Natalia 15 (1985) Complete

THE NATAL SOCIETY OFFICE BEARERS, 1984-1985
President Cr Miss P.A. Reid

Vice-Presidents Dr J. Clark
M.J.e. Daly
H. Lundie
S.N. Raberts
Prof. e. de B. Webb
Trustees M.l.e. Daly

Cr Miss P.A. Reid
S.N. Raberts
Treasurers Messrs Dix. Bayes & Co.

Auditors Messrs Tharnton-Dibb, Van der Leeuw
& Partners
Chief Librarian Mrs S.S. Wallis
Secretary P.e.G. McKenzie
COUNCIL
Elected Members Cr Miss P.A. Reid (Chairman)
S. N. Raberts (Vice-Chairman)
Dr F.e. Friedlander
R.Owen
W.G. Andersan
A.D.S. Rose
R.S. Steyn
M.l.e. Daly
Prof. A.M. Barrett
T.B. Frost
Associate Members F.J.H. Martin. MEC
City Council Representatives Cr N.M. Fuller

Cr W.l.A. Gilsan
Cr R.F. Haswell
EDITORIAL COMMITTEE OF NA TALIA
Editor T.B. Frost

W.H. Bizley
M.H. Camrie
l.M. De:me
Prof. W.R. Guest
Ms M.P. Maberly
Mrs S.P.M. Spencer
Miss l. Farrer (Hon. Sec.)
Natalia 15 (1985) Copyright © Natal Society Foundation 2010

Cover Picture
The tower of the Mariaman Temple,
Pietermaritzburg.
(Photograph: R.F. Haswell)
SA ISSN 0085 3674
Printed by Kendall & Strachan (pty) Ltd., Pietermaritzburg

Contents
EDITORIAL 5
ORIGINAL DOCUMENT
Letter from S. John 7
ORAL HISTORY
Interview with Mr Sam Chetty
Moray Comrie . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
PHOTOGRAPHIC ESSAY
125 Years The Arrival of Natal's Indians in Pictures
Joy B. Brain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
ARTICLE
Reducing the Indian Population to a 'Manageable
Compass': A Study of the South African Assisted
Emigration Scheme of 1927
Uma Shashikant Mesthrie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
ARTICLE
Indian Townscape Features in Pietermaritzburg
Robert F. Haswell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
ARTICLE
Health and Disease in White Settlers in Colonial Natal
Joy B. Brain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
ARTICLE
Brother Nivard Streicher Architect of Mariannhill
1884-1922
Robert Brusse 79
ARTICLE
Architects versus Catholics: The Emmanuel Cathedral
Controversy
Peter Spi/ler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
ARTICLE
A Brief History of the Farm Bosch Hoek
Maryna Fraser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
OBITUARIES
Mark Fiennes Prestwich 100
George Selwyn Moberly 102
NOTES AND QUERIES
Morav Comrie 106
BOOK REVIEWS AND NOTICES . 119
SELECT LIST OF RECENT NATAL PUBLICATIONS 128
REGISTER OF RESEARCH ON NATAL 129
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS 132
5
Editorial
The Index of the previous ten volumes published in Natalia 11 revealed that
a theme conspicuous by its absence was the history of the Indian community
and its contribution to the tapestry of Natal life.
1985 marks the one hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary of the arrival of
the first indentured Indian labourers and thus provides a most suitable
occasion to make good a regrettable deficiency in the scope of material
published in Natalia. Accordingly we reproduce a letter by a literate
indentured Indian supplied by Professor Surendra Bhana of the University
of Durban-Westville, to whom we are also indebted for its editorial
introductory note. Accompanying it is our first venture into oral history, the
reminiscences of Mr Sam Chetty of Pietermaritzburg, recorded and edited
by Mr Moray Comrie of the Natalia Editorial Committee.
Not inappropriately, it is other members of the staff of the Department of
History of the University of Durban-Westville whom we have to thank for
further contributions on the theme of Indians in Natal: Dr Joy Brain for an
unusual photographic essay on Indian immigration to and settlement in
Natal (and we acknowledge the assistance of her husband, Dr Peter Brain,
in the reproduction of the photographs), and Ms Uma Mesthrie for a
substantial article on the South African assisted emigration scheme of 1927.
Dr Rajend Mesthrie reports on his study of the evolution of distinct South
African varieties of the Indian languages while Mr Robert Haswell of the
University of Natal completes this part of Natalia 15 with a piece on the
Indian contribution to the Pietermaritzburg townscape.
1985 was ~lso the one hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary of the
inauguration of the railway age in South Africa with the running of the first
train from Durban to the Point, an event commemorated by the Railway
Society of Southern Africa with an appropriate (if not precisely accurate)
historical re-enactment by a special train with guests in a variety of
nineteenth century costumes, hauled by the second oldest steam engine in
the land. Mr Bruno Martin, also of the University of Natal, and a railway
enthusiast, has contributed a substantial Note on these events.
Three years ago Natalia recorded the centenary of the establishment of
the Mariannhill monastery. We are now pleased to be able to carry an
illustrated article on the work of its architect, Brother Nivard Streicher, both
at Mariannhill and at various daughter houses. For this our thanks go to the
well known Durban architect, Mr Robert Brusse, himself responsible for the
recent splendid restoration of St Joseph's cathedral church at Mariannhill.
For the rest, we are glad to be able to publish another offering by one of
our most indefatigable contributors, Dr Peter Spiller of the School of Law at
the University of Natal, Durban, this time on the controversy that erupted
between the architects and their clients, the Catholic Church, over the
6
construction of Durban's Emmanuel Cathedral. The adjective

'indefatigable' is also an appropriate one to apply to Dr Joy Brain who has
supplied us with an interesting article in an unusual field - health and
disease in colonial Natal.
Travellers on the national road through the Natal midlands pass through
the farm Bosch Hoek. We are grateful to Mrs Maryna Fraser, archivist of
the Barlow Rand group, for tracing its history for us.
In our Book Review section we publish a short article by Professor
Michael Chapman, co-editor of the facsimile reprint of Voorslag 1 - 3, on
Roy Campbell and his role in the production of that iconoclastic journal.
To all our contributors, to the writers of obituaries, and to the members
of the Editorial Committee who have attended many meetings, made many
enquiries in search of material and done much proof-reading, my grateful
thanks. Without so much talent and goodwill, freely given, there could be
no Natalia. May the pleasure and profit of our readers be their reward.
T.B. FROST
7
"Make haste my Lord
You cannot help
me after my death"
Editorial Note
S. John was a Christian indentured Indian. He did hawking for his employer. although it is
not clear whether he was originally hired for that purpo,e. or whether the Tuckers were his first
employers. There must have been others who were hired as hawkers. but this class of
employment among the indentured was infrequent. John is not typical of the indentured
individuals in that he was able to read and write English. His letter, then, is one of a very few
that provides fir;;t hand the indentured perspective. and is therefore historically valuable. The
complaints agilinst his employer sound reasonable enough. although some of his charges suggest
to me a paranoic mind. The picture he creates makes good social history; and the researcher
studying the development of the English language among Indians may find the mannerisms of
interest.
Despite claiming to have 'no time to write letters', John appears to have been gifted with the
pen. The Deputy Protector. who investigated John's complaints, found some of them to be
valid, but was generally unsympathetic. He was inclined to believe that if John 'were to write
less and try and satisfv his employer by endeavouring to do his duty. matters would go more
smoothly'.
Of the individuals named in John's letter C.W. Tomkins was caterer for the Railway
Refreshment Rooms. He built the Inchanga Hotel where he had a large bakery and mineral
water factory and from where he despatched daily consignments to the various buffets and
dining rooms. A. Fricker was in charge of the Refreshment Rooms at Estcourt. Mr Tucker,
however. is less easy to identify: the 1904 Natal Almanac lists an Ed Tucker as running an
eating house in Durban, though whether he was the onc of whom John complained is
uncertain.
John's letter of 13 JulY. 1904 is addressed to the Protector of Indian Immigrants. It has been
brokcn into paragraphs and some punctuation supplied. but otherwise no changes have been
made.
Source: II11112S, 1613/1904, Natal Archives.
SURENDRA BHANA
May it please your Exellency my Lord. Hoping the trouble will be excused, I
with due respect and humble submission beg to submit these few lines to
your generous and kind considerations.
Oh my Lord, I pray your majesty to sympathize with my pitiful
conditions. How long I suffer disconsolation and affliction. Make haste my
Lord to help me in my distress. You cannot help me after my death my
Lord. Your majesty say that I give trouble to my employers. Don't think so
my Lord. I did not give any trouble to my masters and I will not give any
trouble to them. I am a christian. I know it is a great sin to tell lies or to be
humbug. In order to cover their curious heart they say that I am humbug
and liar. Did your majesty ask them what trouble I gave to them? I did not
give any trouble to them my Lord.
8 "Make haste my Lord . .. "
Mr C.W. Tomkins once promised to Mr Fricker manager of Estcourt and

said, 'If anyone put John into prison I will give 8 pounds to him.' Mr Fricker
himself said to me, all the waiters know this. My employers try their best to
kill me in any way they could, but they looks good to others. Most honoured
my Lord I humbly pray your majesty to see to my fruitful conditions.
On the 13th June 1904 Mr Tucker filled a large tray with sweetmeats,
fruits, books and paper and gave order to me to walk along the platform
when train comes to sell them, and compelled me to sell them from 7 a.m.
to 11 p.m. I did not refuse it. I sold them for two days. On the 15th June I
was sick by that hard working. Thinking it is best to show myself to the
magistrate of the City Police I without a pass went to the Interpreter of City
Police and reported about my sickness and requested him to tell to send me
to hospital. But he said to me to go to your manager and ask him to send
you to hospital.
When I returned from the Court, Mr Tucker met me near the Court and
charged me to a police man for not having a pass from him. But Interpreter
declined to take me in charge and gave order to send me to hospital. My
manager left me behind and returned from the Court, and then I went to a
Doctor named Mr Wood and requested him to examine me. I returned from
the Doctor's house with a prescription note and showed it to my manager,
and requested him to send me to hospital. No, no. I shall take you to
hospital for examination. Come and follow me, he said and took me to the
Co~pounder of N.G.R. Hospital and said to him, examine this humbug
feller who put his face downward so that I take him for jail. Compounder
said, 'No I cannot,' send him to the medical officer. And then my manager
Mr Tucker took a knife from the hand of the Compounder, which he had for
his work on that time, and came to me to stab with it, crying, take away this
wretched feller, and said, Why you did not die. I answered and said, Sir, the
Lord God keeps me in life to protect my poor children who still expecting
my hand.
While I saying these words Mr Tucker was whispering something with the
Compounder which I did not understand but the Compounder interrupted
and said, no, no 'he is a poor man having children.' I hope Mr
Compounder will not deny these what I say here. Mr Compounder sent me
to the medical officer's house. While my manager was still speaking with the
Compounder, I was examined by the doctor and was sent to hospital where I
was 8 days on 22nd June.
I was discharged from hospital with a weak state. When I was in hospital I
tried very much to speak, and tell about my sickness to the Doctor but I had
no chance to speak with the Doctor because he was busy. Otherwise I
should have told him about my sickness. When I returned from hospital I
carried a uncovered letter in which Mr Compounder stated that I was fit for
work to my manager. I am sure of it that there was a speach between my
manager and Compounder. Otherwise he will not certify me that I am fit for
work.
Most Honoured my Lord, I swear it that I felt very weak on the day of my
dischargement, on the very day Mrs Tucker ordered me take fruits tray to
sell. I am under this hard work suffering very much difficulty. Oh my Lord,
I swear it by the greatest name in the universe that I feel still weakness. My
muscles are not strong enough to walk properly. My feet, ankles and hip are
"Make haste my Lord.. " 9
very much pammg because of my infirmity. Those who go by the train

sympathize with my pitiful and miserable state when I walk along the
platform with that fruit tray. Did not I say that there is something about my
life, my Lord. I dare to make an oath that Mr C.W. Tomkins sent me to
Pietermaritzburg for the purpose of assassinate me. There is no doubt of it.
From 7 a.m. to 8.30 p.m. I must do my work. Mrs Tucker treat as a slave.
She says that I am humbug and in order to hide her evil design she speaks
with her feigned lips good. She says your Protector you say is in my hand
and he will not refuse to my words. I hope he will not hear you. Oh my
Lord, I pray your majesty. Where can I go if your majesty so will pleased us
to be ill-treated. Oh my Lord incline your ears and hear my voice of crying,
no one is put but you to protect the destitute indentured men. Even a mule
gets some rest off his work, but on my part I could not find any rest while
other servants enjoy their rest. I was compelled to wait in the kitchen. I
have no time to write letters. This application was written . . . [words
missing?] to work here, not to be humbug.
I have finished 21!2 years. During these time no managers say that I don't
know how to cut bread and butter. Mrs Tucker finding that there is no other
way to treat me badly she ventured to say that I don't know how to cut
bread and butter. Oh my Lord let it be pleased your majesty that I did not
agree to come here to sell fruits, and I did not agree to work whole day. But
I must do my work whole day or whole night when busy in order to make
my Superior satisfied. Did not I work in the time of war. Night and day we
work. I did not mind my rest, but it is unsufferable when the order
proceeding out of their envious and cruel heart for the purpose of fulfil their
revengeful thought.
In conclusion I most humbly pray your majesty to call me to Durban,
before I transferred to Zululand because my manager said that he would
transfer me to Zululand, and examine my strength and sickness and be
gracious to cure me of my illness and make me fit for work. Because though
I looks a strong and lleshy man I swear it that I am too feeblc and weak. All
my joints are very painful. I pray your majesty don't forsake me, help me.
For which act of kindness I shall praise your name. I remember you in my
prayer and I shall duty bound to pray your honor, welfare and prosperity.
I beg to remain
Most excellency my Lord
I am your obedient servant
S. John No. 90785.
10
Interview with Mr Sam Chetty
This interview was conducted at the offices of the Natal Society, Pietermaritzburg, on Tuesday
16 July 1985. Comments which did not bear directly on the main themes of the discussion
have been excised from the transcript, as have such minor hesitations and repetitions typical of
colloquial usage that do not affect the sense of Mr Chetty's remarks, but in all other respects
this is a verbatim transcription.
We had a laundry situated at West Street, 191 West Street, which was
opened by my grandfather. This must be some time just before the first
World War - that would be 1910, 12: I couldn't remember dates. This was
managed by him and helped by my father. I was born in '24, so I only
remember things say from '30 onwards.
I can remember faintly we used to do washing for the Wykeham School.
And we used to do all the washing for the mounted police out at Alexandra
Road, for the warders at the prison, and all the people at the top end of
town. At that stage there were a lot of lawyers and judges and all living in
Pine Street and West Street. This was our territory, we used to do all the
washing and ironing.
I mean those days, you know, one had to do starching, and we had all
these four or five ironing rooms. Nothing electrical, it was all coal stoves,
these flat-irons, and washing soda; none of these things you get these days,
modern equipment.
There were another two laundries, I think. One of them was even before
us. I think it was before the start of the century, 1890-something, which was
known as Verasammy's laundry in Pietermaritz Street. I think that was the
oldest laundry in town. And then there was Samuel's laundry. That was just
below the station. These were the three laundries at the top end of town that
did all the washing and all.
You know, in a laundry those days, things used to be dried out in the sun,
and we had all these lines surrounding the yard. This is what I can
remember. And our place used to be a meeting place for most of the
Indians, because we had a big yard, and people used to come shopping in
town from the outlying districts and would ... Animals, horses and things
would be fed there, hay and other things. When they did their shopping
there was a very big trader known as Amod Bayat. That's just below the
station in Church Street, one of the oldest traders in Maritzburg, and that
used to be the main shop for Indian groceries and Indian condiments.
People living far out, like Ashburton and Sweetwaters, towards Edendale,
used to come into town. If they came by train it wasn't far from the station,
and they would come and rest at our place, or leave things there, and put up
for the night and the next day go back home.
So you lived on the premises?
We lived on the premises.
Interview with Mr Sam Chetly 11
Are the buildings still surviving?

