Till-: i'K()(;ki:ss m riii-. xatai, stcak inhustrn'. 517 



dustry made very liltlc headwu}-. Initial mistakes and mis- 

 directed energy, thrt)ugh inexperience, were only what was to be 

 expected. It was at first thought that the cane would only grow 

 rin flat land, and when they l)etook themselves to alluvial flats, 

 chiefly on the ])anks of the rivers, frost would sometimes blight 

 the fields, and floods would wreck mills as well as crops, the 

 three F's, fire, flood and frost, caused much loss. One of the 

 pioneer Estates, that at Springfield, on the banks of the Umgeni, 

 a few miles from Durban, was almost totally destroyed by the 

 great flood of 1856. This river rose 28 feet, and not only sub- 

 merged the Springfield cane fields, but rushed through the factory 

 to a depth of nine feet, and among other havoc carried the heavy 

 battery of boiling pans clean oft' the masonry. An amusing in- 

 cident of this disaster occurred at the height of the flood, when 

 a large elephant was swept past the mill, trumpeting furiously. 

 On the same occasion another factory was similarly destroyed 

 on the banks of the Umhloti. The earlier mills were worked by 

 animal power (oxen) until about 1856, when the steam engine 

 was introduced, and, of course, rapidly superseded primitive 

 methods. Mr. Tom Milner, of Redcliffe Estate, was the first 

 to import steam-driven machinery, with a view to making his 

 factory a central one. In 1858 there were 12 steam su^ar mills 

 in Durban County, chiefly in Isipingo and Umgeni flats, and 1,490 

 acres under cane. In Victoria County there were only four or 

 five mills, Ijut a larger acreage under cultivation ; other planta- 

 tions and one or two mills had also started in less accessible 

 districts near the mouth of the Urakomaas and at Umzinto. In 

 the following years the labour (|uestion first came to the front, 

 thousands of capable natives existed in and around the Colony, 

 but could only be got to work by fits and starts, which simply 

 meant ruin to the industry, if it had to depend on native labour. 



In the general interests of the Colony, Government gave 

 its sanction for the importation of Indian labour," 'and Indians 

 were first introduced into Natal in i860, and up to 1866, 5,600. 

 including women, had been introduced ; in that year financial 

 rea-^-ons comijelled a stoppage of the supply, and it was not again 

 resumed until 1874. The labour question was not the only 

 serious one that the struggling ])lanter had to contend with in 

 the earlier years of the period under notice. The Colony, gener- 

 ally, then passed through a very severe financial crisis, brought 

 al30Ut by land speculation and bad seasons, and several suc- 

 cumbed, but the survivors gradually made progress as well as 

 improvement in their work 



In 1867 the industry was protected Ijy an inijiort dutw 



In 1870-71 a welcome impetus was given to the industry by 

 the y;reat discovery of diamonds in Gri(|ualand West, and the 

 determination of the growers at this time to improve their pro- 

 duct may be judged by the fact that whilst in 1870 only three 

 factories possessed a vacuum pan. the number was increased to 

 12 in 1873. 



