192 OSTRICH-FAEMING IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



conditions ceased to have any meaninor after the abolition 

 of slavery in 1834 : the other condition has never been 

 enforced, and has become obsolete. 



Up to the year 1860, the governor had the power of 

 granting lands under Perpetual Quitrent tenure to whom 

 he thought fit. Most of the land in British Kaffraria 

 and Queenstown, taken from the Kaffirs at the end of 

 the wars of 1846 and 1850, was granted to those who 

 had borne arms, with the further servitude on them of 

 personal occupation and liability to military service ; 

 but these last conditions were abolished by act of the 

 colonial parliament in 1868. 



In 1860 the first act was passed which took the 

 power out of the hands of the governor, and provided 

 that all Crown lands should be submitted to public 

 auction before they could be alienated. A quitrent, 

 equal to one per cent, of the supposed value was retained, 

 but the tenure was in most cases better than that of the 

 old quitrent farms : because the government was bound 

 to compensate the owner for all land it re-took from him 

 for roads, railways, or other public purposes ; whilst the 

 reservation of precious minerals and stones was seldom 

 inserted, and the quitrent was redeemable by the payment 

 of fifteen years' purchase. When the Crown land lay 

 contiguous to private property, the divisional councils 

 had the power of fixing the value, and title could be 



