TEE AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



393 



A Chat with Mr. Wittie Nicholson, 



BIRD-PROOF MABELE : NATIVE DRUGS. 



By Ergates. 



TIIGHT miles on the road to Kokstad 

 Tj from Richmond lives Mr. Willie 

 Nicholson. He is one of the largest culti- 

 vators of the district, and although he dis- 

 claims any pretence whatever to be quoted 

 as an authority on farming, yet I felt sure, 

 from what his friends said of him, that I 

 should be able to find matter in an inter- 

 view that would be interesting and profit- 

 able. It is a matter of regret to me that 

 in reproducing our conversation I ^hall 

 not be able to convey any idea of the keen, 

 animated, and intei-ested manner in which 

 he answered my incessant strings of ques- 

 tions. 



Early Days. 



In 1871 Mr. Nicholson definitely settled 

 as a farmer on his farm Theddon. Pre- 

 viously he had been principally engaged 

 in supplying the Durban market and 

 sugar growers with meal and mealies, 

 taking return loads of transport to Maritz- 

 burg— a business most of the farmers were 

 engaged in between 1857 and 1870. 



" How we did have to work in those 

 early days ! Often as a joungster I started 

 from here at two in the morning with a 

 load of mealies for the mill, and was 

 back by breakfast time ready to begin a 

 day's ploughing. Yes, Kafirs had not 

 become drivers ^hen, and ploughing was 

 also white man's work. Then there was 

 also the difficulty of selling. The most 

 of us in this neighbourhood used to take 

 our produce to Durban, and there literally 

 hawk it about. Bacon was the most pro- 

 fitable stuflF, but it had to be sold piece by 

 piece from the wagon On one occasion 

 I had a most exasperating interview about 

 my bacon with a woman who kept a board- 

 ing house. This led, however, to the 

 selling of all that I had remaining to one 

 who is now an old friend and a well- 

 known Mooi Kiver farmer. Thereafter I 

 never had any difficulty in disposing 

 of all the bacon I might take down. 

 Cattle in the Fifties were cheap ; 

 a span of good oxen matched in 

 colour were worth £3 a head, and the 

 two after oxen £5 each, and the way in 



which those after oxen could hold back 

 was a sight ! I have seen carts, each con- 

 taining 13 muids of mealies, come down 

 the worst parts of the old Dutch road of 

 the Town Hill being held back solely by 

 the after oxen. Those were the days of 

 the reimschoen, and such a bother was 

 the operation of fixing and releasing it, 

 that the holding back was left to the oxen 

 unless the descent was closely approaching 

 the perpendicular. The advantages of 

 the present day wagon brake were by no 

 means quickly appreciated. I remember 

 meetings of transport-riders being called 

 at Durban to discuss the advisability of 

 adopting the new-fangled apparatus. The 

 releasing of the reimschoen from the 

 wheel was not an easy matter for the un- 

 initiated. I remember that when still a 

 mere boy — I was only 14 when I began 

 '^ransport riding in 1857 — I saw a big, 

 powerful old Yorkehireman tugging at his 

 chain with all his might, and unsuccess- 

 fully. I strolled up and, in a lofty and 

 superior way I am afraid, I told him the 

 job was an easy one if he only knew how 

 to do it. This nettled him, but he was so 

 hot and blown as to be willing to listen 

 to any advice. I took out my knife 

 deliberately, and cut some of the roadside 

 grass, putting it in front of the shoe. ' Pull 

 when the oxen move,' said I. He did 

 pull ; he pulled as before, and the shoe 

 flew up, and he, not expecting so little 

 resistance came into hard contact with the 

 wagon. I can almost see him now, satis- 

 fied in expression, yet writhing with pain, 

 as he said, ' Well, boy, thou hast learned 

 me a good trick.' " 



Before leaving the " old days," I must 

 refer to a couple of interesting documents 

 shown to me by Mr. Nicholson. The first 

 was a long letter, dated 31st January, 1 855, 

 from the late Sir W. Sergeaunt, then 

 Colonial Secretary, asking Mr. Nicholson's 

 father to raise, in the Richmond District, 

 men for a volunteer mounted corps. This 

 movement was the origin of the Natal 

 Carbineers. The second was a i-egimental 

 order of I860, calling out the Richmond 