No. It was demolished in about ... We had stopped this laundry operation
in '34. There was a new building that was put up there. We had leased these
premises.
There was quite a good Indian community at the top end of town - we
just called it the top end of town - towards the Pine Street area. There
were quite a few shopkeepers, and there were tobacconists. A very old
resident of Maritzburg had his tobacconist's there, Mr S.R. Naidoo. And
the other Chettys, Dr Chetty's family, used to live at the top end, and - .
That's about all I could ...
Now you mentioned that there were a lot of lawyers and other professional
people living in much the same area .
Much the same, yes.
It was a "good" area to live?
I think it was an elite area.
An elite area?
An elite area, because I think the Government House was where the present
teachers' training college is, and then Macrorie House and all these places. I
think that was the elite area.
And an obvious question: was thne any friction between people of colour?
No. Nothing at all. Opposite us used to be Mr Salter that used to own
racehorses, and we were great friends, and his children. You know, we used
to go across there, and we used to pinch some of the carrots that he used to
feed his horses with. As children, you see. And all our neighbours were
Europeans. We used to go ... my sisters and others used to go and help at
the Sanatorium that was just in Loop Street, and ... all very friendly. In
fact our next door neighbour (I've forgotten the name now) was a European
that my sister used to always go and help, and do a bit of baby-watching.
As I said, most of our friends, even, that go down to the Umsindusi,
which was just down the road, were all Europeans, children that used to
play together. Wc used to go down to the river there, and spend ... WelL
you know, pinch plums and other things that used to grow around the river
banks, and come up ...
Where did you go to school then?
Well, there was a school not far from us that used to be called the ... Islam
... It used to be a school that was opened by the Muslim madressa that was
known as the Mohammedan school. That was not far from us.
Of course, wc had the bakery opposite us, and we had Dr Ovendale
opposite us. From that time he was a doctor, right 'til about the 'fifties,
almost the 'sixties. Even close to the 'seventies he was still ... and I think
he retired after that.
And, you know, those days, not far from our place used to ... Well, we
were very well situated. We had all the facilities. We used to go down to the
Cream-. We used to go down to the milk shop. You know, you didn't get
milk in tea rooms as you get these days. You go up with your jug, and they
pour a pint out of the big container, and you buy your butter and things like
that. And we had a city meat market that is still there, still in that position,
12 Interview with Mr Sam Chetty
and we had this fish shop, that used to be next door to Arnold's chemist, but
that's since ... not there any more.
And you said that the business was started by your grandfather. Had he come
from India himself!
He had come from India as an immigrant, and I think he worked for some
time in Durban. We're a bit vague about that. Then he ... I think he was
contracted to the railways.
Before you go on: was he a free immigrant or indentured?
An indentured immigrant. He came as a labourer. He had to do his time,
and then, I think, he was given a job on the railways. He tells us that he
helped on the railways up to Mooi River. And finally I think ... I am not
too sure what he was doing on the railways, but then he became a
gatewatcher at Mooi River, a sort of a foreman of the gates. My father was
born in Mooi River, then from there he settled in Maritzburg.
He bought himself a farm out at Edendale, which is still in our possession,
but of course now it's going to be expropriated by the Department of Co
operation and Development. This is the ... the latest thing happening.
While my grandfather had this laundry, my father used to operate a taxi
business and started a small bus service. He was one of the first taxi
operators, and he had this transport knowledge with him. And in the 'fifties,
or '58, we started, which the help of my father, a bus service which grew to a
very large company. And, ah . . . Unfortunately there was another
expropriation there. We seem to have had [chuckle] a string of
expropriations. And this bus service was finally taken over by the city
council and the KwaZulu transport. This matter had to go to arbitration,
and we were not very happy about it: you know, the sort of a settlement, the
legal costs, and all these things involved in it.
The whole family ran this business, from this laundry business into this
bus business. We are seven brothers and six sisters, so a very large family,
yet my grandfather had just one son.
Sorry, to go back to him again: did he marry out here, or did he bring a wife?
He brought a wife, from India. He had one son and the one son had thirteen
children. A large family.
Why was your bus service expropriated? You say by KwaZulu and the
council together. Was there a clash of interests?
Well. Well. We used to co-operate quite well with the city council. We knew
most of the city operators. Our service grew to a very big service.
When you say 'very big'.
We had about fifty-odd buses, fifty or sixty. You know, for a private
enterprise that was quite a large fleet. I was a sort of a mechanic. We had
my sister that used to be a cashier, and my brother that used to do the
finance in town, the board work. In fact, I think, six of the brothers were
involved in this bus thing.
What happened is that we had a sort of clash of interest with KwaZulu
that ... What they call B. I. C. came in and they operated a bus service, not
in direct competition but sort of around about to ... we used to meet there.
They used to be always wanting to say this is an African area and they are
Interview with Mr Sam Chetty 13
preparing this for Africans. It used to come to the local board. Of course
one used to argue the matter, and we were successful every time.
And then came Group Areas and we thought, you know, sooner or later
we'd have to leave this, and we applied for a bus service in the Indian area,
thinking that ... Not that we wanted ... This was not our doing that we
wanted to be in the area there; we were quite happy with the African
service.
In fact all our neighbours . . . From European neighbours here we had
African neighbours, and we had a very good relationship with the African
community out at Edendale. We lived on the premises, and all the drivers,
predominantly African drivers and mechanics, were trained there and we
had a very good relationship. We brothers started the business in '58 and we
went up to '78: twenty years in this business.
And then there was a new law passed in parliament in 1978, which we
weren't aware of, which had given the minister the right to have an enquiry
when he deemed fit. And like a bolt from the blue came this commission of
enquiry into transport in the Maritzburg area.
We had our legal representatives. We wanted to know what is wrong with
the present transport, what is wrong with our transport? Before that, if
anything was wrong, they had given you allegations. You know, you were
overloading, or you didn't keep to your timetable, or your service was not
up, the commuters were complaining. We wanted to know what's wrong.
And they just said, 'Look, we've just got a directive from the minister that
we must look into transport. The status quo might remain, and . . .'.
So we said, 'Well, we've got nothing to go by'. At the hearing the
chairman just said, 'Look, this is something the minister asked us to look
into; we might just leave this matter as it is. You say your piece. Each one
r.lUst say their piece'. But we said, you know, 'Wh- ... '.
Then they went around on inspection in loco. They came and had a look
at our depot, and looked at all the workshops and whatever we had. At the
same time we even mentioned that trying to compare the city council's
workshop and our workshop, which was a private enterprise, wouldn't be
fair, so the judgement wouldn't be fair. One thing that we impressed upon
them and said, 'Look, come and look at our routes, the area that we are
running'. This was not of our own choosing. We had bought off African
operators, single operators, that had gone out to the spare routes and then
found themselves in great financial difficulties. They couldn't pay for these
buses, and their things were being repossessed. We would, if we could,
take them over so they don't lose everything, they don't lose the bus and
their certificate. So in most cases - must have been five or six operators
we had taken them over and made some financial arrangement so they don't
lose the lot. So we almost had the monopoly.
I must just come back to before we got this monopoly. There were
another two Indian operators. Then the city council themselves weren't keen
on running the service. I think they were looking for a buyer, and I think
they had a buyer, an overseas company that was known as United
Transport. They came down to Maritzburg, and they visited us also, and
they said they were interested in this matter, but they weren't keen on
buying the city council's bus service if we were still in competition with
them. Their one condition was that they would take over the city council if
Mr Chetty and the other operators are willing to sell.
We had words with Mr Schumann, I think he was the transport manager,

and other officials, and we said, 'Look, we're quite willing. We think our
days are numbered in the sense that it's becoming an African area where
they talk about KwaZulu. It means that a new company is to take over, and
we'd be quite willing to talk price'. So then there was this question that they
would talk to the city council first, being the biggest operator, then come
back to us. They made the necessary arrangements with the city council, and
asked if we would, with the other operators, meet them in Johannesburg,
which we did.
We went to a boardroom in Johannesburg and had a chat and spoke about
price, and ... during that ... That was in '76, and I just have this feeling
that they dropped this whole matter because of the '76 riots. There were the
Soweto riots that took place while we were still discussing this. There was
this burning of buses. Of course, we still couldn't get the proper reason for
their dropping this, but we just have a slight suspicion that it would have
been these riots.
Then after this came this commission of enquiry. But the irony of the
whole thing is that the city council now wants to be rid of its bus business.
They're running at a loss.
But I was telling you about the routes that we ran, but the commission
didn't want to go - they said they knew about it. We said we'd like to drive
along some of the routes where we are operating, and we've made quite a
few complaints to KwaZulu roads department about fixing these roads and
nothing has been done. For years we used to have to mend the
. . . We used to have a pick and a shovel and a barrel to fill up these
potholes and ruts and things like that.
But in any case, we had a very good relationship with the people. We
were in the route. If there were any complaints, people used to come to the
yard. Immediately we'd take hold of the matter. We didn't have an incident
of stone-throwing, or burning of buses in our time. It was easy to get hold of
us. People did come and complain to us. We usually just checked on this. If
it was the driver that was at fault, we just said, 'Look, please, we want none
of these things to happen'. Or we would go into the matter and sort it out.
Of course, at the same time, we weren't the best of operators, in the sense
that we also had financial difficulties. Each time we bought an operator off it
meant outlaying money, and we had bought new buses. One sad part was
that this was a sudden thing that was just snatched away.
We had senior counsel in Durban, and the city council had. KwaZulu
weren't prepared to nego-. Well, I wouldn't say not prepared to negotiate,
but there was great difficulty. This matter took three years, and finally we
had to settle out of arbitration. Our creditors were only prepared to accept
forty cents in the rand; more or less forty cents in the rand. We paid about
forty cents. But the people we had dealt with like Western Bank and
Combined Motor Finance understood the position, that this wasn't of our
own making. That this was something that just came about, and ...
And it seems that they could provide no specific reasons why you should not
run the service?
No specific reasons. If they had given a reason one could bring evidence to
try to fight this allegation or whatever it was. The old Transportation Act
I don't know if it was in 1952 or something - used to give the chairman of

the board . . . He could give you notice and give you thirty days or sixty
days in which to show cause why your certificate should not be cancelled.
Here there was no question of cancelling certificates. There's just that the
minister feels that they should look into transport in the Maritzburg area.
And we wanted to know what's wrong or who complained so we could get
into the matter. We'd know what was happening. Before that, one would
give an operator a warning that your certificate will be cancelled, and these
are your offences, or these are the allegations. There might be a good
reason why you didn't run a service. You know, there could be a bridge
washed away. I mean we, once or twice, didn't run certain services. The
bridge had washed away, so we couldn't do anything. You either had to go
through the river with great danger or just had to terminate your services.
But now, since we've lost our bus business, my brother has got a sort of a
restaurant at the lower end of town, a sort of a take-away, and I've ... It's
just fortunate for me that I could, at this age, I could fit in there.
Most of the people that used to travel by our buses still come and support
us, and this great relationship still exists with us. Some of them, we still call
by their first names. People still come to the shop that used to be our bus
commuters, and each time they want to know when are we coming back into
the bus business, why did we sell? Lots of them don't understand that it
wasn't a willing seller. It was just something that was just ... taken away.
Going back then. The transition from the laundry to the bus service was just a
development by the children, and you didn't close the laundry business for
any reason?
No. The laundry business, I think ... Here I'm a bit ... I wouldn't know
the reasons, but I think the lease had expired or the people wanted to ... It
used to belong to some Froombergs that had a bottle store round the corner.
They owned the premises, and I think this laundry was a very old building,
and I think they wanted to demolish it and put up a block of flats. That is
what is there now.
And Group Areas. Did that affect you residentially?

At West Street? No.
Or at any stage. Not at West Street because you had moved from there.
We had moved before Group Areas came in. It didn't affect us. Except at
Edendale it didn't affect us. But what happened at Edendale is the schools
were moved out. You know, they had a different way of getting people to
move. And then there was the threat that it was going to go KwaZulu, and
lots of people, I think the whole community at ... There was a very large
community at Edendale, Indian community. We had a soccer club, we had a
cricket club, and we used to have annual five-a-sides quite a large number
of Indians that used to be farmers predominantly. A few storekeepers,
mostly farmers.
Well, we even did farming while we were doing this bus operation. We
had about, say, thirteen acres of land, and we used to grow nearly any
vegetable that one could think about or come across. We had an orchard of
about an acre, and we used to grow almost any fruit. We had a very nice
soil, nice climate out at Edendale, and most of the farmers used to bring
things to the local market.
Now when we got to Edendale we had built a home, and we were living at
this, built for my grandfather. This was in about 1935, and there was a new
national road that was being planned for Edendale. This went right through
our home. We lost all the orchard, and we had to move again from there
and build another house lower down the road. So we haci quite a few
movements in our [chuckle] time. This wasn't very helpful.
I must mention there were a few European people at Edendale too. There
were storekeepers and a few farmers and the relationship was very good.
We used to visit them and they used to visit us and, you know, exchange
ideas.
And then, during the war years we were the first people in the Maritzburg
area to grow rice, and we grew rice for a very long time. The war started in
'39 and you couldn't get rice at all here, but we had an ample supply. Very
hard work. We used to have paddy fields just like they do in China or India,
proper paddy fields. We had an ample supply of water; we had very good
irrigation. When there was this shortage of rice, we used to support Carter's
and we were their customers, and we used to barter rice seeds for other
seeds. They used to sell our seed to other people that wanted to put in rice
seed just to experiment. I remember one specific occasion, some gentleman
in town, I don't know his name, he came and wanted some rice seed, and he
wanted to send it to the Egyptian Sudan he says. He said they grow rice a lot
there but he just thought he's going to try some Natal rice.
We used to grow about five, six acres of rice. Of course the dehusking was
the problem. We didn't have any machines or something, we had the old
mortar method that you just stamp, stamp and clean that. That was a very
difficult job. Of all the things that we grew, rice was the very difficult
operation. But the land seemed very fertile and we used to have very good
rice crops. We must have grown rice 'til about the 'fifties, and then South
Africa started importing American rice and things like that so we stopped
growing rice.
There wasn't Group Areas as such but ... Mount Partridge, Plessislaer,
Esinadeni, all these areas had farmers. But what happened is that these
Indian schools were moved, so children had to go by bus, which was a long
distance. The schools were taken away, and then, just lately, the hospital
came away to Northdale. Of course, today there is a slight difference, but if
there was an injury or something you had to come across town. So virtually
there is hardly anybody living at Edendale. No Indian community as such
living there. There might be one or two, possibly five at the most, business
people that are still, not living out there, but still doing their business out
there but living in town.
Within KwaZuiu, does Group Areas operate?
We're not too certain. We've never had any inkling towards that. You
know, nobody even came and ... Except right now the property is going to
be expropriated. We get a letter from Bantu Trust or something, and then
it's got a minister of co-operation and development sort of a pamphlet
saying that they looked into the matter and there was a ... They made us
an offer, and if we didn't accept this offer it would be expropriated, then we
could go to arbitration. This is in the last month now. But before that we had
no inkling whatsoever, no notice from people, no buyers that said, 'Look, you
chaps are in the wrong area'. And Edendale was a free area. We used to go
out to the grounds and walk in the streets and down the roads. Of course,
running a bus service there you were at nearly every corner of the area. We
ran quite an involved sort of intensive area in town, and then we had these
country routes, right into the rural areas. But out at Edendale we had no
problem at all. We could be repairing buses right out in the countryside, but
we had no trouble at all.
And do you have any idea what they're going to use this land of yours for?
We just hear ... We've just heard from ... They hadn't said anything on
the letter, but we hear that part of it's going to be used ... Because part of
the land is low-lying, they said that they might open up a school or
something. But this is something that we just hear a whisper. We've got no
definite ...
You have no specific reason why?
No specific reason why. Yes.
Recorded by MORAY COMRIE
18
125 Years - The Arrival of

Natal's Indians in Pictures
November 1985 marks the one hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary of the
arrival of the first indentured Indians, an event that was to have far-reaching
results for the Colony of Natal. The first ships arrived in November 1860
having left Madras and Calcutta the previous month. The voyage, in a sailing
ship or paddle-steamer, in those days took an average of 45 days from
Madras and 54 from Calcutta but a few decades later, when steamers were
used, not only was the journey considerably shorter but 600 passengers
could be transported in comparison with the 300 or 350 that the Truro,
Belvidere, Lord George Bentinck and Spirit of Trade carried in 1860. The
type of ship in general use at about this time is shown in the view of Calcutta
docks.
1. Scene at Calcutta docks, about 1870.

(Photograph: India Office Library and Record Office, London)
Groups of Natal agriculturalists had begun to agitate for the importation

of labour as early as 1855 and necessary legislation was finally passed in
1859. However, before labourers could be sent to Natal the necessary
125 Years - the Arrival of Natal's Indians 19
machinery had to be set in motion in India. William Collins, the Postmaster

General, was sent to India as special agent and he arranged for two
Emigration Agents to represent the Colony, one in Madras and the other in
Calcutta.
Recruiting was carried out by licensed recruiters and their assistants or
'touts' under the supervision of these Emigration Agents. The Protector of
Emigrants, appointed by the government of India, was in overall control of
all indentured emigration and saw to it that regulations were complied with
and investigated all complaints made by individuals. The 152 184 men and
women who came to Natal as indentured labourers were from a wide area
but the majority were recruited in Madras Presidency and Mysore in the
south and Bengal, the Ganges valley and Bihar in the north .
Intending emigrants were required to sign a contract, printed in English
and the Indian language of the district, setting out all the conditions of
service applicable in Natal. The conditions for all places to which Indian
labourers were sent were based on the recommendations of the Colonial
Land and Emigration Commission of 1842. It was stipulated that the clauses
of the contract be carefully explained to the signatory before he signed or
put his mark and in country areas this had to be done at the magistrates'
offices. Once this was done the intending migrants were transported to the
nearer of the two ports of embarkation where they were housed in the depot
barracks and subjected to a full medical examination at the depot hospital.
2. Awaiting medical examination outside Depot, Calcutta.
(Photograph: Author's Collection)
20 125 Years - the Arrival of Natal's Indians
The medical officers at the depot hospital were told exactly what to look
for in the intending immigrants. Firstly they had to be fit enough to stand a
voyage of two months followed by ten years of manual labour . They were to
be free of contagious diseases, men were to be not more than 35 years of age
and women not more than 30 unless part of a family. Height and weight
were to be in proportion so that a man of 5 feet tall should weigh not less
than 115 lbs with an extra 5 lbs for each additional inch. Certain physical
signs such as calloused hands and well developed chest were taken as
indications that the man being examined had been accustomed to manual
labour and would thus be a useful immigrant in the colony where
agricultural labourers were in short supply. Anyone showing signs of heart
disease, varicose veins, goitre or any debilitating or contagious disease as
well as venereal disease was to be rejected. Another medical examination
was carried out once the ship docked in Port Natal and it was not
uncommon for individuals to be declared unfit for work and sent back to
India even though they had originally been passed as healthy.
Once the emigrants had been cleared by the medical officer they waited in
the Depot for the arrival of the ships which were chartered by the
Emigration Agents. Every vessel used to transport indentured Indians had
to conform to specifications laid down by the Government of India with
regard to space per person, water, rations, medical attention and
ventilation. The captain was required to sign a charter party and to under
take to carry certain stores, medicines and equipment.
Extra clothing for the passengers had also to be carried.
80J rI~Or.LR
ru.orOR'I'ION o r j'(t o n.:itnN•• V"IRKWOOD, W." 'ry.H AN» lH:ou:: r~ ES ~ f.> 1-;.: :H Hr ..-\)I: .\
ti UII' L'O~\'~;\'I~O ElIIOlU NTS 1'11011 IIAl>IlAS 10 NAT .\! .
h o\'! ' IONS.

