Google Scholar give slightly later dates for the bankruptcy of the Natal Plantations Company.

80 The Natal Central Railway Company and the Natal Coal Company. For these schemes and their links to the parent Company see Memorandum of the Directors, op. cit., Report of F. B. Elliot, op. cit. preface and pp. I, 7; Report with Minutes and Evidence of Select Committee on the Bill Empowering the Natal Central Railway Co. to Construct a Railway Between the Port and Pietermaritzburg (Pietermaritzburg, 1864), 53, 58, 62, 66Google Scholar; Minutes and Evidence of the Select Committee on the Bill for Empowering the Natal Coal Co. to Purchase Lands, Mine, and Construct a Railway from Pietermaritzburg to the Klip River Coalfields (Pietermaritzburg, 1864), preface and pp. 4, 7.Google Scholar

81 Natal Archives G.H. 24 no. 213, Drummond to Carnarvon 30, 3, 1876; ibid. no. 243, Oliver to Carnarvon 14.6.1876 and enclosures; Natal Land and Col. Co., The Colony of Natal, 6–62.

82 For the railway scheme see Report of Select Committee on Projects For Railway Construction (Pietermaritsburg, 1871), 5, 10Google Scholar. For the immigration scheme see Natal Parl. Papers, 93, no. 3 Newcastle to Scott 7.3.1863.

83 Scott had opposed both; Report of Select Committee, op. cit. Natal Parl. Papers, 93, no. 3 Scott to Newcastle 1.12.1862.

84 Company letters to shareholders 17.12.1861 and 11.2.1862 in the possession of G. W. McDonald, Natal. See also The Times, 27.2.1862 and 26.4.1862.

85 Memorandum of the Directors, op. cit. Loans had been started for this purpose in 1864; Osborn, , Valiant Harvest, 67.Google Scholar

86 Spohr, O. H. (ed.), The Natal Diaries of W. H. I. Bleek 1855–56 (Cape Town, 1965), 36.Google Scholar

87 Hurwitz, N. for the University of Natal, Natal Regional Survey Vol. XII: Agriculture in Natal 1860–1950 (Cape Town, 1957), 10.Google Scholar

88 Natal Archives, Bird Papers Vol. III, ‘Reminiscences of William Leslie’, unpublished MSS. n.d.

89 Memorandum of the Directors, op. cit.

90 The Times 16.7.1866, 13.8.1867, 25.8.1868.

91 Memorandum of the Directors, op. cit.; The Times 25.8.1868.

92 Christopher, A. J., ‘Colonial Land Settlement’, p. 374Google Scholar. Other sources give slightly higher figures. Memorandum of the Directors, op. cit. gives 688,000 acres in 1876; The Times gave an approximate figure of 675,000 acres on 16.2.1871 and 668,910 on 13.5.1872. Christopher draws attention to the Company's rather opportunistic accounting procedures which might have led to the figures of the Company differing from those of the Land Registry; Christopher, , ‘Colonial Land Settlement’, p. 374Google Scholar n. For a specific example of foreclosure by the Company in this period see Osborn, , Valiant Harvest, 307.Google Scholar

93 The Times, 15.2.1867, 24.8.1869, 17.8.1870, 13.5.1872, 1.5.1873.

94 Report of the Natal Coffee Commission (Pietermaritzburg, 1881) 2, 4Google Scholar; Report on the Condition of Indian Immigrants (Pietermaritzburg, 1872), 29–30Google Scholar; The Times, 10.5.1871, 14.5.1877, 6.7.1874, 23.12.1880, 23.12.1881, 26.5.1883; Stock Exchange Year Book (London, 1880), 202Google Scholar; ibid. (1885), 402.

95 Christopher, A. J., ‘Colonial land settlement’, p. 378.Google Scholar

96 A subsidiary of the Company was the South African Gold Fields Exploration Company founded in London in 1868. Though it carried out successful explorations in Matabeleland, it seems to have lost the battle for the control of the northern gold fields to the London and Limpopo Mining Company; Memorandum of the Directors, op. cit.; Tabler, E. C., Pioneers of Rhodesia (Cape Town, 1966), 146–9Google Scholar. Another subsidiary, the Natal Prospecting Company, was formed in the late 1880s to carry out mineral explorations on the Company's Natal lands; Stock Exchange Year Book (London, 1890), 464.Google Scholar

