CHAPTER XXVII. 



LAND LAWS. 



The tenure under which the land in the Cape Colony 

 has passed from the possession of the Crown into the 

 hands of private individuals, and the laws under which, 

 at the present time, private individuals can become pos- 

 sessed of Crown lands, and under what reservations, is 

 a matter of primary interest to everybody in the 

 country, but especially so to the farmer. We shaU now, 

 therefore, give a short sketch of the manner in which 

 the Crown became ])ossessed of the land, and then 

 dispossessed itself in favour of private individuals, 

 under certain reservations, together with the laws at 

 present in force for providmg for such transfer. 



In 1652 the first settlement in South Africa was 

 founded at Table Bay, on the present site of Cape 

 Town, by the Dutch East India Company, for vic- 

 tualling then' ships. As time went on they continued 

 to allow the Company's discharged servants and others 

 to occupy patches of land, upon the payment of a small 

 annual rental of £4 16s., called " Quitrent," and these 

 patches were known as " loan places." As the com- 