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3. Schedule showing rations to be c.a rried by ships.
For WOUlt' fL PO" Boy••

11' 1110.1 10.... ,"') .·",if·.. . •' "Illllll ii'_. ,') :-;ar;r~. !.. .'" (' nbllkd,.
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ft, Cur .-i C"IUf. .-f' n allian.,
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4. Memorandum showing extra clothing that each ship was obliged to carry.
5. Embarking at Calcutta.
Finally the ship was provisioned and ready to depart.

In place of a passport each emigrant was provided with an emigrant
certificate.
This information was also entered on the ship's list, a copy of which was
handed to the officials in Natal when the ship docked there and at this point
a colonial number was allocated to each individual, including babies born
during the voyage. This colonial number was used to identify Indian
immigrants throughout their stay in the Colony. A section taken from a
ship's list is shown opposite. The name of the first employer was added by
the clerks at this time.
jI:\;\'S
I. ~! 1 G r: .\ T J U ~ eEL T] F] CAT E .
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] " r l " • • • . • • • • • • • ••• •••• •••• ~ ~~« ... J'£.L'

\ .i <..:. . ..... . .... . . . . . . .. ......... ~ r r-" f. ~ ~
".' " w k·, ............ ..... . ... /u : f<<.~7~kr
..
• -:;. l i :,1 \\" h"l'<' 'x;nuilHd and pn<.<ed lht' nbG\·e.n1lmE'd man
" 1 ·- .:: -,r.ll!":':'\ ' IIn :,;:rte hurnl1.lbourer; tl,at he j free from
; " . u,' I.: ... ut, "'- ,
lohd l.a.> \;e<.:n \"IWdU3k..u.
«~ ./
...... ,\ ' t I, 1. f
r : :.'" ; '." :'.- 11) IJ hI .. "" d ....:riiwa h loom I M'I'C en!l'll~cd n

• ~ .r·' ,f ,h,.. t ; .. \t'l "lu~nt of :\ QI"1. \\her~ hI) Is ' eXl't~
, : I '" t 1'" d l ""'K jur "ire l h. ap~al' bcl'ore me. and that [
"
, , "" 1.. ], UI ;, I ulatt·'f- t>.u~· ruio.! hi~ duti :>.>! &11 Emih'Tant accord·
,.f lI,JI:m Lwi"n.I.iOb A"" \ J I. or I~; 1.
M
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6. Emigrant certificate issued in 1874.
7. Extract from ship's list showing colonial number in first column and employer in last.
Ships bringing immigrants from India were granted pratique in the usual
way unless there had been cases during the voyage of infectious disease,
particularly cholera, smallpox and measles. In such cases the ship was placed
in quarantine and forced to fly the yellow jack and to wait in the roadstead.
The Belvidere, which arrived ten days after the Truro, reported an outbreak
of cholera on board in which twenty-four people had died. When this news
reached Durban there was an outcry, especially among those who had been
8. Coming ashore. Port Natal.
(Photograph: Local History Museum)
opposed to the importation of Indian labour from the beginning. However

when no further cases were reported the panic died down and the
immigrants were allowed to land after their possessions had been burnt and
they had been supplied with new clothing. In the nearly 51 years during which
indentured Indian labourers continued to arrive there were only a handful of
ships that had to be quarantined on arrival. Usually the passengers were
brought ashore in small boats and then transferred to the Depot on the
Bluff.
9. Landing. Port Natal.
10. Crossing the railway line on the way to the Bluff.
(Photograph: Natal Museum)
Shortly before the arrival of the Truro and the Belvidere an official post of
Coolie Agent was created with Edmund Tatham as the first incumbent. His
main task was to see to the accommodation of the immigrants and then to
allocate them to the colonists who had applied for them. Added to these
duties was the financial responsibility for collecting the money due from
employers. This was originally set at £7 but later increased to £12.10.0 and
then £15 for each immigrant landed. This was to cause endless problems
until eventually the Colonial Secretary agreed, very reluctantly, to allow
employers to pay by instalments. Throughout his years in office Tatham had
difficulty in satisfying the colonial officials about his accounting methods and
in the end this was to lead to his dismissal. His successors were more
fortunate in being able to concentrate on the immigrants and their needs,
leaving the financial side to the Indian Immigration Trust Board. The policy
in allocating immigrants was to keep families together and also, whenever
possible, to send people from the same village to the same employer.
Employers had to accept the immigrants sent to them and only in cases of
bankruptcy or proven ill-treatment by the employer or his agent could
transfers be made before the indenture period was completed.
The majority of the immigrants in the 1860-1866 period were allocated to
employers along the coastal belt, from Verulam to Umzinto, where they
were in demand as agricultural labourers on estates which, at that time,
were growing a variety of crops while experimenting with growing various
types of sugar-cane. Some of the Indians, however, were indentured to
residents of Durban as domestic servants or to the Corporation as labourers.
After 1874, when immigration was started again after a break of eight years,
there was a demand for their labour in the inland districts and by the end of
the century Indians, indentured and free, were working in almost every part
of the Colony as well as across the borders on the diamond and gold fields.
11. F.ree Indians at the Diamond Fields in the l870s.
(Photograph: Kimberley Public Library)
The conditions under which Indian indentured workers were employed

laid down nine hours of work per day, from sunrise to sunset , rations as
quoted below, wages of 12 shillings per month during the first year,
increasing to 13 shillings during the second year. Medical attention and
treatment was to be provided free of charge, letters could be posted to India
free of charge and there was freedom to practise their religion without
interference. The original indenture period was five years, after which it
could be renewed for another five years with the same employer or could be
terminated and a new employer found . At the end of ten years immigrants
were to be provided with a free passage to India or they could remain in
Natal as 'free' Indians.
Rations were to be supplied by the employer , consisting of one and a half
pounds of rice per day and each month 2 lbs of dhal , 2 lbs of salt fish, 1 lb
of ghee or oil and 1 lb of salt. Despite the strict application of these
conditions some of the immigrants had cause to complain, as the following
letter shows.
1£.. ~JJ,,,,, ~>J~~ LAJ<'~~I

Cl· ... '1 ". ",I f """~.,,f/;'!cJr? , 4<,,<,( l~
' 'O'~c.>~. ,1" .\.L..-<.--.......£:, r.-..-A" ~~A.:-~'--O ~, ~ , A..'u~,: t;ll~
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'\.~;,'-""O.-- ......., rt.o . · '~A-
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.I {vi 5";t Ji-j !>" ~ /U;t:;:::. _
~r<.. / tA_"_--Vt/ ~ /L""'7 7£> '
& (j ,""-: ~ J"~-I. P ;0<>'~ /,}1./&_ ~/!~kt
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"'.'-< d A9--<:' '/. }-' I <>.

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{G~~ ~ h~ ttJiJ.I/
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12. Letter of complaint from indentured .labourers, Thornville Junction, 1908,

In 1874 a new set of regulations was implemented in an attempt to

eliminate some of the problems that had arisen between employer and
indentured worker and in that year a Protector of Immigrants was appointed
with increased powers. At the same time the number and standard of
interpreters was improved. By the 1880s there were considerable numbers of
free Indians in Natal in addition to the indentured and they were engaged in
many types of occupation - agricultural, technical and commercial, skilled
and unskilled. As agricultural workers they were employed on sugar estates,
tea and coffee plantations and on dairy farms.
13. Picking coffee beans.
14. Loading milk onto a train, Nel's Rust Dairy.
15 . Indian labourers in a cane field .
16. Workers in a tea plantation.
17. Fruit sellers, Verulam.

They soon had the monopoly of market-gardening in the vicinity of the

towns, delivering their produce to the market, selling it on the streets or
hawking it from house to house in panniers.
More technical occupations were followed by Indian workers in tea and
coffee factories, tobacco and cigar factories, in tailors' shops, in quarries and
in collieries in Northern Natal. They were also employed in wattle
plantations where they stripped the bark required for tanning and as
shepherds on up-country farms. At Port Natal they worked as stevedores for
the African Boating Company, forming the bulk of their labour force.
18. Scene at Indian market.
19. Bagging sugar, Tongaat.
20. Packing cigars, Queen Street factory.
21. Stripping bark, wattle plantation, showing Indian sirdar (or overseer) on left.
22, African Boating Company barracks, Point, c. 1908.
23. Indian assistant, Stevens' school of tailoring.
24 . Marble quarry showing Indian and African labourers.

Masulah boatmen, with their boats , had been imported in 1860 to assist
the Port Captain , and Indian fishermen were active in the Bay, using seine
nets . On Salisbury Island groups of free Indians set up small fish-smoking
plants where they made a steady living since dried fish was in demand as
part of the ration supplied to indentured labourers.
_"'''''. - . ;
25. Fishing off Durban beach.
26. Smoking fish, Salisbury Island.

The first Indian labourers employed on the railways were imported from
Mauritius by the Railway Company at the end of the 1870s but it was not
long before indentured labourers were working in large numbers for the
Natal Government Railways. Many of these men had formerly been
employed in railway construction in India and were specially imported into
Natal because of their experience or skills. Indian families as well as single
men were accommodated on site in places like Pinetown, Ladysmith and as
far as Charlestown while the line to the Transvaal was being constructed, and
overall the N.G.R. was the largest single employer of Indian indentured
labour.
When the railway expansion came to an end many of these workers
remained in the inland towns earning their livings in various ways including
the practice of their traditional crafts, trading or market-gardening.
125 Years - the Arrival of Natal's Indians
27. Indians employed in railway construction.

Although Indian labour played an important part in the development of
the s'lgar industry this has been somewhat over-emphasized while their
contribution to the overall economy has not received the attention it merits.
The part played by the 'special servants', brought from India, particularly
from Madras, in the growth of the hotel industry in Durban deserves special
mention. They provided the waiters, dhobies, doormen, carriage drivers and
chefs, attired in crisp white uniforms, turbans and colourcd sashes, who
were a distinguishing feature of high-class establishments.
28. Diningroom. Commercial Hotel.
29. Mohorrum festival showing crowd at Umgeni River.

(Photograph: Kimberley Public Library)
The social influence of the Indian people on Natal has also been
considerable. Their architecture, colourful clothing and customs have made
Durban a cosmopolitan city and Natal as a whole more interesting and less
insular. Their religious ceremonies are an unfailing source of interest to
Westerners and the photograph of the Mohorrum festival, which is still
observed, shows a celebration at the Umgeni River in the last century.
JOY B. BRAIN
Acknowledgements
Photographs 11 and 29 by courtesy of Kimberley Public Library, 8 by
courtesy of Local History Museum, Durban, 10 by courtesy of Natal
Museum and 1 by courtesy of India Office Library and Record Office,
London.
My thanks are due to the Natal Archives for the following documents:
3. Indian Immigration Papers, 11/114: 97811878.
4. Indian Immigration Papers, 11/1198: 1375/1900.
7. Indian Immigration Papers, 11/116: 9911880.
8. Indian Immigration Papers, 11/11145: 729/1906.
36
Reducing the Indian Population
to a 'Manageable Compass': A
Study of the South African
Assisted Emigration Scheme
of 1927
In 1925 D.F. Malan, the Minister of the Interior, stated in parliament:

'. . . the Indian, as a race in this country. is an alien element in the
population. . . .' Furthermore '. . . no solution of this question will be
acceptable to this country until it results in a very considerable reduction of
the Indian population in this country." This statement indicates the
Nationalist party policy but it also found acceptance by the South African
Party, the majo. opposition party, whose own policy towards Asiatics was
defined as 'no Asiatic immigration, and repatriation as fast as possible ...
with no chance of return." The traditional policy towards Indians of South
African governments in pre-Union and post-Union days assumed a three
pronged approach: to close the door to further immigration, to subject
Indians resident in South Africa to discriminatory legislation restricting their
rights to purchase property. to trade or to participate in the political
structures of the country, and finally to encourage Indians to return to India.
This article will focus on the third stratagem, more specifically on the
scheme evolved in 1927.
If onc considers the racial composition of the South African population
between 1904 and 1936 the presence of an Asiatic population appears
insignificant. Between these years Asiatics (98% being Indian) never
constituted more than 2,5% of the total South African population; the
proportion of whites for the same period varied from 21 % to 22%,
Coloureds from R'Yo to 9% and Africans from 67% to 69%.3 The presence of
the Indian assumes significance if onc considers Natal's population
composition only. In 1921 87,6% of the Union's total Indian population
resided in N atal 4 and they exceeded the white population there by 4 811. 5
Natal's Indian popUlation was confined within its borders as inter-provincial
restrictions prevented their free movement across the borders. Repatriation
of Indians then had special significance for Natal whites.
Various factors may be listed to account for the fact that Indians were
regarded as anathema by South Africa's white popUlation: the economic
Reducing the Indian Population to a 'Manageable Compass' 37
competition of the Indian trader, the sanitary standards of Indians, the fear
(particularly in Natal) of being swamped by Indians thus threatening white
dominance, cultural and social differences or the belief of whites in their
own racial superiority. The difficulty is to identify anyone factor as being
predominant. If future research can identify white interest groups which
raised the cry for repatriation as a solution, valuable clues may be yielded.
Policy towards Indians may have also been determined by the fact that
whites were a very small minority amidst a large black population. Jan
Smuts explained in 1917:
We are not a homogeneous population. We are a white population on
a black continent; and the settlers in South Africa have for many years
been actuated by the fear that to open the door to another non-white
race would make the position of the few whites in South Africa very
dangerous indeed."
J.B.M. Hertzog, South Africa's Prime Minister for almost sixteen years,
also commented that because whites were living amongst a numerically
superior African population the presence of the Indian contributed to their
fear that the white man's civilization and existence in South Africa was at
stake. 7
When the legal machinery to introduce indentured Indian labour to Natal
had been set up in 1859 the consequences were not foreseen by Natal
whites. Indentured labour arrived between 1860 and 1911 when the system
was eventually terminated. H The contracts of the labourers did not provide
for their compulsory return to India on completion of their contracts, unlike
the position of the indentured Chinese who came to work on the goldfields
in 1904, and who were compelled to return to China on expiry of their
contracts. 9 If, however, the Indian indentured worker wished to return to his
country, the Natal government was obliged to provide him with a free
passage to India. Colonies in the West Indies were tardy in fulfilling this
obligation to indentured workers brought from IndiaJ() but the Natal
government was keen on sending Indians on fulfilment of their contracts
back to India, not wishing to encourage the growth of a free Indian
population. Natal, as Bradlow correctly points out, wanted a bonded
labourer.)) In 1891 in an effort to discourage the settlement of a free
population the land grant promised to Indians who decided to stay in Natal
on expiry of their contracts was revoked. 12 In the early 1890s the Natal
government also tried to persuade the Indian government to agree to the
condition that all contracts should expire only on the labourers' return to
India. 13 This India perceived as compulsory repatriation which she would not
accept. As Kondapi comments: 'Compulsory repatriation amounts to
throwing out Indians as sucked oranges and burdening India with her
nationals in a humiliating position. '14
To realize its goal of encouraging labourers to return to India the Natal
government passed a law in 1895 which imposed a £3 tax on those who chose
to remain in Natal as free Indians. This tax was later extended to include
boys of sixteen years and over and girls of thirteen years and over. 15 It came
into effect in 1902 and led to a high rate of reindenture; 16 1ikewise from 1902
to 1913 32 506 Indians returned to IndiaY Bhawani Dayal Sannyasi, an
Indian who played a significant role in the cultural and political life of
Indians in Natal and who interested himself in the dilemma posed by
38 Reducing the Indian Population to a 'Manageable Compass'
Swami Bhawani Dayal Sannyasi.