97 The Times 6.7.1874, 15.6.1878;Braby's Natal Directory (1927), 566.

98 For a detailed analysis of the Company's land sales see Christopher, A. J., ‘Colonial land settlement’, pp. 373–82.Google Scholar

99 Morris, D. R., The Washing of the Spears: The Rise and Fall of the Zulu Nation (London, 1966), 315Google Scholar; De Kiewiet, C. W., The Imperial Factor in South Africa: A Study in Politics and Economics (Cass, 1965), 233.Google Scholar

100 The Times, 25.5.1877.

101 The Times, 23.12.1880.

102 Christopher, A. J., ‘Colonial land settlement’, pp. 376–7Google Scholar. The Company's holdings in Alexandra had increased between 1870 and 1880, but by 1890 had fallen back to approximately the 1870 level.

103 Memorandum of the Directors, op. cit.; Christopher, A. J., ‘Colonial land settlement’ pp. 374, 376Google Scholar; The Times, 18.5.1876, 25.5.1877, 23.12.1880.

104 SirRobinson, John, Notes on Natal: An Old Colonist's Book for New Settlers (Durban, 1872), xxv–vi.Google Scholar

105 London, Companies' House, 2066/8, Directors' Report to Shareholders of the Natal Land and Colonisation Company 22.5.1935; Lugg, H. C., Historic Natal and Zululand (Pietermaritzburg, 1949), 9Google Scholar; Lockhart, J. C. and Woodhouse, C. M., Rhodes (London, 1963), 49–53.Google Scholar

106 ‘Farming in the Richmond District’ in The Agricultural Journal III, 25 (15.2.1901), 777.Google Scholar

107 Report of the Natal Lands Commission, With Appendix and Digest, February 1902 (Pietermaritzburg, n.d.) p. 190 evidence of Boast.Google Scholar

108 McLeod, Ellen to Louisa, 31.1.1875Google Scholar in Gordon, (ed.), Dear Louisa, 188–9.Google Scholar

109 P.R.O. C.O. 179/116 Shepstone to Carnarvon 22.9.1874.

110 For examples of this kind of relationship in the 1860s see Natal Archives, S.N.A. I/3/II no. 99 Magistrate of Weenen to S.N.A. in reply to circular of 30.5.1862; S.N.A. I/3/13 no. 30 Return of Natives Living on Farms in the Tugela Division, Victoria, 22.8.1863. For the 18705 see S.N.A. 1/3/21 no. 499a Magistrate of Newcastle, Annual Report for 1870, 20.2.1871; S.N.A. 1/3/24 ibid. for 1872, 14.10.1873; Report on the Administration of the Putili Fund (Pietermaritzburg, 1877), 1–3Google Scholar; Natal Blue Book on Native Affairs 1879–1882 (Pietermaritzburg, 1884), 10, 42.Google Scholar

111 Report of the Commission into the Working of the Land and Immigration Board (Pietermaritzburg, 1885), 4.Google Scholar

112 Proceedings of the Natal Affairs Commission 1881–1882 (Pietermaritzburg, 1882), 77, evidence of Nicholson.Google Scholar

113 Natal Archives, Fannin Papers Vol. II, ‘Record of a Journey to Umhlali’, unpublished MSS. August 1868. On this occasion Fannin was assisting Townsend, the usual rent collector for the area. They refused payment in cattle in lieu of cash rents. It is possible that they were collecting on behalf of the Natal Land and Colonisation Company itself. I have not yet had a chance to check this point against the records of the Company held by the Natal Archives and by Mr G. W. McDonald.

114 Ibid.

115 The first clear reference I have found to rent tenancy relationships between Africans and the Company dates from 1876; memorandum of the Directors, op. cit. There seems little reason to doubt, however, that this kind of relationship had existed for some time.

116 Christopher, A. J., ‘Colonial land settlement’, p. 377, table 142.Google Scholar

117 Correspondence Relative to Eviction from Crown Lands (Pietermaritzburg, 1883), 18Google Scholar; Proceedings of the N.N.A.C. 1881–8, 351Google Scholar, evidence of James Ralfe.

118 Calculated from figures cited by Christopher, A. J., ‘Colonial land settlement’, p. 377, table 142.Google Scholar

119 It had been reduced to £39,000 at the start of the year, but rose again to £50,000 as some of the outstanding preference share dividends were paid off; The Times, 17.3.1892. See also ibid. 9.4.1897.

