Il8 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS SECTION D. 



The native reserves of Natal were in number and extent 

 what they are now, and the native people lived on these reserves 

 and also on the farms of Europeans. But also, scattered through- 

 out the Colony at that time, were large areas of Crown lands, 

 unfenced and in a state of Nature, and the natives were at 

 lib'erty to squat wherever they pleased on these Crown lands, 

 paying no rent — wood, water, grazing, and tillage, all free. The 

 native reserves proper were not crowded, there was plenty of 

 virgin soil of fair quality, and in good seasons the crops raised 

 exceeded the food requirements of the people. In the Umlazi 

 Reserve, for instance, there were several stores kept by Etn-o- 

 peans, who traded annyally thousands of l^ags of mealies from 

 the natives. On the farms little fencing had been done : one could 

 ride straight across country to a distant ])eak without being 

 stopped by barbed wire or gates. The crops of the white farmer 

 Avere limited to small areas near the homestead, and his live- 

 stock was of the same class as that of his native tenants, and 

 often they grazed together. The native tenant was at liberty to 

 make his garden wherever he chose, and as one i)lot became 

 exhausted, could pick another from a huge unoccupied area. The 

 rents charged by the farmer were low, and could easily be met 

 by the tenants from the sale of some fowls or goats, or at most 

 an ox or two. The labotu- demanded by the farmer on the farm 

 was not excessive, and with the exception of herding was mostly 

 seasonal, and left the tenants much leisure and liberty. At this 

 time there was not a yard of railway running into the interior of 

 South-East Africa, but there was a very considerable trade 

 between Durban, Maritzburg. and the ( )verberg territories, and 

 most of the farmers were transport riders, this activity being the 

 principal source of income to many. The drivers and leaders 

 of the farmer-trans])()rt-rider were taken from his native tenan- 

 try, and as the wages for a capable driver were even then fairly 

 high, this was a source of considerable ])rofit to tlie native tenants. 

 The condition of the natives living on Crown lands was much 

 like that of those in the reserves. As stated before, they ]")aid 

 no rent, but were at liberty to live where they liked, and do much 

 as thev liked. l^"avelling o\-er the Crown lands or in the reserves, 

 one was struck b\ ihc neat ap])carance of the kraals. The huts 

 were well 1)uilt in the traditional Zulu st\'le, the thatcli closely 

 bound down, otten ha\ing well-niadc mats to screen the doorway, 

 the cattle Israal fence or wall was secure and tinbroken. and 

 everything about the pla^c ii(l\ and well kcj-jt. At every kraal 

 one expected to liiid. and actnalK' did Inul, hrrds of sleek fat 

 cattle, free from ticks or disease, and milk and amasi were in 

 abundance. The gai'dcns then, as now. were cultivated in 

 sloven)}- fashion, the use of the plough was beginning to be 

 understood, btu most of the land was still hoed by the women, 

 luid seasons hap])ened as the}' do now. but new and virgin fields 

 }-ielded better cro])s tinder untoward conditions than the ex- 

 hausted fields of the present, and shortage in grain could always 