(Photograph: U.D.W. Documentation Ce ntre)
repatriation, commented: 'Repatriation on account of the imposition of [the]

£3 tax must be called compulsory repatriation, for it was a tax on residence
and its clear object was to compel the Indians to leave South Africa. 'IR In
1914 as a result of Gandhi's satyagraha campaign, which incorporated the
£3 tax as a grievance, the tax was abolished, thus bringing to an end the first
phase of repatriation.
A second phase in repatriation was initiated by the Indian Relief Act of
1914. Thus far only indentured Indians were given a free passage to India as
it was part of their contract. The Union government had closed the doors of
South Africa to further immigration of any Indians in 1913 19 and only the
wives and children of Indians already domiciled in the Union would be
permitted entry . Indentured immigration having ceased in 1911 it was clear
that South Africa's Indian population would grow only by natural increase.
The Union government, however, wanted more than this: it wished to
reduce the Indian population by encouraged repatriation. Thus the Indian
Relief Act of 1914 provided a free passage to India to any Indian whether of
indentured origin or not, provided that such Indian surrendered his rights of
domicile in South Africa. 20
In the aftermath of the First World War anti-Asiatic feeling in South
Africa became virulent and organised under the banner of the South
Africans' League which had branches in Natal and the Transvaal. The
League in Natal organised meetings 'to safeguard the white standards of
civilisation in South Africa from the economic, social and political menace
of Asiatics. '21 To preserve Natal for whites it advocated segregation of the
races, restrictions on Indians' right to purchase property or trade anywhere,
f
replacement by whites of Asiatics in various spheres of employment and the

compulsory repatriation of all Asiatics not born in South Africa. 22 In 1921
63,4% of the total Indian population was South African born 23 and the
League's proposals would have meant the expulsion of 36,6% of the Union's
Indian population. Furthermore at least 86% of Natal's Indian population
was of indentured origin24 and owed their presence in Natal to white
demands for labour.
The Lange Commission which undertook a thorough investigation of the
position of Asiatics in Natal and the Transvaal did not recommend
compulsory repatriation as demanded by a few extremists but recommended
voluntary repatriation with inducements. 25 Compulsory repatriation was
never a practical feasibility' because it required money and the Indian
government's co-operation. On the Commission's recommendations the
government in 1921 introduced a cash bonus of £5 per adult with a
maximum of £25 per family to make repatriation under the Relief Act of
1914 more attractive. In 1924 the bonus was doubled to £10 per adult with a
maximum of £50 per family. 26 An officer was also appointed to advertise the
scheme amongst Indians and pamphlets were distributed. Free railway
passes were provided to Durban as well as accommodation at a depot until a
ship arrived. 27 Between 1914 and the end of July 1927 23 029 Indians were
repatriated under the provisions of the Relief Act, all surrendering their
Delegation from India to the First Round Table Conference at Cape Town, 1926
Standing (I to r): Sir G .F . Paddison, K.C.I.E., Hon. Sir Phiroze C. Sethna, Kt.,
O.B.E., l.P ., G .c. Bajpar (Inset), Secretary to Delegation and Mr Ricketts
(Assist. Secy. to Delegation).
Seated (I to r): Rt. Hon. V. Srinivasa Sastri (P.c.), Hon. Sir Mahommed
Habibullah, K.C.I.E . (Leader of Delegation), G .L. Corbett, C.S.I. (Deputy Leader

of Delegation) , and Sir D'Arcy Lindsay , Kt. , C.B.E .
(Photograph: U.D.W. Documentation Centre)
I
rights of domicile. 2" The Indian government accepted the principle of

voluntary repatriation on the grounds that if white fears of being
overwhelmed by Indian numbers were removed then the position of those
Indians who remained in South Africa would eventually improve. 24
In August 1927 a new sch4me known as the assisted emigration scheme
replaced the 1914 arrangemept. This scheme was part of the Cape Town
Agreement which was the out~ome of a round table conference between the
South African and Indian gmlcrnments held in December 1926 and January
1927. There were two significant parts to this Agreement. 3P The Indian
government would take resppnsibility for the emigrants who came from
South Africa. The South Afritan government acknowledged its responsibility
to uplift all sections of. thb permanent population. The Indians who
remained in South Africa would 'not be allowed to tag behind other sections
of the people.' There would be preliminary enquiries into Indian education
and housing in Natal. Those Indians who remained in South Africa would be
enabled to conform to a western standard of living. For those who could not
conform to this standard there was the assisted emigration scheme to India
or other countries where the western standard was not required.
The Indian government had been pressing the Union government for a
round-tahIc conference to discuss the Indian question from April 1925. 31 The
need for discussion between the two countries was made more urgent with
the introduction in July in parliament of the Areas Reservation and
Immigration and Registration (Further Provision) Bill which had as its
principal tenets the economic and residential segregation of Indians. Malan
explained the ohjective hehind his biII:
The Bill is generaIIy intended to stop effectively the further encroach
ment of Indians, and he hoped it would go further than that; that is, as
a result of the exercise of pressure on the Indian. he will take
advantage of the inducements which are held out to him to leave the
country, so that the Bill is meant not only to stop further
encroachment but actually to reduce the Indian population of the
country.32
After protracted negotiations, and after deputations had crossed the Indian
Ocean to and from the Indian suhcontinent, a round-table conference was
convened; the passage of the Asiatic bill was halted pending the results of
the conference."
The Indian delegation came to South Africa to secure a removal of the
Union government's segregation proposals. It also came with the prior
knowledge that repatriation would be one of the main items on the agenda.
The Prime Minister, General Hertzog, in opening the conference indicated
what his government's objectives were. If they could be assured that the
Indian population could be reduced considerably with India's assistance they
would not proceed with their legislation. 3" Malan, who chaired the
proceedings, indicated that they wanted repatriation to be discussed first as
agreement on this would determine the fate of their bill." The Union
delegates indic'lted that there were two main obstacles affecting
repatriation: Indian sentiment was against it because they felt they were
regarded as undesirables and this wa3 an affront to their dignity; potential
repatriates also did not know what prospects awaited them in India. India's
assistance was required to assist in settling these repatriates. 36
The Indian delegation offered concrete proposals to improve the

repatriation scheme, as well as their assistance to ease the adjustment
difficulties of repatriates on arrival in India. The scheme devised with their
co-operation was to be termed 'assisted emigration' because the term
repatriation had 'unhappy implications' and emigration was the more
appropriate term to describe the return of South African born Indians. 3? The
scheme" was to be open to all Indians unable to accept a western standard
of living, but what western standards were, was not defined. As Sastri, one
of the Indian delegates, later explained: ' ... those who visit Durban and
notice the difference between the quarters which are predominantly Indian
will not ask for precise definition of standards . . . . '<'J
The scheme provided a bonus of £20 to any Indian over sixteen years of
age and £10 for each child leaving. Thus the limitation of a maximum bonus
per family was withdrawn. The bonus would be paid in India. A disabled
Indian could receive a pension and/or a bonus. Free transport would be
provided to the port of departure in South Africa, a free passage by ship to
India, and a free fare from the port of arrival in India to the emigrant's
destination there. Improvements would be made in the shipping facilities
and care would be taken about food, sanitation, medical treatment and
general conditions on the voyage to India.
The Union government would provide the Indian government with details
about the numbers of emigrants leaving, their occupations, their savings and
possessions. On their arrival in India the Indian government undertook to
advise them, protect their savings and assist them to settle down in
occupations they were suited to. They could also choose to go on emigration
schemes organised by the Indian government to other countries.
One of the most important provisions of the scheme was that provision
was made for a return to South Africa should an emigrant wish to do so.
Under the old scheme a decision to leave was final and it caused
considerable resentment amongst Indians. The case of Simadri received
some publicity.4Il She was 14 years old and in June 1926 married P. Gengiah.
She and her husband quarrelled within hours of being registered. The
following day Gengiah without the knowledge of his wife left for India
together with his brothers and father on the repatriation scheme. leaving her
behind. Later Gengiah wished to return but as he had surrendered his
domicile there was no such possibility.
The Indian delegation to the conference was insistent that provision for a
right to re-entry should be made. It would remove Indian hostility to the
scheme and might encourage the emigration of many who would not be
willing otherwise to take an irretrievable step. The Union delegation with
much reluctance acceded to this argument. 41 The scheme provided that if an
emigrant wished to return to South Africa he would have to do so within
three years, after which he would lose his rights of domicile. To prevent
emigrants from abusmg the system they would not be allowed to return
within the first year. Furthermore to re-enter South Africa they would have
to refund. in India, the cost of their transport by ship and rail and the bonus
received. The Indian delegation reassured the Union delegation that this
provision would make it almost impossible for an emigrant to return but the
provision for re-entry would make Indians in South Africa more amenable
to the scheme. 42
•
The Indian delegation, in return for its co-operation, wanted more than
the withdrawal of the South African government's intended segregation
scheme. It insisted at the conference that its co-operation was dependant on
whether the Union government was prepared to commit itself to uplifting
those Indians who chose to remain in South Africa.'3 Sastri explained that
they were not demanding full political rights for Indians but they wanted a
reversal of the traditional policy in South Africa which treated Indians as
aliens. A provision for upliftment of the permanent Indian community
would secure the acceptance by South African Indian leaders of the assisted
emigration scheme:' The Union delegation unhappily agreed to this demand
realizing that if there was no provision for uplift there would also be no
assisted emigration scheme. But in acquiescing they made it clear that the
government c.;ould not move in advance of public opinion 45 and could only
accept at this stage preliminary enquiries into housing, sanitation and
education. Thus the Agreement, a result of bargaining, led to the
withdrawal of the Asiatic bill, provision for an assisted emigration scheme
and a statement of intent from the South African government about
improving the position of its resident Indian population. Malan, however,
had made it very clear at the conference: 'The treatment in future of Indians
who remain and will remain permanently in South Africa will depend very
much upon the success of repatriation. '"
The Agreement also provided for the appointment of a representative of
the Indian government in South Africa. His duties would be to see to the
implementation of the Agreement and to be a channel of communication
between the two governments. He would not be an agent for repatriation
but would monitor the assisted emigration scheme and see that its voluntary
V.S. Srinivasa Sastri

First Indian Agent in South Africa, 1927 to 1929.
(Photograph: U .D.W . Documentation Centre)
•
character was not being infringed}7 The first Agent appointed was V.S.
Srinivasa Sastri who arrived in June 1927. Between 1927 and 1946 there
were seven men who held this post. 4R The Agency reported to, the Government
of India as to how the scheme was working. how many were leaving, what
their occupations were and why they were leaving. 49 Sastri, as the first Agent
had the task of explaining the Agreement to Indians to get their acceptance.
He urged his white and Indian audiences to accept all the clauses of the
Agreement and not only those that suited them.5o He did not go around
recruiting emigrants and the Union government did not expect him to do
this either." He explained that all whites desired was a 'Reduction of the
inassimilable Indian community to a manageable compass ... '52 To white
audiences he stressed their important commitment to uplift the Indians. 53
The first batch of emigrants· to leave under the new scheme did so in
August 1927.54 The Indian government provided the South African
government with India's regulations about shipping facilities e.g. conditions
with regard to space, toilets, water and baths.55 They were also particular
that the South African government should, in accordance with the
Agreement, provide information about the number of emigrants, their
destinations, the amount of savings being carried and the occupations of the
men .56 The South African government entered into a contract with King and
Sons; this shipping company undertook to transport emigrants to India
charging the government £5 per adult. 57
Between August 1927 and 1940 when the scheme was temporarily
suspended because of the war, over 16 000 Indians took advantage of its
provisions. IX Most of them came from Natal, few from the Transvaal and yet
fewer from the Cape. 59 This article will examine why Indians left South
Africa, what happened to them in India, and it will evaluate the scheme in
terms of the objectives of the South African government.
The Indian government took its obligations seriously and the Governors
of Madras, Bombay and Bengal were contacted to enlist their co-operation
to provide assistance for the emigrants. In Madras where it was likely most
of the emigrants would go, a 'Special Officer for assisted emigrants from
South Africa' was appointed in August. Various officials in Bombay,
Calcutta, the United Provinces, Bihar and Orissa were deputed to assist the
emigrants arriving there.hl) The government required a report from Madras,
Bengal and Bombay for every batch of emigrants arriving there and
quarterly reports to indicate what had been done to assist the emigrants. 6 !
The Special Officer at Madras, Kunhiraman Nair, reported on the
arrangements made at Madras for the emigrants. He and the Medical
Officer first boarded the ship, surveyed the conditions on the ship and asked
the emigrants if they had any complaints. The passengers then disembarked
and were taken to a shed in the harbour where they were provided with
food, their bonus, railway tickets and a further travel allowance. A bus
would then transport them to the station and they were assisted to board the
trains. The old or disabled emigrants were provided with an escort. The
emigrants were warned to beware of people who might take advantage of
them. They were advised to leave most of their savings with the Special
Officer who would arrange banking facilities for them. If they wished to
invest in land he would assist them. The address of the Special Officer was
given to each emigrant should he need assistance to find employment. 62
•
Those emigrants bound for Calcutta arrived on' the same ship as the
Madras-bound emigrants. They took the train to Calcutta and were met on
arrival at the Howrah Railway Station by assistants from the Calcutta
Emigration Office. If it was not possible to send them on the next leg of
their journey they were accommodated at a rest house and given eight annas
a day for food. After being provided with their bonus and further travel
allowances they were entrained to go to their respective villages. As in
Madras escorts were provided for those incapable of journeying alone.
Emigrants could leave their money for safe-keeping in Calcutta, and collect
it via their magistrate once they reached their village. From Calcutta the
emigrants dispersed throughout North India, few remaining in Bengal itself."]
The arrangements at Bombay were not so elaborate, fewer emigrants
being expected there. The Commissioner of Police paid their bonus and
allowances. The emigrants required little assistance and made their way to
their villages in Surat or Kathiawar. 64
An examination of the emigrants arriving in India reveals a considerable
number of very old people with several infirmities. Several had no relatives
to take care of them. The Special Officer at Madras commented that 355
decrepit Indians had arrived between August 1927 and December 1928. At
least twenty of these emigrants were very old, disabled and had no relatives
in India. Each ship arriving carried on average twenty decrepit passengers.os
Nair reported several tragic cases. Sixty-one year old Poliah was blind and
had no relatives. Eighty-six year old Thana Pillay had been taken care of by
his fellow passengers on board ship but died in Madras. Then there was
Munuswamy who was partly blind, completely deaf and mentally defective.
He and his wife Kamalam, who was also unable to look after herself, went
to Bangalore to find their relatives. They returned to Madras disappointed
in their mission. Munuswamy was subsequently admitted to the Madras
Mental Hospital where he died. Eighty-year old Kandaswamy was escorted
to his village but returned to Madras having failed to trace any relative.
Seventy-year old Subbaraju who was sickly, partly blind, paralytic and
mentally defective, was admitted to the Mental Hospital. 6o
These people must have been lured by the offer of a bonus. Unable to
work in South Africa owing to old age or disability, the attraction to their
country of origin must have been strong. The Agreement also promised that
all emigrants would be assisted to settle in India. Whatever false aspirations
might have brought them to India they presented a problem to Nair, for
apart from being so helpless they were also apt to fall prey to adventurers
wanting to appropriate their bonus or savings. Runga Gowndan was almost
defrauded of his money. The Special Officer received letters in Gowndan's
name requestil1g all his money. On investigation in the village it was found
that Gowndan had no relatives and that somebody was, in fact, wrongfully
trying to acquire his money. Seventy-year old Raman who was partly blind
and mentally and physically weak went to Vellore where he thought he had
found a relative. On investigation it was found that this man was only posing
as a relative. Some emigrants found that their so-called relatives abandoned
them after they had obtained money from them. 67 Nair protested that the
repatriation of 'old emigrants who have no relations in India, when they are
about to die, amounts to cruelty.'6R The retort of G.S. Bajpai, the very
influeatial Indian official in the Department of Education, Health and Lands
concerned with matters pertaining to Indians overseas, was that the scheme
was a purely voluntary one. Thus:
... if people in an advanced stage of illness wish to take advantage of
it in order to return to the homeland it would be equally inhuman on
the part of the Union Government authorities to prevent them from
doing SO.69
In order to provide some protection for the decrepits the Union
government agreed that if an emigrant was certified as decrepit by the
Medical Officer at the time of his departure from South Africa he would be
paid a £5 bonus and on arrival in India 10 shillings a month. The
government would however take no responsibility for those who became
decrepit while in India. The disabled who were already in India before this
pension scheme was arranged and had received their full bonus would
receive their pension of 10 shillings a month thirty months after they had
been in India provided they had been certified as disabled prior to their
departure from South Africa. 70
Natal House at Madras.