120 The Times, 17.8.1870, 7.5.1890, 17.3.1892.

121 The Times, 19.5.1884; The Stock Exchange Year Book (London, 1885), 402.Google Scholar

122 The Times, 17.3.1892, 2.4.1892; The Stock Exchange Year Book (London, 1905), 706Google Scholar. The 1903 dividend seems to have been the highest paid by the Company in its history. See entries for the Company in ibid., 1900, 1905, 1910 and 1920 editions.

123 The National Provincial Bank and Nathan Rothschild were two of these; London, Companies' House, 2066/2 list of shareholders on 5.6.1890; ibid. 2066/4 list of share holders on 13.5.1902. Unfortunately, only occasional returns of the Company's share holders are available in London.

124 The Times, 7.5.1891.

125 Natal Land Commission, 43, evidence of Rycroft; The Times, 22.4.1910.

126 Taxation was another. See esp., Axelson, C. E., ‘A History of Taxation in Natal Prior to Union’ M.Com. thesis, University of Natal–South Africa, 1934.Google Scholar

127 Proceedings of the N.N.A.C., 1881–2, 286, evidence of T. Shepstone.

128 For the sharp fall in the acreage controlled by the Company after 1900 see Christopher, A. J., ‘Colonial land settlement’, p. 375, fig. 57.Google Scholar

129 By 1898 the Klip River coalfields were already employing 2032 Africans and 975 Indians, most of the latter under indenture; Report of the Natal Coal Commission (Pietermaritzburg, 1898), 5.Google Scholar

130 The total railway mileage in Natal in 1880 was just under 100 miles. In 1909, it had reached 1,008, and in 1923, 1,462 miles; Campbell, E. D., The Birth and Development of the Natal Railways (Pietermaritzburg, 1951), 134, 140, 170.Google Scholar

131 See, for example, Natal Archives S.N.A. Confidential 1/4/10 C12/1902; Natal Blue Book on Native Affairs 1879–1882, 126Google Scholar; Natal Farmers' Magazine, 21.4.1897, p. 89.Google Scholar

132 For general attacks on the Company and others engaged in African renting operations see, for example, European Immigration to Natal: The Experiences of Practical Farmers (Pietermaritzburg, 1890), 5–9Google Scholar; Report of the Committee of the Land and Immigration Board on the Drafting of a Comprehensive Scheme of European Immigration (Pietermaritzburg, 1891), 6Google Scholar; Report of the Immigration and Crown Lands Commission (Pietermaritzburg, 1892), 7, 16Google Scholar; Natal Land Commission, 13, evidence of Samuelson, S. O.; Natal Farmers' Magazine I, I (14.1.1893), 7Google Scholar; The Agricultural Journal XI, 5 (29.5.1908), 584–94.Google Scholar

133 Report on Crown Lands and European Immigration by the Colonial Secretary (Pietermaritzburg, 1876), 4–7Google Scholar; The Times, 23.3.1876.

134 Some idea of the extent of operations of this kind can be gauged from the fact that in 1895, in the two districts of Impendhle and Klip River alone, there were 83 farms amounting to 260,000 acres which were occupied by African rent-paying tenants. Alexandra division had 65,000 acres occupied by 1651 rent-paying kraals, ; Natal Blue Book on Native Affairs 1895 (Pietermaritzburg, 1896), 43, 73, 125Google Scholar. The Brown-Westhead family, which had furnished the Company with one of its first directors, also had substantial private interests in African renting operations; Natal Land Commission, 33, evidence of Hyslop, 39, evidence of Laughton. See also Hattersley, , British Settlement, 87Google Scholar. Lands sold by the Company were still being occupied by Africans who now furnished their rents to new landlords; Natal Land Commission, 43, evidence of Rycroft. The instalments on the purchase price of Crown Lands were also found to be paid by colonists subletting to Africans; ibid., 91 evidence of Parkin, 183, evidence of Mathews. Rents at this time seem to have ranged between £1 and £7 with an average of about £2. 10s. per hut. The magistrates were regularly being called upon to enforce rent payment or to evict defaulters.

135 Natal Land Commission, 29, evidence of Hyslop. For reference to earlier attempts to introduce taxation of this kind see ibid, (Report) 12. As late as 1906 a majority could not be raised in the Natal legislature for an absentee tax bill; The Weekend Advertiser 20.4.1929. See also Marks, Reluctant Rebellion, 131 n. The threat of such taxation, however, does seem to have been one of the factors leading the Company to sell off its lands; Natal Land Commission, 34, evidence of Hathorn and Hyslop.