The Special Officer at Madras felt that a home should be opened to take
care of the old and disabled. On his recommendation the Indian government
sanctioned 40 rupees a month for the maintenance of the home .7 1 An official
commented:
The Government of the Union of South Africa attach considerable
importance to the successful working of the Assisted Emigration
Scheme and if we are able to show that we are doing all we can, there
is always a chance of [the] Indian question being dealt with
sympathetically by that Government. Apart from being a political
asset, the Home . . . [will also serve] a useful purpose. 72
The home was opened on 8 December 1929 at 89 Brodies Road, Mylapore,

Madras. Ramaswamy, a repatriate himself, helped to run the home
providing meals for those unable to do so themselves. 73 The home, which
also provided temporary accommodation for emigrants until they managed
to establish themselves, was only closed in 1940 when its usefulness had
ended. 74
There is no doubt that the offer of a substantially increased bonus and a
free passage acted as an inducement to leave. Emigrants might have had
personal reasons for leaving but the bonus could only have acted to clinch
the decision. For instance, thirty-six year old Subbama and her eleven
children, the eldest being nineteen, took advantage of the scheme after her
husband had died.15 She had come to India hoping to find her father and her
dedsion must have been influenced by the very large bonus her family
received. There was one case where a baby was born on board the ship and
the parents claimed that the baby should be entitled to a bonus as well. The
Special Officer, a very sympathetic man, initiated discussion with the Indian
government as to whether a foetus was entitled to a bonus or not. 7" G.
Ramuswami (twenty-five years old) came to Madras with his wife and three
children. They were all colonial-born with little knowledge about India. The
Special Officer commented: 'They seem to have emigrated to India as a
pleasure trip. '77 They would not have considered such a trip had there been
no free passage and no bonus. The number of emigrants increased in 1928
partly because it was believed that once the first Agent returned to India the
bonus would be withdrawn. 7H
Palmer, however, suggests that it was not so much the offer of an
increased bonus that facilitated repatriation but the inability to find
employment in South Africa. 79 The 'civilized labour policy' of the
Nationalist-Labour pact government resulted in a reduction of Indians
employed by the South African Railways and Harbours Department, the
Post and Telegraphs Department and municipalities. RII Private industry was
also pressurized by government to employ more whites. The Pact
Government was concerned with providing all whites with a 'civilized
standard' of living. In 1929 the number of poor whites was estimated at
300000; employment for whites was to be found at the expense of blacks.'!
The economic depression of the early 1930s accentuated the difficulties
faced by Indian labour. In 1932 it was estimated that 4000 Indians were
unemployed; the number of emigrants leaving South Africa that year was
unusually high." While unemployment was a serious issue for all South
Africans, Indians were faced with the unsympathetic attitude of the
government and particularly of local authorities who displayed tardiness in
providing relief works or relief funds. 83 The Agent, Sir Kurma Reddi, wrote
a distressing tale of Indian unemployment to the Viceroy of India. He hoped
to approach ministers of the Union government to persuade them to provide
some relief but was not optimistic: .
. . . the trouble is to induce them to interest themselves in the cause of
the unemployed Indians. Their decided policy being to send as many
Indians as possible out of this country, the unemployment of some
Indians comes in handy, for they will go away to India without any
persuasion from the Department of Asiatic Affairs. Unemployment of
Indians is therefore to be encouraged in pursuance of this policy rather
than disco uraged. 84
Reduclng the Indian Population to a 'Manageable Compass' 47
(HI (" . · ........H of India Dele.allon to the Round Tabl.
onference al Capetown.
( ., ' "H f •• " ,I" I •• ,1 .• I ~

" •.• 1 H. I' ~ '.,.1 11 ' \' 0 ~
Government of India Delegation to the Second Round Table Conference

at Cape Town, 1932.
At the round-table conference it had been agreed that the scheme was to
be entirely voluntary and that there should be no active propaganda to
entice Indians to leave. ss It however emerged that the government had
appointed touts to publicise the scheme amongst Indians.s6 Sir Kurma Reddi
found evidence that indicated the voluntary nature of the scheme was not
being maintained. After a visit to Dannhauser he reported the activities of
Mr Peter, a retired Indian interpreter, employed by the Department of
Asiatic Affairs, who informed Indians that once the second round-table con
ference was held between India and South Africa there would be no bonus;
furthermore the mines were not going to employ Indians. k7 The Special
Officer at Madras also reported what he described as a typical complaint
made by emigrants: K. Rajoo lamented that he had only come to India
because Mr Peter had often come to his area talking about better conditions
in India where emigrants would be given two acres of land or some
employment. 88 Propaganda was at its peak towards the end of 1931 and
contributed to increased emigration. 89 Venn, the Commissioner of Asiatic
Affairs, defended the activities of his department. All the agents did, he
argued, was to distribute leaflets and explain the provisions of the scheme to
those unable to read. 90 After the second round-table conference in 1932 no
agents were employed . It was also reported that Peter himself had gone to
India. 91
If however there was propaganda for the scheme there was even more
propaganda against the scheme, organised by Indians dissatisfied with the
Cape Town Agreement. The South African Indian Congress, a political
body recognised by both the Indian and Union governments as the voice of
the Indian community, accepted the Agreement 92 and therefore the assisted
emigration scheme as well. Indians were, however, not unanimous in their
acceptance of the Agreement. The Natal Indian Association (NIA) which
had been politically active in 1924 was revived in the second half of 1927
under the leadership of Moulvi Abdul Karim of South Coast Junction. 93 The
NIA, the Natal Indian Vigilance Association (NIVA) under the leadership
of John L. Roberts and a group of anti-Congress Transvaal Indians formed
the South African Indian Federation (SAIF) in December 1927. 94 They
denounced the principle behind the assisted emigration in no uncertain
terms.
The Congress' attitude was that the scheme was voluntary; the principle of
voluntary repatriation had been accepted in 1914. 95 The arguments of the
opponents of the scheme may be briefly summarised here. 96 They could not
see how repatriation was to be a solution to the Indian question in South
Africa. Economic competition was responsible for tension between white
and Indian, they argued. However it was not the Indian trader who would
leave on the emigration scheme but the poorer classes. The assisted
emigration scheme could never be considered a voluntary one because
restrictive legislation against Indians, economic restrictions and the fixing of
miminum wages would all act as indirect pressure on Indians to leave South
Africa. Congress was accused of representing the rich who would· be
unaffected by the scheme. The Agreement meant that the poorer Indians
would leave so that the rich could attain better circumstances under the
uplift clause. M. Kalingarayan, describing himself as a poor farmer from
Bellair, expressed what the Congress' acceptance of the Agreement
signified:
This Association of Mahomedans and Banians [sic] who came mostly
to this country in a roundabout way. made all the money, and now
they have a motor car and fine mansions, and want to clear us out of
our beloved homes for these leaders, to become like white men.""
The scheme denounced as 'unsound, iniquitous and immoral'oH could never
be accepted.
These organisations did more than register their formal protest against the
Agreement and pass resolutions at meetings. John L. Roberts (NIVA) was
reported to be visiting all the main tea and sugar estates to deter possible
emigrants. He addressed 2 000 mill hands of the Natal Estates Ltd at Mount
Edgecombe in both English and TamiIY9 P.S. Aiyar a prominent member of
NIA and SAIF was also editor of African Chronicle. His newspaper gave full
publicity to the plight of the repatriates in India. In one edition three letters
written from India painted an unhappy picture with repatriates complaining
about heal, expenses, starvation and unemployment. One repatriate wrote
as follows:
Dear Brother in low and Sister
I have the greatest pleasure to inform you that we are now put up
Madras be live me we are suffr-ing a lot every things are Dearer ten
times worse than Natal ... this country very hot everyone thought I
will be dead owing to my sickness I am a bit better now but the others
are sick we are all now very sorry of leaving Natal mother daily crying
upon you all I beg you brother in low that you will try to get us back
into Natal never you be afraid of money go over to every collieries and
explain our sufferness try and collect some money from them
remember if you all failed mother father and brothers are in the
intention of drowning them selves into the sea please have a heart and
send the money over we will arrange to come back impound every pin
you got and get us over I will sell myself to anyone and pay you the
money reply as possable ... J(]()
The Publicity and Propaganda Committee of the SA IF as well as the Natal

Branch of the SA IF issued notices and manifestos urging Indians not to
sacrifice their birthrights 'for a mess of pottage.' 'REMAIN HERE. WORK
HERE. DIE HERE' they urged. 'Repatriation means Starvation . . .
Repatriation spells Ruination and Condemnation . . . you have come here
having been tempted by Government Agents. You now know the
consequences. Do not be tempted to go back. Secret agents are a curse to
Humanity. Do not listen to them.'lol Thousands of pamphlets were
distributed in Tamil. 1Il2
The Commissioner of Asiatic Affairs claimed that part of the propaganda
against repatriation included the spreading of stories like the following: the
boats carrying the emigrants had false bottoms which once out at sea would
open and cause the repatriates to be dropped into the ocean; or that the
boats did not actually go to India but to British Guiana or elsewhere; or that
once they reached India they would be shipped elsewhere. Venn also
claimed that letters supposed to have been written from India describing the
plight of repatriates were actually written by an Indian in Durban. un This
propaganda was considered to have partly affected the emigration figures. 104
The Indian Agent tried, without much success, to halt this propaganda. los
The propaganda against the scheme was assisted by discouraging reports
about the plight of repatriates in India. The leader of the Indian delegation
at the round-table conference had stressed that 'The best advertisement for
emigration is news from successful settlers that are doing well. '106 Settling the
emigrants in suitable occupations in India was the key to a satisfactory
scheme and it was on this that the whole scheme foundered. NIV A, NIA
and SAIF stressed that repatriates would face starvation and
unemployment as the Indian government had only managed to assist a
few.ID7 The Madras and Calcutta offices reported that the emigrants' first
priority on arrival in India was to return to their villages and find their
families. The Calcutta and Bombay reports reveal that few emigrants asked
for assistance. 10R The Madras officer remarked that 'the prospect of getting
some money as bonus makes some of them behave like upstarts and such
persons bluntly say that they do not want any jobs. '11)9 Only after their money
had been squandered and they were desperate did they seek help. Between
August 1927 and the end of March 1930 out of the 2 329 men who came to
Madras only 1 898 were capable of work and only 203 of these contacted the
officer for assistance.lIo
However if one examines the Special Officer's list of applicants and his
attempts to settle them one does not find evidence of success. Those
emigrants who settled down to agriculture did so easily. Emigrants were
assisted to purchase land. Menial positions were easy to obtain.
Employment in the railways, mines and factories was difficult because of
competition for posts. Additional new machinery led to railway companies
50 Reducing the Indian Popiilation to a 'Manageable Compass'
in South India retrenching their labour. 111 Nair attributed the distressed
condition of some emigrants to the fact that they had false aspirations,
wishing for occupations they were not qualified for. Furthermore they could
not accustom themselves to the low wages in India. Some of the emigrants
were too old to work and some had no testimonials or credentials. '12
M.F. Naidu wished to be employed as a medical officer and as a motor
mechanic, claiming to be proficient in both occupations but with no evidence
to support his claims. He stayed with his wife and children at an expensive
hotel in Madras for a week. Within three weeks he had run out of money
and decided to emigrate to the Federated Malay States. 1l3 Between August
1927 and the end of March 1930 90 South African repatriates in India
emigrated to the Federated Malay States." 4 Kochit Raman squandered all
his money. He tried to go to the Malay States but was rejected. A job was
found for him with a building contractor for eight annas a day but he was
not happy. He wanted a better job with better wages. Gurriah was given
work as a coolie but after two days deserted, taking with him his two rupees
advance money. Ayyaswamy wanted work as a motor mechanic but had to
be content with employment as a messenger with 15 rupees a month." 5 The
Special Officer was not negligent or uncaring in his duties. His problem was
to get the repatriates to lower their expectations and accept menial jobs with
low wages.
Delegates to the ninth session of the South African Indian Congress in
January 1929 expressed consternation about the reports received concerning
the repatriates. Congress approached the Indian government for information
but received no reply."" They then appealed to the All India Congress
Committee, the Imperial Indian Citizenship Association, with Gandhi
and Sastri to make enquiries. 117 The Indian government then publicly denied
that it was neglecting its obligations to the repatriates and gave details of all
arrangements it had made."8 The Committee of Enquiry which it had been
pressured to appoint in April 1930 made its report a month later. It merely
examined the arrangements made by the Special Officer at Madras and
commended him for his work. On the more important issue of settling the
emigrants the report drew attention to the emigrants' own laxity in the
matter. l1Y
Given the limited scope of the enquiry, it satisfied nobody. The report
came in for further criticism when the more thorough investigation by
Bhawani Dayal Sannyasi and Benarsidas Chaturvedi was published in May
1931. 120 Dayal, an NIC member, had come to India at the end of 1929 and
spent three months visiting Bombay, the United Provinces, Bihar, Calcutta
and its suburbs and Madras. He interviewed many repatriates. His report
sealed the fate of the emigration scheme. Dayal was particularly scathing
about the absence of assistance to the repatriates in north India.
His report indicated that most repatriates would return if they could but
few could comply with the conditions for return. He explained why
repatriation was a failure. South African Indians could not adjust to the
standard of living of India. Social problems were created by the orthodox
caste system. Furthermore the repatriates were bound by the brahmins in
their villages to perform a purifying religious ceremony which they could ill
afford. m The poverty in India, low wages, difference in climate and the lack
of employment for skilled workers were listed in the report as arguments
against repatriation. Oayal and Chaturvedi regarded the repatriation of

colonial-born Indians as indefensible. Between 1929 and 1932 the average
percentage of colonial-born Indians leaving was fifty-one, the majority of
whom were children. 122 Apart from the practical reasons advanced for
discontinuing repatriation Oayal advanced a moral one:
To encourage unsuspecting and ignorant Indians from the colonies to
return to India to lead a miserable life in the hope that others, more
fortunate who are left behind, will be uplifted is at once selfish and
immoral . . .123
Apart from this report Dayal organised a series of public meetings
mounting a campaign for the discontinuance of the repatriation scheme.""
He stressed the fact that South African Indians 'on their return to India ...
found themselves like a square peg in a round hole.'l25 Gandhi, C.F.
Andrews and the Imperial Indian Citizenship Association all now urged an end
to the scheme. 126 Indian opinion in India and South Africa mounted in
intensity against repatriation. Sorabjee Rustomjee, the Natal Indian
Congress president, at a mass meeting in Durban in November 1931,
denounced the repatriation of the labouring class and colonial-bo:n:
I desire to state that our community has had enough of this
repatriation scheme. The Congress is not going to allow the bartering
away of the rights of a section of the community for the benefit of
those who remain here. Rich or poor, we are in this country as
Indians. As Indians we will sink or swim together. 127
Congress had finally come round to the sentiments voiced by NIV A, NIA
and SA IF in the early stages of the assisted emigration scheme. An analysis
of the occupations of those who left under the scheme reveals the
predominance of agricultural labourers followed by sugar mill workers,
labourers on the mines and railways.12~ This justified the stand of NIA,
NIVA and SAIF who had stated that it was not the trader who would leave
but the poor labouring classes.
What of the Union government which regarded the scheme as the crucial
part of the Agreement? Between 1927 and 1931 it was repatriating Indians
at an average cost varying between £23 17s 4d and £29 15s 5d per
individual. 129 For the year 1927-8 £83 825 12s 8d was spent from the
Department of Interior vote on repatriation. 130 For the year 1930-1 while
£55 000 had been budgeted only £27 122 Is 3d was spent due to reduced
emigration figures.131 Or Malan informed the Indian delegation to the second
round-table conference which was convened to review the Agreement in
January 1932 that the scheme had not come up to their expectations.
Although 9418 Indians had left South Africa under the scheme by the end
of 1931,132 Malan indicated that 200 had since returned. In addition 3224
wives and children of Indians domiciled in the Union had entered the
country. Between 1926 and 1930 the Indian population increased by 11 ,8%
while the white population between 1926 and 1931 increased by 10%. Malan
concluded:
. . . it will be readily understood why even on the ground merely of
numericaJ increase the presence of the Indian continues to be
regarded as a menace.
Malan was in favour of terminating the Agreement unless the scheme could
be revised to satisfy the objective of reducing the Indian population of South
Africa. w
This round-table conference concluded with both governments accepting

that the emigration scheme to India had exhausted its possibilities because
of India's economic and climatic conditions and because 80% of the Indians
in South Africa were South African born. The two governments agreed to co
operate in an investigation into the possibilities of settling Indians in
countries other than India. 134 It is beyond the scope of this essay to consider
the Union government's attempts to reduce the Indian population by a
colonisation scheme to places like British North Borneo, British New
Guinea and British Guiana but this has been considered elsewhere. 135
South Africa did not succeed in reducing its Indian population to its
satisfaction. 10hnson comments that the failure of the assisted emigration
scheme led the government into a phase of 'increasing domestic regulation'.
He concludes that 'Unable to remove the Indians. whites worked to perfect
their control of the "aliens" amongst them. '136 In Natal, the presence of a
large Indian population confined to its boundaries caused considerable
tension between the races with anti-Indian feeling reaching a peak in the
'feverish forties'. 137 The failure of repatriation led to renewed cries for
segregation of the races.
The provisions for assisted emigration remained on South Africa's statute
books until 1975.138 The Nationalist government with Dr Malan at the helm
had hoped in 1949 to assist emigration by increasing the bonus for adults to
£40 per adult and £20 per child."" Between 1948 and 1952 584 Indians took
advantage of Lhe scheme. Between 1965 and 1970 24 people left South
Africa under the scheme. 140 The death of the scheme in 1975 was due to the
lack of response from Indians to it. It took South Africa a good many years
finally to accept that Indians had made South Africa their permanent home
and that they could not be coerced into leaving.
NOTES
AICC All India Congress Papers
DCC Durban Corporation Correspondence
EHL (0) Education, Health and Lands (Overseas)
NA Natal Archives
NAI National Archives of India
SAP South African Papers
TM Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Library. at Teen Murti. New Delhi
UG Union Government
1 Union of South Africa, Debates of the House of Assemhiy, 1925, Vo!. 5, co!. 6502.
J. van dcr Pocl (ed.), Selections from the Smuts Papers Vo!. V (Cambridge. 1973),
Document 256, p. 404.
UG 21 - 1938, Sixth Census of the Union of South Africa 1936, Vo!. 1, p. VIII.
4 Special Report No. 39. The Indian Population of the Union, 1926. Office of Census and
Statistics (Pretoria. 1926), p. 2.
5 Official Year Book of the Union and of Basutoland, Bechuanaland Protectorate and
Swaziland, No. 10, 1927-1928 (Pretoria, 1929), p. 875.
6 M. Palmer, The History of the Indians in Natal, Natal Regional Survey, Vo!. 10 (Cape
Town, 1957), p. 89.
7 NAI (New Delhi), SAP, F. No. 26 - AlHGSNl926: Proceedings of the first Round Table
Conference between the representatives of the Government of India and representatives of
the Government of the Union of South Africa (1926-27), pp. 2-3.
.
S A total of 152 184 Indians came to Natal under contract in this period. See Y.S. Meer et al
(eds): Documents of Indentured Labour in Natal 1851-1917 (Durban, 1980), p. 16.
4 N. Levy. The Foundations of the South African cheap labour system (London, 1982),
pp. 198-199, 224.
10 See C. Kondapi, Indians Overseas 1838-1949 (Bombay, 1951), pp. 240-241. I am also
grateful to V. Shepherd for permitting me to read a draft of her work on repatriation of
Indians from Jamaica.
11 E. Bradlow, 'Indentured Indians in Natal and the £3 tax', South African Historical Journal,
No. 2, November 1970, p. 40.
12 B. Pachai, The International Aspects of the South African Indian Question 1860-/971 (Cape
Town, 1971), p. R.
13 Ibid, pp. R-9.
14 Kondapi, Indians Overseas, p. 23l.
15 Pachai. The South African Indian Question, p. 9.
16 J. Beall and M.D. North-Coombes, 'The 1913 Disturbances in Natal: The Social and
Economic Background to "Passive Resistance"', Journal of Natal and Zulu History, Vo!.
VI, 1983, pp. 66-67, 79, 80.
17 Bhawani Dayal Sannyasi and Benarsidas Chaturvedi, A report of the Emigrants Repatriated
to India under the Assisted Emigration Scheme from South Africa and on the Problem of
Returned Emigrants from all Colonies (Pravasi-Bhawan, Bihar, 1931), p. 42.
18 Ibid, p. 40.
19 P.S. Joshi, The Tyranny of Colour: A Study of the Indian Problem in South Africa
(Durban, 1942), p. 76.