136 Natal Lands Commission, 86–7, evidence of Bazley, 99 evidence of Aiken. Indian smallholders were also buying land by this time; ibid., 218.

137 London, Companies' House, 2066/4 and /8; Christopher, A. J., ‘Colonial land settlement’, p. 377, table 142Google Scholar; The Times, 2.4.1892, 8.3.1893, 9.4.1897, 4.4.1901, 30.4.1902, 13.4.1903, 1.4.1904.

138 Christopher, A. J., ‘Colonial land settlement’Google Scholar, ibid.

139 S.N.A. 1/1/324, 2121/1905, interview of Samuelson, S. O. with messengers of the Chief Kambi 24.8.1905.Google Scholar

140 S.N.A. 1/1/321, 1428/1905, deposition of the Chief Ndunge 14.6.1905. Wattles had a twin value both as a source of tanning extract and, more especially, as a source of pitprops for the mining industry.

141 Natal Blue Book on Native Affairs 1905 (Pietermaritzburg, 1906), report of Alexandra magistrate, p. 13.Google Scholar

142 S.N.A. 1/1/318, 1293/1905, interview of Chief Sibanu with the Secretary for Native Affairs, 2.8.1905. For a specific case of eviction from lands which had belonged to the Natal Land and Colonisation Company see S.N.A. 1/1/406, 2177/1908.

143 Inkanyiso 24.9.1891, 16.7.1891; Natal Archives C.S.O. Confidential 2576 C13/1898 memo of Foxon 20.1.1898; S.N.A. 1270/1905 Governor to Prime Minister; S.N.A. 1/1/327, 2579/1905; Natal Blue Book on Native Affairs 1905, II, 30, 42, 71; S.N.A. 372/1906 Governor to Prime Minister and enclosures 22.2.1906; Report of the Natal Native Affairs Commission 1906–7 (Pietermaritzburg, 1907), 3, 31–2Google Scholar; S.N.A. 1/1/396 1051 and 1051/1908.

144 S.N.A. 1133/1906 Binns to Samuelson 10.4.1906; S.N.A. 2823/1906; S.N.A. 851/1907.

145 S.N.A. 1/1/327, 2579/1905; Natal Blue Book on Native Affairs 1904 (Pietermaritzburg, 1905), 13Google Scholar; ibid. (1905), 30. J. W. McKenzie was one of the main recruiters; S.N.A. 1/1/317 410/1905. In Nov. 1905 he had 2,250 Natal Africans contracted out to employers, most of them mineowners; S.N.A. 1/1/330, 3148/1905. See also S.N.A. 61/1906 and 1284/1907. In order to circumvent the Touts Act of 1901, which was supposed to prevent labour recruitment for employers outside Natal, McKenzie himself was technically regarded as the employer. The Act was repealed in 1908. In the period 1896–1905, there was never less than 16,500 Natal Africans leaving each year to work in the Transvaal; S.N.A. 1/1/325, 2212/1905. The operations of labour recruiters were crucial to the mineowners since those Africans travelling to the Transvaal on their own account tended to avoid labour in the mines; Natal Blue Book on Native Affairs 1904, iii.

146 S.N.A. Conf. 1/4/8, 80/1901; S.N.A. Conf. 1/4/12, 75/1903; S.N.A. 1/1/324, 1912/1905 private letter of Von Gerard, assistant magistrate at Umvoti, to S. O. Samuelson 21.7.1905; S.N.A. 78/1906 memo of civil actions against Chief Bambatha since 1901, 26.1.1906; S.N.A. 77/1906 Botha to S.N.A. 5.2.1906. For the distribution of the people of Chief Bambatha see Natal Blue Book on Native Affairs 1905, appendix 5. I do not know whether any of Bambatha's people were or had been tenants of the Company.

147 Natal Blue Book on Native Affairs 1905, op. cit. p. 152.

148 Marks, Reluctant Rebellion, 77–8, 122, 140.

149 S.N.A. 1406/1906.

150 Marks, , Reluctant Rebellion, 123–4Google Scholar. The obstacles at this stage worked mainly in respect of Crown Lands. For their effect in practice see S.N.A. 879/1907; S.N.A. 3541/1907; Ilanga Lase Natal 4, 5, 1906; ibid. 10.5.1907 translation in S.N.A. 1375/1907. By 1907 sufficient loopholes remained for the acreage purchased by Africans to have risen to 191,900 acres; S.N.A. 786/1907.