20 Ibid, p. 79.
21 NA, DCC, 327: Requisition of J.E. Murray, E.C. Male, E. Hayward and others to Mayor
to call a meeting on 9 August 1923.
22 Ibid: South Africans' League Pamphlet on 'Straight Talk on the Indian Question' and
correspondence from the Secretary, South Africans' League, Durban and Coast Branch to
Mayor, Councillors, and Town Clerk, 12 November 1920,20 January 1921, 21 February
1922, 7 March 1922.
23 The Indian Population of the Union, 1926, p. 6.
24 This calculation is based on estimates of the population in 1926 given in the Report of the
Protector of Indian Immigrants for 1926 and The Indian Population of the Union, 1926,
p.2.
" UG 4-1921, Report of the Asiatic Inquiry Commission, pp. 32-33.
'6 NAI, EHL(O), 1931 - Overseas - December - 100 - B: Brief of Instructions to the delegates
of the Government of India to the Round Table Conference, Notes on assisted emigration.
27 SAP, F. No. 26 - NHClSNI926: Proceedings of first Round Table Conference, pp.
24-25.
2S EHL(O), 1931 - Overseas - December - 100 - B: Brief of Instructions, notes on assisted
emigration. Annexure 11.
29 G.H. Calpin, Indians in South Africa (Pietermaritzburg, 1949) p. 54.
30 The Agreement is reproduced in full in Pachai, The South African Indian Question,
pp. 290-294 .
.11 Refer to Important Correspondence between the Government of India and the Government
of the Union of South Africa on (l) Class Areas Bill 1924 and Areas Reservation Bill 1925
(JI). Negotiations leading up to the Paddison Deputation and the Cape Town Conference
(1926-27) (Government of India Press, New Delhi, 1946).
32 Joshi, Tyranny of Colour, p. 111.
33 Ibid, pp. 114-130.
34 SAP, F. No. 26-AIHClSNI926: Proceedings of first Round Table Conference, pp. 3-4.
J5 Ibid, pp. 13-14.
36 Ibid, pp. 29-32, 36.
37 Ibid, p. 40.
38 For details of the scheme see summary of conclusions reached by Round Table Conference
in Pachai. The South African Indian Question, pp. 291-292 .
.1Y Indian Opinion, 13 May 1927.
40 Indian Views, 16 November 192R.
41 SAP, F. No. 26-NHC/SN1926: Proceedings of first Round Table Conference, pp. 44-4R,
59-61, 74-92.
42 Ibid, pp. 46-48, R4-R7.
•
43 lbid, pp. 45-40.

44 Ibid, pp. 149, 156.
45 [bid, p. 166.
411 lhid, p. 36.
r lbid, p. 62.
48 They were Srinivasa Sastri (1927-1929), Sir Kurma Reddi (1929-1932), Sir Kunwar Maharaj
Singh (1932-1935). Sir Raza Ali (1935-1938), Sir Benegal Rama Rau (1938-1941), Sir
Shafa'at Ahmad Khan (1941-1944), R.M. Deshmukh (1945-1946). During Ali's term of
office the Agent became known as Agent-General and in 1941 the status was changed to
that of High Commissioner.
49 See for example Annual Report of the Agent of the Government of India in South Africa
for the Years Ending 31st December 1927 and 1928 in S.R. '1aidoo and D. Bramdaw,
Sastri Speaks (Pietermaritzburg, 1931) pp. 246-250. 264-266.
,0 Natal Witness, 8 July 1927.
'1 Debates of the House of Assembly. 1929, Vol. 13, col. 654, 659.
5' Indian Opinion, 8 April 1927.
" Indian Opinion, 12 August 1927.
'4 Annual Report of the Agent for 1927 in Naidoo and Bramdaw, Sastri Speaks, p. 246.
'5 EHL(O), 1927 - Overseas - July - 102 - B: G.S. Bajpai to Agent, 5 July 1927.
,,, EHL(O), 1927 - Overseas - August - 11 - 14 - Fl: Telegram to Agent, 3 August 1927.
" Report of the Controller and Auditor-General for 1927-8, p. 357. In October 1929 the fare
went up to £7 per adult (See Report of the Controller and Auditor-General for 1929-30,
p. 272).
58 Based on the Annual Reports of the Agent from 1927 to 1940 the total figure is 16 124. This
differs slightly from the figures given in Palmer, The History of Indians in Natal, p. 105 and
J.F. Corbett, 'A study of the Cape Town Agreement' (M.A., U.C.T., 1947) p. 88 which
total to 16 201. Based on figures in the Report of the Protector for Indian Immigrants for
1927 to 1940 the total would be 16343. The figure given in VG 39 - 1941, Report of the
Indian Penetration Commission, p. 5 is 17 542.
" UG 39 - 1941, Report :Jf the lndian Penetration Commision, p. 5.
w EHL(O), 1929 - Overseas - August - 90 - 95 - B: M. Habibullah to J.B. Petit, 9 May 1929.
"1 EHL(O), 1928 - Overseas - June - 99 - 117 - B: Bajpai to Governments of Madras, Bengal
and Bombay, 5 January 1928,31 May 1928.
6' SAP, F. No. 24-A/HC/SA: Report by Special Officer K. Nair, 23 April 1929.
63 H. Chattopadhyaya, Indians in Africa: A Socio-Economic Study (Calcutta, 1970), pp. 222
225.
64 See EHL(O), 1929 - Overseas - May - 113 - Band 1929 - Overseas - November - 36 - B:
Quarterly Reports of the Commissioner of Police, Bombay for 1929.
65 EHL(O), 1930 - Overseas - January - 36 - 40 - B: Letter from Special Officer, Madras, 8
February 1929.
M For these cases see EHL(O), 1928 - Overseas - April - 134 - 137 - Band 1930 - Overseas
January - 36 - 40 - B: Report of Special Officer, Madras, 13 February 1928 and 8 February
1929, 24 April 1929.
67 EHL(O), 1930 - Overseas - January - 36 - 40 - B: Letter from Special Officer, Madras, 8
February 1929.
(,S EHL(O). 1928 - Overseas - April - 134 - 137 - B: Special Officer, Madras to Commissioner
of Labour, Madras, 13 February 1928.
69 Ibid: Note by Bajpai, 15 March 1928.
70 EHL(O), 1930 - Overseas - February - 80 - 81 - B: Agent's Secretary to Secretary,
Government of India. 1 November 1929.
71 EHL(O). 1930 - Overseas - January - 36 - 40 - B: Secretary, Government of Madras to
Secretary, Government of India. 17 June 1929; Joint Secretary, Government of India to
Secretary, Government of Madras, 23 November 1929.
EHL(O). 1930 - Overseas - December - 113 - 115 - B: office note, 14 November 1930.
7~ Ihid, Special Officer, Madra~, Report on Decrepit Home, 6 October 1930; Dayal and
Chaturvedi, A Report on the Emigrants Repatriated to India, p. 22, Appendix V on Natal
House in Madras.
74 EHL(O), 1940 F. No. 16-5/40 O.S.: Secretary, Government of Madras to Secretary.
Government of India, 18 March 1940.
7' EHL(O), 1936 F. No. 29/36 L+O: Special Officer, Madras to Commissioner of Labour, 20
November 1936.
.
70 EHL(O), 1934 F. No. 16/34 L+O: Secretary. Government of Madras to Secretarv

Government of India. 4 January 1934 and F. No. 69/34 L+O: Special Officer, Madra, to
Commissioner of Lahour, 27 January 1934.
EHL(O), 1933 F. No. 211-8/33 L+O: Special Officer, Madras to Commissioner of Lahour,
20 October 1932.
78 Annual Report of the Agent for 1928 in Naidoo and Bramdaw, Sastri Speaks, p. 265.
74 Palmer. History of Indians in Nillal, pp. 105- 106.
HO Annual Report of the Agent for 1928 in Naidoo and Bramdaw, Sastri Speaks, p. 266.
Hl D. Yudelman, The Emergence of Modern South Africa: State, Capital, and the
Incorporation of Organized Labor on the South African Gold Fields, 1902-1936 (Cape
Town, 1983), pp. 236-238.
<2 Annual Report of the Agent for J932 (New Delhi, 1(33), pp. 15, 20.
H, Ibid, pp. 15-17.
X4 EHL(O), 1932 - Overseas - Januarv - 50-57-13: Reddi to Viceroy, 2 November 1931.
x' SAP, F. No. 26-A/HC/SAI1926: Proceedings of tirst Round Table Conference, p. 41.
Hh Natal Mercury, 28 January 1929; Indian Opinion, 27 November 1931.
S7 EHL(O). 1932 - Overseas - January - 50-57-B: Reddi to Viceroy. 2 November 1931 and
SAP. F. No. 26-A/HClSA/1926: Proceedings of second Round Tablc Conference, pp.
152-153.
SR EHL(O). 1933 - F. No. 211-8/33 L+O: Special Officer, Madras to Commissioner of
Labour, 20 Octoher 1932 and Petition of K. Rajoo, 27 August 1932.
KY Indian Opinion, 27 November 1931.
yq SAP. F. No. 26-A/HC/SAI1926: Proceedings of second Round Table Conference, p. 140.
01 EHL(O), 1933 F. No. 211-8/-'3 L+O: Kunwar Maharaj Singh to F. Husain, 10 January
1933; Singh to Bajpai. 16 February 1933 and 1933 F. No. 44-1/33 L+O: Singhto Husain.
10 Januarv 1933.
'12 Minutes o'f the Seventh Session of the South African I"dian Congress. March 1927, p. 10
(in Agenda Book, South African Indian Conference. Eighth Session, held on the 2nd. 3rd
and "th January 1921'1 at the Cit." Hall, Kimherlev.)
93 Indian Views, 29 J ulv 1927.
44 Indian Views, 6 Jal1l;ary 1928; 13 January 1928.
" Natal Mercury, 29 March 1927 (letter from J.W. Godfrey) and 5 April 1927 (letter from
J.W. Godfrey).
% See for instance Natal Mercurv. lIi March 1927 (Letter from P.S. Aiyar); 17 March 1927
(Letter from B.P. Nicholas); li\ March 1927 (Letters from PS. Aiyar and Moons<lmy
Naidoo); 21 March 1927 (Letters from A.D. Pillay, Leo R. Gopaul and S.A. Latiff); 30
March 1927 (Letter from J.P. Nicholas); 31 March 1927 (Letter from P.S. Aiyar); 24
March 1927; S. Bhana and B. Pachai (eds), A documentary history of Indian South
Africans (Cape Town, 19i-i4), pp. 159-165. The differences between the Federation and
Congress over the Agreement are considered in my paper The Cape Town Agreement and
its effect on Natal Indian Politics. 1927 to 1934', presented at the Conference on the
History of Natal and Zululand, 2-4 July 19i\5, at the University of Natal. Durban.
47 ,valal Mercllry. 21 March 1927 (Letter from M. Kalingarayan).
'm African Chronicle, 17 May 1929.
')'1 Indian Views, 18 November 1927.
11111 African Chronicle, 5 April 1929.
I,ll African Chronicle. I'J April 192'J; Indian Vieit's, 24 Januarv 1930.
"'" EHL(O), 1929 - Overseas - June - 21-B: Monthly Report of the Agent of the Government
of India in South Africa for April 1929.
",; SAP, F. No. 26-A/HClSAI1926: Proceedings of second Round Table Conference, p. 16.
104 Ibid. EHL(O) 1929 - Overseas - June - 21 - B: ,\lonthly Report of the Agent. April 1929;
Annual Report of the Agent FIT 19]9 (New Delhi, 1930), p. 13.
"" EHI.(O), 1929 - Overseas - June - 21 - B: Monthly Report of the Agent, April 1929.
1116 SAP, F. No. 26-A/HClSAII926: Proceedings of first Round Table Conference, p. 41.
11)7 African Chronicle, 17 May 1929.
iON See for instance FHL(O), 1929 - Overseas - June - 57 - 59 - 8: Report of Special Officer,
Madras 16 April 1929; 1929 - Overseas - August - 90 - 95 - B: Report of Protector.
Calcutta, 26 June 1929; 1930 - 0 - July - 6 - 8: Report of Commissioner of Police. Bomhay.
26 April 1930.
I(lY SAP, F. No. 24-A/HC/SA: Report of Special Officer. Madras, 23 April 1929.
-
1111 EHL(O), 1931 - Overseas - April - 20 - 21 - B: Report of G.A. Natesan and J. Gray on the
working of the special organization in Madras for dealing with emigrants returning from
South Africa under the scheme of assisted emigration, 3 May 1930. para. 10.
III
SAP, F. No. 24-A/Hc/SA: Report of Special Officer, Madras, 23 April 1929.
112 Ibid: EHL(O), 1929 - Overseas - August - 90 - 95 - B: Report of Special Officer, Madras,
12 June 1929.
113 EHL(O), 1929 - Overseas - August - 90 - 95 - B: Report of Special Officer, Madras, 12
June 1929, Case No. 35.
114 EHL(O), 1931 - Overseas - April - 20 - 21 - B: Natesan and Gray Report, para. 10.
IlS For these and other cases see 'EHL(O), 1930 - Overseas - July - 25 - 27- B: Report of
Special Officer, Madras, 5 April 1930; 1929 - Overseas - August - 90 - 95 - B: Report of
Special Officer, Madras, 12 June 1929.
11(, Natal Mercury, 21' January 1929; Annual Report of Joint Secretaries for 1928 in Agenda
Book, Annual Conference of the South African Indian Congress (9th Session) held on 24,
25, 26 Januarv 1929 in Durban. .
117 V.S. Srinivas~ Sastri Papers (TM), Correspondence Files: Joint Secretary (South African
Indian Congress) to Sastri, 11 February 1929; AICC Papers (TM). FD 9-1929: General
Secretaries (South African Indian Congress) to Secretaries, Indian National Congress,
Overseas Department, 15 March 1929; EHL(O), 1929 - Overseas - August - 90- 95 - B:
Secretaries (South African Tndian Congress) to Secretary, Imperial Tndian Citizenship
Association, 15 March 1929; Indian Opinion, 31 May 1929.
11, Natal Mercury, 10 August 1929.
119 EHL(O), 1931 - Overseas - April - 20 - 21 - B: Natesan and Gray report.
120 Dayal and Chaturvedi, A Report on the Emigrants Repatriated to India, pp. 22. 53-69.
121 Indian Opinion, 2 October 1931.
122 This was calculated from figures given in the Annual Report of the A/ient, 1929 to 1932.
123 Dayal and Chaturvedi, A Report on the Emigrants Repatriated to India, p. 68.
124 See Bhai Devi Dayal (compiler), Public Opinion on the Assisted Emigration Scheme under
Indo-SoWh African Agreement (Pravasi-Bhawan, Bihar, 1931), pp. 77-91.

12S Indian Opinion, 2 October 1931.
126 The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi (New Delhi), Vol. XLVI, 1931, p. 305; Indian
Opinion, 22 May 1931; 18 Decem'1er 1931.
l27 Indian Opinion, 27 November 1931.
lex See Annual Report of the Agent, 1927 to 1929 and 1932 for an analysis of the occupations of
the emigrants.
129 Reports of the Controller and Auditor-General, 1927-8, p. 178; 1928-9, p. 174; 1929-30, p.
139; 1930-1, p. 110.
"" Report of the Controller and Auditor-General, 1927-8, p. 175.
III Ibid, 1930-1, pp. roil-109.
132 UG 23-1934, Report ,()f Indian Colonization Enquiry Committee for 1933-1934, p. 49,
Appendix No. 5.
131 SAP, F. No; 26-AlHC/SA/192h: Proceedings of ,econd Round Table Conference, pp. 12
14.
134 Joint Comnwmque, 1932 reproduced in Pachai, The South African Indian Question, pp.
294-295.
lie See UG 23-1934, Report of Indian Colonization Enquiry Committee j()r 1933 - 1934; R.
Pillay, 'The Indian Colonization Enquiry Committee, 1933-1934' (B.A. Hom. essay,
L'DW, 1983) and my paper 'The Cape Town Agreement and its effect on Natal Indian
Politics, 1927 to 1934.'
116 R.E. Johnson, 'Indians and Apartheid in South Africa: The Failure of Resistance'
(D.Phil., Cniversity of Massachusetts, 1973) pp. 24-25.
V. Wetherell. The Indian Question in South Africa (Cape Town, 1946), pp. 21\-71.
138 M. Horrell, Laws Affecting Race Relations in South Africa (Johannesburg, 1978), p. 167.
139 Report of the Protrctor of Indian Immigrants for 7949 and 1950.
I"" Horrell, I,aws Affecting Race Relations, pp. 166-167.
UMA SHASHIKANT MESTHRIE
..
57
Indian Townscape Features
In Pietermaritzburg
Indians have made a notable yet largely unacknowledged contribution to the

townscape of Pietermaritzburg. Although only the unobservant are unaware
of the existence of temples and mosques, townscapes are more, much more,
than merely the sum of such parts. Prominent buildings in combination with
one another and with gabled houses and stores, and bonded together by
colours and vegetation, create a particularly sensuous townscape. But rarely
in South African towns and cities have Indian features been allowed to
blossom fully or remain in situ. Restrictions on Indian dwelling and trade as
well as expropriations and re locations have produced a continuum of Indian
townscape cells ranging from areas in which the Indian imprint is still clear,
to areas in which the odd palm tree is the only relic of the former Indian
occupation of that area. This paper focuses on four Indian towns cape cells in
Pietermaritzburg: lower Longmarket Street; upper Church Street; Pentrich
and one block along Commercial Road.
Lower Longmarket Street

This area constitutes one of the finest , most vividly Indian areas in Natal.
By the late 1870s a number of ex-indentured Hindu families had taken up
residence in this area . A number of barracks were erected to provide
humble accommodation - the barracks of six rooms built circa 1883 by the
Natal Land and Colonisation Company is the sole survivor (Plate 1). Across
Plate 1: Former Indian store and barracks on lower Longmarket Street, 1985.
- 58 Indian Townscape Features in Pietermaritzburg
Plate 2: Hindu temple compound in the foreground with Moslem structures in the
background.
(Photograph : Author's Collection)
the road a religious compound developed. A wood-and-iron temple, large

enough for only one person, made its appearance in 1890, and was followed
in 1909 by a modest temple in the form of a Victorian veranda house. The
tower of this Mariaman Temple was designed by K. Reddy, the master
temple builder. Reddy was also employed, along with the other notable
Natal temple builder K.R. Pillay , for the construction (from 1908-1915) of
the adjacent Shree Subrahmanya Temple within the same compound . Both
of these are South Indian temples, which in addition to the shrine and
tower, feature an external altar defined by a Kodi, or flagpole . A number of
minor temples, palm, banana and temple trees (Michelia champaca) , the
firewalking pit, peacocks and a two metre wall complete the enclave (Plate
2). One can wholeheartedly concur with the following statements and
sentiments: 'the experience to be encountered in and around these temples
must always outweigh the written word and photographic image' (Mikula,
Kearney and Harber, 1982, p. 4); and 'it is to be hoped that with a little
more general awareness, it may well be possible to retain some of the better
buildings for posterity. This is important for they have much to offer in their
rich architectural concepts which may well be considered as traditional of
Natal as Cape Dutch is to the Cape' (Mikula, 1983, p. 15).
Diagonally across the street from this twin temple compound stands the
Shri Vishnu Temple and School. This temple caters for Hindi-speaking
Hindus who are followers of Vishnu and therefore stands testimony to the
linguistic, cultural and rel!gious diversity of the Indian settlers. The Shri
Indian Townscape Features in Pietermaritzburg 59
Vishnu Temple (Plate 3~ is strikingly different from its neighbouring

temples. It is a freestanding, or North Indian , temple surrounded by an
arched veranda. A pair of royal palms flanks the entrance path, as do the
red flags which are raised on bamboo poles to a minor deity . Although
lacking the blending of sculptural and architectural features of some other
temples, the bulbous dome, the mould of which was made with mealie stalks
and bamboo, is a masterpiece of folk architecture attributed to 'one named
Mistree' .
The domes and arches of the Shri Vishnu Temple mirror the Moslem
features of the Habibia Soofie Musjid Mosque (1909) and the Nizamia
Society Madressa (1942) which stand on either side of the Longmarket-East
Street intersection. Within walking distance we therefore have a remarkable
cross-section of Indian religious architecture. The juxtaposition of these
styles may well be unique both in and to Natal, for only in this province
were religious stuctures, of places widely separated in India, obliged to be
close neighbours (Plate 4).
Plate 3.
Plate 4: Temple tower and minaret
from Bengal Alley.
-
60 Indian Townscape Features in Pietermaritzburg
Upper Church Street

By the 1890s several substantial Moslem traders had set up shop in upper
Church Street. E.C. Rawat's building at 69 Church Street is still standing
but is now used as a warehouse. Partially hidden by Rawat's is the Surat
·Suni Mosque which was completed in 1903 (Plate 7). The mosque was
founded by Amod Bayat who traded at 47 Church Street. Bayat imported
builders from India and they were responsible for his fine store (Plate 5) and
the mosque.
By the 1930s an imposing row of store-dwellings had made their
appearance (Plate 6). More than a dozen other Indian stores lined upper
Church Street, Indian families lived in semi-detached houses on Raven,
Plate 5. Amod Bayat's store in the 1890s - demolished in 1976.

(Photograph: Bayat family)
Deane and Wilson Streets, and along with the mosque and M.O . madressa a
jama'at, or Moslem community, flourished.
Demolitions and aluminium face-lifts have masked many features, and of
course relocations have dismembered the community, but the advent of free
trade areas and, hopefully, an increased awareness of this area's
characteristics may well recreate the earlier Moslem ambience.
Plate 6. An imposing row of Indian stores in upper Church Street, c. 1938.

(Photograph: Natal Witness)
Plate 7: Rawat's Building and the entrance to the mosque in upper Church Street,
1985.
62 Indian Townscape Features in Pietermaritzburg
Pentrich
Indian settlement in this area mirrored the larger Natal sequence. By 1900
Hindu gardeners were occupying rectangular plots which gave them access
to the Umsindusi floodplain. Moslem traders followed soon thereafter.
Relocations in accordance with the Group Areas Act have changed the
occupants of the houses, but the gables, the arched verandas, the palms, the
banana and the mango trees remain as a distinctive Indian stamp,
particularly in Topham and French Roads.
Commercial Road
In 1894 a visitor of Maritzburg described the view from atop the Town
Hall as follows:
From the four turret windows we obtained magnificent birdseye views
in different directions. Just below us was the Market Square, crowded
with wagons and long teams of oxen. In the opposite direction
stretched a long narrow street, with crowds of Indian and Kafirs
constantly passing. It was called Commercial Road, our guide said, but
Arab-street would have been a more suitable name, for most of the
low, dark shops seemed to be occupied by Indian traders, dressed in
flowing robes (Thomas, 1894, p. 12).
The City's 1900 Valuation Roll reveals that rows of small 'Arab Stores'
dominated the block between Church and Pietermaritz Street. Along the
eastern front of that block stood a row of fourteen such stores. S.H.
Mahommed's store at 197 Commercial Road had both living rooms and a
Plate 8: Commercial Road between Church and Pietermaritz Streets. c. 1930, wi.th
Arab stores on the right.
mosque upstairs. Across the road Parker, Wood & Co. had a row of six
'Arab Stores' as their neighbours (Plate R). These stores were however soon
replaced by European stores, the Magistrate's Court and the Grand
Theatre. In 1930, the occasion of the opening of the Grand Theatre
produced the following descriptions of the Church Street/Commercial Road
area:
Only a few years ago the property on which the new buildings now
stand was something of an eyesore. Many of the shops were owned by
Arabs, and they were nearly all ramshackle affairs ... The site next
door to the corner shop was formerly occupied by an Indian mosque. It
is not so many years ago since men sleeping in the neighbourhood were
roused in the early morning by the priest's call to prayer ... About six
years ago the mosque was burned down in mysterious circumstances,
and the old priest perished in the flames. Farther down Commercial
Road was a group of small Arab stores. Some of these were
appropriated, at a later date (Natal Witness, December 15, 1930, p. 4).
Conclusions
The four cells which have been described present a cross-section of Indian
religious, occupational and residential activities. Although a city cannot
stand still, much of the relocation and appropriation of Indian activities has
been unnecessary, and has severed communities from the townscape cells
which they have created. Clearly, townscapes arc held together by people,
and townscapes in turn help to bind communities. Not surprisingly,
therefore, the quality of community life, as well as the building fabric which
reflects that quality, has suffered. Consequently, it is insufficient merely to
plead for the conservation of what few historic Indian townscape features
have survived. Rather our concern must encompass the life and well-being
of the community itself. Have our twentieth century planners laid out and
brought to life arcas comparable to our nineteenth century relics? If not,
then an appreciation of the past, and of how townscapes and communities
nourish each other is not an elitist pastime but a fundamentally important
concern.
REFERENCES
P. Mikula (1982): 'Hindu temples in South Africa' The Condenser 10-15.
P. Mikula, B. Kearney and R. Harber (1982): Traditional Hindu temples in South Africa
(Durban: Hindu Temple Publications).
E.N. Thomas (1894): How thank/ill we should be: comments on Natal (Cape Town: Cape
Times).
ROBERT F. HASWELL
64
Health and Disease In
White Settlers In Colonial Natal
Pain and suffering, 'long lingering illness and early death seem to be a
recurrent theme in any account of pioneer settlement, and Natal is no
exception. Such accounts show clearly, too, that the status of the medical
profession was low in the nineteenth century, and that the care of the sick
and injured was often in the hands of lay persons without any formal
medical training. Today, in .wt'3tern countries at least, the picture is very
different. This paper sets out to consider the health and disease of White
settlers in Natal during the Trekker and colonial periods using official
sources where they exist and the settlers' own perception of their medical
experiences, taken from diaries and journals.!
How did White residents of Natal perceive their health and the cure and
prevention of disease? Henry Francis Fynn obviously believed that the
ability to look after oneself and to be prepared for all eventualities was
essential for survival. After experiencing a severe bout of fever in Delagoa
Bay he resolved, we are told, never to be without a medicine chest again
and carried one on all his subsequent journeys. He had had no formal
medical training but 'had gained a modicum of medical and surgical
knowledge as a scholar at Christ's Hospital, London (the famous Blue Coat
School) by being the "Ioblolly boy". '2 He successfully treated one of Shaka's
followers for malaria and then treated Shaka himself after he had been
stabbed. 1 It is not known what he carried in his chest. There were, however,
apparently one or more drugs that were considered essential for continued
existence at Port Natal in the 1820s since John Ross, at considerable risk to
life and limb, was sent on foot to Delagoa Bay to purchase supplies. They
may well have included quinine, which Fynn was known to use, together
with opium which was widely used for pain and bowel complaints. As for
prevention, since the causes of most diseases were unknown, there was little
that could be done to prevent them. Dr Charles Johnston wrote in Durban
in 1860 that 'disease, when not inherited, is generally the result of ignorance
and carelessness'. and this seems to sum up the attitude of the Natal settlers,
except that they might have added misfortune.
After the defeat of Dingane's army at Blood River in 1838, the
Voortrekkers journeyed to Pietermaritzburg where they settled in the
Republiek Natalia. Thereafter they occupied large farms as they had done
on the eastern frontier of the Cape and became dependent on their own
resources after years of travelling in closely knit groups. That they needed
expert home nursing in times of illness goes without saying but they also had
faith in numerous Dutch remedies which they brought with them and
continued to import from the Cape via Port Natal. Many of these remedies
Health and Disease in White Settlers in Colonial Natal 65
are still available in pharmacies and include Jamaica ginger for cramps,
versterkdruppels for all kinds of weakness and debility, pynstillende druppels
and many others. They also made use on occasion of red powder, milk
poultices and even dog's blood taken by mouth. s In 1839 a particularly
severe epidemic of measles struck the Trekker families in Natal, having been
brought from the Cape where it had killed off many young children the
previous year as it had done in Mauritius and in Central Africa before that.
There were many deaths among the young children both in Pietermaritzburg
and in other districts and the leaders blamed this on the shortage of
traditional remedies as a result of the 'stopping of the course of trade' by
the British. 6 Daniel Lindley has described the effect of the epidemic on the
Boer encampment and quotes Mrs Steenkamp who, with her old husband,
had to nurse 23 children and grandchildren in a waggon. 7 Hattersley
describes the treatment for measles as the administration of an emetic,
followed by mild purgatives with bleeding should pain in the chest be severe,
no doubt as the consequence of pneumonia following the measles."
The attitude of the Trekkers to infections and injunes was similarly one of
self help through improvisation; if this failed, then death had to be expected
and accepted. The best known example is that of Paul Kruger who had to
amputate part of his thumb when it was shattered in a shooting accident,
using his pocket knife. When, not surprisingly, it became infected and all the
usual remedies such as poultices had been tried without success and his life
was endangered, a buck was shot and his thumb was plunged into the still
warm entrails in order to draw out the pus. The treatment was apparently
successful since he survived and lived for many years enjoying vigorous good
health. Similarly chest infections were treated by wrapping the patient in the
skin of a newly slaughtered sheep or goat until an improvement was seen.
Even in Pietermaritzburg where Dr Bernardus Poortman, Natal's first
registered medical practitioner, was readily available, the Trekker families
continued to use their traditional remedies. Poortman complained that the
people of Pietermaritzburg were so healthy that there was not enough work
to provide a living and in 1852 he decided to accompany the Trekker parties
who were moving to the Transvaal.
Some ot these Voortrekker remedies and procedures were adopted by the
British and German settlers who arrived in the ]840s and 1850s. Eliza
Feilden, for example, was told about the treatment of an inflamed breast
with a hot cabbage leaf poultice and used it successfully on her servant Mrs
Orchard. 9 Mrs Feilden also records the birth of a premature infant to Mrs
Orchard while on a wagon trip to the Transvaal where she had gratefully
accepted the assistance of a Dutch midwife. Quoting Mrs Orchard she writes
'the Dutch nurse who attended me at the first, instead of washing my poor
little, very little, too-soon-born infant, rubbed it all over with oil or grease,
which made it smell so badly that I could not bear it beside
me ... '.10 Nevertheless the infant survived.
As a result of a series of books written by Mann, Methley, Holden, Byrne
and others specifically to encourage immigration to Natal in the years 1848
to 1859, new settlers came to the colony in the belief that they would find a
sunny, temperate clime, a plentiful rainfall and a haven for those suffering
from tuberculosis and various chest complaints. 11 Some settlers, such as Cecil
Rhodes and the Anglican minister WaIter Baugh who was an asthmatic,
66 Health and Disease in White Settlers in Colonial Natal
apparently came to Natal specifically to take advantage of the healthy

climate. Rhodes finally died at the age of 49 after 32 years in South Africa
and Baugh at 40 after 21 in Natal. A letter from Martha Lofthouse, written
to her uncle in England, shows that some settlers, at least, saw Natal as the
answer to their health problems. She wrote of Carolina Brittain, who died
on the voyage just as the Haidee crossed the equator: 'She was more like it
(dead) when she came on board than living, for she was one of those that
thought Port Natal would bring dead people to life again, or at least her
husband was . . .'.
Once arrived in Natal did the immigrants find the extremely healthy spot
of their expectations? Judging from the number of settlers who lived to an
advanced age despite facing difficulties of all kinds it seems that for most the
colony was indeed a healthy place to live. Using the first three volumes of
Shelagh Spencer's 'British Settlers in Natal' to calculate the number of
British-born migrants who lived to over the proverhial three score years and
ten, we find that 20% of the 180 men whose dates of birth and death are
listed, and 24% of the 133 women, lived to be over 80, while 47% of each
sex made it to 70. Only 19% of the men, and 22']'0 of the women, died
before the age of 40. The fact that emigrants tend to come from the
strongest and most resourceful individuals in a population may be one of the
explanations for this longevity.
There were significant differences between the medical care available to
rural families and to those living in Pietermaritzburg and Durban, and
this difference increased as the century progressed, with most of the medical
advances such as routine abdominal surgery and the use of anaesthetics
becoming available only in the two hospitals in those towns. Yet some
people lived to old age in both town and country.
Modern parents rely on the general practitioner and the baby clinic for
advice on infant feeding, inoculations against childhood diseases, teething
and quite minor ailments. The doctor in colonial Natal, even when he could
he found, had few treatments at his disposal, and there were no clinics in
existence; parents would thus have to do much more for themselves.
Premature infants would have had little chance of survival because of the
difficulty of feeding them and keeping them warm, while for the haby,
premature or not, whose mother was unahle to hreast feed the future was
precarious. Feeding formulas, as we know them, did not exist and very little
was known about the qualities and composition of cow's milk which was at
the time unpasteurized and a frequent source of intestinal infection.
Prematurity and inefficient artificial feeding were among the commonest
causes of death in infancy. Marianne Churchill, unable to breast feed onc of
her infants, tried 'to bring it up by hand but by the end of a fortnight the
poor little thing was pining so much for its proper food and was so cold and
weak that the doctor did not give much hope of its living unless we could get
a wet nurse'. They were able to find a woman who had lost her own infant
and she willingly took over the Churchill baby for a consideration; it
survived. 11 The Lovatt infant, however, which was brought to Mrs Blamey
for feeding when already very weak and suffering from thrush, died shortly
afterwards. '" Infants sometimes succumbed to attacks of croup; the
Norgaard family lost a child in this wayY Infectious diseascs of childhood,
particularly measles and whooping cough epidemics, were other major
dangers in this age group and apart from nursing care and isolation in a
darkened room, there was little that could be done for these patients, who
often died. Deaths of infants under one year of age, registered in Durban
for the ten year period 1886 to 1895, numbered 688. The commonest cause
of death was gastro-enteritis (34% of total deaths) followed by unclassifiable
conditions, such as inanition and failure to thrive (26%), most of which
might well have been due to problems with feeding. Pneumonia, probably in
most cases a complication of measles or whooping cough, accounted for
12% of the deaths.
There were also children, then and now, who died suddenly from
unknown causes. Blamey records that 'Clayton's younger child, a boy about
thirteen months, died this morning at 6 o .c. He was only ill the day before' !7
while the Archibald papers report the unexplained death of 'Our beloved
Mary Jane, only 18 years of age, died we know not why or how'.!8 Post
mortems were, at this time, seldom carried out except in the case of suspected
unnatural causes and no enquiry seems to have been made into the deaths
mentioned here.
Grave of Peniston children in St Matthew's Churchyard, Estcourt.