151 For the detailed history of the Rebellion see Marks, , Reluctant RebellionGoogle Scholar. Though there is perhaps a sense in which the Rebellion could be seen as the confirmation of Shepstone's prophesy, as Marks points out, the private lands issue was only one of a complex of factors involved. The districts of Nkandla and Mapamulo, for example, two of the main centres of the Rebellion, contained no private lands.

152 S.N.A. 3767/1907 Natal Land and Colonisation Company to S.N.A. 17.12.1907. The letter points out that the Company now had a lot of destitute women and children on its lands because the menfolk were either dead or imprisoned because of the Rebellion.

153 The Times, 16.4.1909, 2.10.1909, 22.4.1910.

154 Christopher, A. J., ‘Colonial land settlement’, p. 377, table 142.Google Scholar

155 The Times, 3.4.1912.

156 The Times, 12.4.1912.

157 Ibid.

158 The Times, 4.4.1913.

159 Statement of M. J. Apthorp, S.N.A. Cape Town 28.4.1915 in Ilanga Lase Natal 4.6.1915; Natal Archives C.N.C. 816/1913 VIII, 124, p. 4, S.N.A. reply to question at conference of Natal magistrates concerning the operation of the Land Act 21.10.1913.

160 Statement, op. cit.; Circular letter of S.N.A. Cape Town to magistrates and officers of the Native Affairs Department reproduced in Times of Natal, 31.12.1913 and Natal Witness, 3.1.1914.

161 Natal Archives C.N.C. 816/1913 VIII, Transcript of magistrates' confidence with the S.N.A. and C.N.C, to discuss the working of the Land Act, Durban, 27.10.1913, p. 17 statement of L. Moe, magistrate of Alfred division.

162 J. L. Dube's reply to the South African Society reproduced in Ilanga Lase Natal, 4.6.1915.

163 For the increase in labour tenancy relationships see Natal Regional Survey XII, pp. 28–9; Smith, 41; Report of the Native Farm Labour Committee 1937–39 cited in Roberts, M., Labour in the Farm Economy (Johannesburg, 1959), preface and p. iii.Google Scholar

164 Natal Archives MSS. acc. no. 280, Address by D. L. Smit, S.N.A., Delivered at Pietermaritzburg 3.9.1935.

165 Dube, , Ilanga Lase Natal, 4.6.1915Google Scholar. This is exactly what was taking place; C.N.C. 816/1913 VII, Transcript, op. cit., p. 5 statement of A. J. S. Maritz, magistrate of Lower Tugela; C.N.C. 816/1913 III and IV, various correspondence.

166 London, Companies' House, 2066/4 and /8.

167 Ibid. 2066/8, Report of the Chairman and Directors 1.5.1947. The Company's assets were valued at £582,295 in 1945; ibid., Report of the Chairman and Directors 28.3.1945.

168 Ibid. 2066/8. The Company's share dividend picked up to 7 per cent in 1947.

169 I am very grateful to Mr G. W. McDonald, a former general manager of the Natal Land and Colonisation Company, for this account of the Company's demise, and for other assistance rendered; private communication 8.1.1974. See also London, Companies' House, 2066/4 and /8.

170 The Eagle Star Insurance Company Ltd., Statement of Accounts for the Year Ending 31st December 1972 (London, 1973), 24 note 18Google Scholar. Eagle Star, through their South African bankers, Hill Samuel (S.A.) Ltd., have declined to furnish the author with any information concerning the current or recent operations of British African Properties Ltd.; private communication 30.5.1974.

171 As Francis Wilson points out, after the Land Act there was a tendency, encouraged by further legislation, for the labour period demanded under the labour tenancy system to increase. A further stage was reached after World War II when farmers came to insist on their regular workers becoming full-time wage labourers, denied access to other sources of employment for part of the year, and with little or no rights to the use of the employer's land; Oxford History, II (Oxford, 1971), 141, 155–6. Labour tenancy relationships were legally abolished in 1958; Natal Mercury 17.10.1972. Full-time labour is augmented at certain times of the year with migrant labour from the Bantustans and other parts of southern Africa, and from the labourers' families. See, for example, Natal Mercury, 2.12.1972; The Guardian, 12.3.1973 and 14.6.1973. A combination of restrictions on labour organization, strikes, and mobility help to maintain wages and conditions at a low level; Natal Mercury, 30.11.1972; Sunday Times (London), 25.3.1973; The Guardian 12.3.1973 and 28.3.1973.

172 Natal Witness 16.3.1914, letter of ‘Trypon-Blue’, Estcourt.