(Photograph: Dr Peter Brain)
Today the young and active are liable to death and injury as a result of
motor accidents; in the 19th century their accidents were frequently the
result of falling off galloping horses or from wagons and carts, and despite
the slowness of these vehicles they effectively crushed or fractured limbs as
they passed over the victim. Accidents whil~ hunting were common, either as
a result of accidental shooting or injuries received from wounded animals.
Blamey records the death of his neighbour, John Meyer, and his dog, both
of whom were wounded by a 'tiger' which was raiding the fowl houses. 19 The
scratches or bites inflicted in this way often became infected and in the days
before sulphonamides and antibiotics there was little that could be done.
Fractured limbs could be re-set by pulling the bones into position usually
without the aid of any kind of anaesthetic. Surgery was carried out in the
Colony's hospitals and after 1880 surgeons were prepared to open the
abdomen routinely which made the treatment of appendicitis, ruptured
spleens and other abdominal emergencies possible. Chloroform was
introduced into British hospitals from the United States in the 1840s; in
South Africa Ebden and Atherstone experimented with anaesthetics in 1847
and doctors began to use chloroform routinely in about 1870.
Considering those settlers who spent most of their lives in the country
districts it is apparent that wives and mothers had to bear most of the
responsibility for the care of their menfolk and children and although the
nearest medical practitioner was sometimes summoned, the patient's
survival depended on first aid and home emergency measures in the hours
before he arrived. There are many examples of this in the settler literature.
John Cardell Blamey, whose diaries cover the 1851-62 and 1871-72 periods,
lived with his wife Margaret and large family at Prospect Farm in the
Verulam district. Blamey recorded many of the family's health problems,
most of which were handled without professional assistance. In August 1855,
however, Blamey's son Roach fell under a cart and broke his arm. On this
occasion Dr Bryan was sent for and 'after a deal of hard pulling - Doctor
and I - the bone sat in the right position with a sound similar to a lock.
Poor Roach suffered dreadfully but bore the pain with great fortitude'. '0
Another, case in which the nearest doctor was summoned was that of the
thirteen year old Oswald Smythe who was bitten by an enormous puffadder
while picking peaches in the farm orchard. Doctor Wylie of Nottingham
Road was sent for and arrived two hours later by which time 'the leg was so
swollen you would have thought the skin would have burst'. In the interval
Margaret Smythe had tied a piece of sheeting round the knee to make a
tourniquet, had sucked 'about a cupful' of blood out of the places where the
fangs had penetrated, had bathed the wounds to make them bleed freely and
had applied poultices of bread and milk and carbolic acid. She had washed
her mouth out with gin as a safety measure after sucking out the poison. The
doctor injected permanganate of potash into the leg and strychnine into the
patient's arm and Oswald recovered but the doctor was of the opinion that it
was Margaret's prompt action in sucking the wound that had saved his Iife. 21
Snakebite was, of course, a common occurrence in Natal and there were
many remedies and treatments tried. The Norwegian missionary H.P.S.
Schreuder successfully treated mamba bite by applying a strong antidote, the
nature of which was not specified, and then burning the site of the wound
with a hot iron."
Grey's Hospital in the 1870s.

(Photograph: Natal Museum)
Captioned 'Durban Hospital, 1870' this might be an early photograph of Addington

Hospital. There was, however, an earlier hospital facing Durban Bay at or near the
site of the present law courts.
(Photograph: Mr H. Fynn)
One of the earliest reported cases of the successful treatment of snakebite

is reported in Captain Garden's Diary.23 Again it was a puffadder that bit a
young man of 23 who killed the snake and carried it home with him - it was
obviously realised that identification of the snake was important - and the
wound was 'drenched with milk' while the arrival of Dr Poortman was
awaited. Since he had to travel from Pietermaritzburg on horseback the
doctor did not arrive until seven hours after the bite had been inflicted and
he was surprised to find the patient still alive. He proceeded to lance the
wound and then rubbed in eau-de-luce which was described as a mixture of
mastic, rectified spirits, oils of lavender and amber and strong ammonia.
The patient was given some of this mixture by mouth also. After a period of
dizziness the patient recovered and the doctor believed that since it was
winter the snake was in a torpid state and therefore not so dangerous. We
are indebted to Henry Francis Fynn24 for an account of the Zulu method of
treating snakebite. Firstly an emetic was administered, followed by a pinch
of powder made from dried poison taken from dozens of snakes. The wound
was washed with camomile tea and a little of the same powder was put on
the site of the wound and within three or four hours the patient was out of
danger. Yet the treatment for snakebite was not always successful and many
must have died as did Richard Broughton after being bitten by a black
mamba. 2;
Less dramatic but equally unpleasant medical conditions had to be treated
at home, using any treatment to hand. Blarney suffered from bilious attacks
brought on by summer heat and also from piles which often confined him to
his bed. In December 1853 he wrote 'I have been very poorly all day and
more especially from physic I took' but six days later he was sufficiently
recovered to complete the thatching of the pig-houses. His neighbour, Mr
Fynney, suffered great pain from 'a stoppage in his water' but the Blameys
supplied him with some medicine which apparently relieved his distress. 26
Bacterial infections, in the absence of any specific treatment, had to run
their painful course. Mrs Blarney, whose illnesses and confinements are well
documented in her husband's diary, suffered greatly before the birth of a
child in September 1854. Starting in February with what was described as 'a
gathering in her breast' - probably a breast abscess - she became so weak
that she was confined to bed and by the middle of the month her life was
believed to be in danger. Evidently a doctor was not called, or he would
have opened it. Her anxious husband wrote 'Mrs B. is very weak, confined
to bed: whether this affliction be to my earthly loss or not, God only knows'.
Soon afterwards the 'gathering' broke and the pain was relieved but she
remained in bed for another month. On March 14th Blarney wrote 'Mrs B.
still very poorly. Children all poorly, also self, sick with bowel complaint'. It
is not difficult to imagine how miserable life must have been under such
circumstances with little effective treatment available for any of these
complaints and no way of knowing how serious they were. Nevertheless at
the end of the year Blarney offered a prayer of thanksgiving for the survival
of his family. 27
One of the mysterious complaints from which Victorian girls suffered was
the decline. It has been suggested that the condition was associated with the
onset of tuberculosis or, in some cases, with unrequited love but whatever
the cause it was not common in NataL possibly because there was a battle
for survival in most households and there was little time to cosset an invalid.
Ellen McLeod, whose family 'worked long and hard for their living, became
very ill on one occasion 'with a stoppage brought on by a cold and suffered
violent pain for five days'. She was treated unsuccessfully with calomel until
someone recommended the much advertised Holloway's pills and ointment.
She was given 10 pills and rubbed with the ointment and four hours later
was much relieved. 28 No half measures here! Menopausal problems,
described by Charles Johnson as 'very aggravated attacks of a nervous
hysterical nature' which women over the age of 40 were liable to in Natal
were treated with 'a simple loop bandage consisting of two silk hand
kerchiefs, one passed loosely round the waist, to which the other is
suspended, doubled behind, and the two ends brought between the legs to
be fastened before.' In some circumstances he recommended the same kind
of bandage for men also. 2"
Accidents of various kinds occurred frequently on isolated farms or on
journeys by ox wagon or cart over rough roads and in most cases the
survival of the victims depended on the initiative or skill of those around
him. Fractures were treated by setting the bone in what seemed to be the
correct position and then bandaging it firmly. Even if the patient could be
taken to hospital quickly there was not much more that could be done in the
absence of X-ray facilities and of anaesthetics. The use of X-rays, not
introduced into South Africa until 1896, would have made life much more
pleasant for Charles Johnson, later Archdeacon Charles Johnson, wounded
in the Langalibalele rebellion and whose sufferings are described by Barbara
Buchanan: 'For a year he was in hospital and underwent three operations to
extract the bullet, each operation seeking it in a different direction from the
others'.;(I Mrs Archibald's broken arm gave trouble for months although 'it is
not a compound fracture, but they could not tell if it was a clean break'3l.
The most appalling case of all was that of Mrs St Vincent Erskine, wife of
the surveyor in East Griqualand and daughter of the famous 0.0.
Buchanan, who was injured during the Griqua uprising when a powder
magazine was accidently blown up. Her leg was broken in five places and
the hip damaged and she was left unnoticed among the dead. Hours later
she was found to be alive and soldiers broke a gun case to make a splint
which was padded with tow and bandaged with a piece torn from a friend's
skirt and she was carried into the nearby barracks. Here she remained
without any further treatment for two weeks until the military situation
allowed her to be carried home on a shutter and she was confined to her bed
for the next twenty months. Finally she was well enough to be carried
outside for the first time since the accident but this was done so clumsily that
her leg was re-broken by being knocked against the door. When she was
eventually able to get about on crutches the leg was so deformed that the
knee was twisted round and the toes turned under the foot. Since there were
no surgeons in the colony willing to operate she was taken to England, on
the advice of Or Callaway, where Sir James Paget operated successfully. She
returned to Natal mobile but with a permanent limp. She had certainly not
had the benefit of good medical advice and her husband apparently believed
that nature would take its course without any professional assistance. 32
Missionaries, transport riders and hunters who wandered far from the
towns were frequent victims of accidents, often involving guns. One such
accident befell the Catholic missionary Brother Terpent in 1861 when, in

setting up a makeshift trap in order to supplement the meat supply, he
caught his foot in the mechanism and shot himself in the knee, shattering the
bone. This took place in the vicinity of the Umzimkulu River, they had no
transport of any kind and the nearest doctor was in Pietermaritzburg. One
of the party had to walk to Richmond to hire a wagon which arrived several
days later. Terpent was then placed in a crude hammock strung up in the
back of the wagon and he had to endure eight days of rough tracks and river
crossings before the capital was reached.· Although exhausted he did
eventually recover, his leg was saved and he moved on to become one of the
pioneers of the Diamond Fields." Even as late as 1878 rural medicine was
primitive as can be seen from the operation for a Pigoroff amputation
performed by Or W. Darley-Hartley, without an anaesthetic, on the buck
boards of a wagon. 34
Settlers who lived in Durban or Pietermaritzburg or within easy reach of
them had the advantages of being able to call in a medical practitioner and,
if necessary, of taking their sick to hospital. In the early years doctors
available were either missionary doctors or military surgeons. The best
known of the missionary doctors was Newton Adams M.D. of the American
Board Mission at Umlaas River (Umlazi) who was the only qualified
practitioner in the Port Natal district at the time of the serious measles
epidemic of 1839. Adams was known as a skilful physician and surgeon and
although primarily a missionary and teacher he attended the sick of all races
who came from long distances to consult him. Adams was ordained a
minister in 1847 and moved his mission to the Amanzimtoti reserve where
he established Adams College, continuing to reserve several hours each
morning for medical work. He died - as a result, it is believed, of
consistent overwork - at the age of 45. The first doctor in Pietermaritzburg
was Bernardus Poortman, already mentioned. Among the army surgeons
perhaps the best known was lames Alexander Fraser M.D. who attended
the British soldiers wounded in the battle and siege of Congella in 1842.
Despite the lack of almost every kind of facility which would now be
considered essential Fraser undertook numerous amputations, all of which
were successfuJ.35 On the Trekker side medical assistance was given by the
legendary Or Wilhelm lulius Schultz who settled in Congella village in 1840,
later moving to Klip River. There seems to be some doubt whether Schultz
ever passed his final examinations at the University of Berlin but he had a
large practice until the end of his life in 1885.
There were about 23 qualified doctors among the British settlers although
only 12 remained in Natal because of the difficulty in making a living from
general practice alone. Of the 12 several farmed as well as setting up
practice while others, such as Sutherland and Mann, joined the civil service.
Three of these men set up practice in Durban, Or Charles lohnston in Pine
Terrace, E.W. Holland in West Street and W.G. Taylor in Smith Street. In
Pietermaritzburg Or J ames Mack was licensed as a physician only, set up
practice in Pietermaritz Street and was one of the founders of the cottage
hospital. He became insolvent in 1855 and moved to the Eastern Cape.
Other well known Pietermaritzburg medical practitioners were William
Addison, Samuel Gower, the capital's first district surgeon, James McKidd,
best known as a surgeon at Grey's Hospital and Or James F.S. Alien. In the
outlying areas doctors cam~ and went since life was hard, distances great
Dr Samuel Gower. Dr Peter Sutherland.

(Photograph: Natal Museum) (Photograph: Natal Archives)
and remuneration small and irregular and it is in these districts that

mi::;sionary doctors like Henry Callaway were in demand. One of the best
known of the doctors practising near Durban was Julius Schulz, who had
arrived with the British German Legion settlers in 1858 and first settled on a
farm in the Westville district before moving to Smith Street. Schulz had a
struggle to make a living and responded to every call no matter how far from
home; there are many stories of his adventures. He was forced to operate
for years on his kitchen table, since the Durban hospital had little
accommodation for White patients . His daughter has left an account of
operations conducted at night on a back veranda, with a lantern held aloft
by his wife or eleven year old daughter. It was Schulz too who in crossing a
flooded river, after visiting a patient, stripped, tied his clothing to the saddle
and swam the horse across only to see the bundle washed off by the current
and disappear. On reaching the other side he had to hide in the bushes until
darkness fell when he was able to sneak home unseen. 36
Town dwellers, then, were able to call in the doctor when necessary but in
bad times were not able to pay his bills and the medical practitioner
struggled to make even a meagre living. Durban's first hospital, known as
the Bayside hospital, was used by all races but was poorly supported, while
Pietermaritzburg's first 'hospital' was a primitive wattle and daub structure
used in addition as a workhouse, gaol and asylum. Only after the erection of
Grey's hospital in 1857 and Addington in 1879 did the situation improve.
Casualty departments, as we know them, did not exist and it was only
towards the end of the colonial period that white residents were willing to be
admitted to hospital if they could be nursed at home. Even then most people
were born and died in their own homes. The importance of hospitals at this
time was that surgery could be undertaken in hygienic conditions, especially
after the acceptance of Lister's antiseptic or aseptic measures after 1890.
They also provided a place for patients suffering from infectious diseases,
nor was there any longer the need for indigents to die in neglect. The
erection of a separate asylum for the insane at Town Hill in 1880, under the
direction of Dr lames Hyslop, a pioneer in the field of mental diseases,
provided accommodation and care for all races even if treatment at the time
was primitive. Settler families did not have to resort, like Mr Rochester, to
restraining their mentally disturbed members in the garret! Most important
of all was that the establishment of hospitals attracted better qualified and
trained medical staff, both doctors and nurses, and the whole population
benefited as a result.
Hospitals were particularly useful in time of epidemics and Natal had
several of these during the colonial period. Measles, as mentioned earlier,
was a serious disease and the 1839 epidemic seems to have affected all parts
of South Africa. Another outbreak occured in 1860-61. Whooping cough
also appeared in epidemic form several times during the 19th century and
caused deaths among children. Cholera was, from time to time, brought in
on ships from the East and caused great alarm each time. Even the colonists
who were most in favour of importing indentured Indian labourers became
less convinced when the second ship bringing them, the Belvidere, arrived
with cholera on board. During the 51 years of the indenture system this
happened several times, one of the most serious outbreaks occurring on the
Quathlamba IV in 1889, but quarantine regulations were strictly enforced to
prevent it from spreading and patients were treated in the lazaretto at the
Bluff. Cholera was treated with the Melbourne remedy: 'administer flour
and water, boiled rather thicker than cream, and brandy and water, hot and
strong, with about 20 drops of laudanum and twenty drops of peppermint in
each glass'.
Dysentery was endemic in Durban and was resistent to the drugs of the
day although chlorodyne (a preparation of opium) relieved the symptoms.
Soldiers living in primitive conditions in camps and dependent on the local
water supplies were particularly liable to dysentery. The diary of Lieutenant
Mynors, a 22 year old who arrived with the British forces in 1879 and died of
dysentery a few months later, paints a pathetic picture of his sufferings.
Another well-documented case of dysentery is given by Norgaard whose
mother suffered from chronic dysentery for seven years despite the use of
every known treatment until 'she resembled a skeleton with clothes hanging
on it' Y Her family believed that she was finally cured as a result of prayer.
Typhoid or enteric fever was prevalent in Pietermaritzburg and was some
times confused with typhus or camp fever. It was Dr lames Alien who found
that typhoid was most likely to occur where dairies existed and in the homes
of people in contact with cows. Since at the time Pietermaritzburg had 23
dairies and many families kept one or two cows it is obvious that typhoid
would be difficult to eradicate. One of the most serious outbreaks occurred
at the time of the Anglo-Zulu war and shortly afterwards, and some of the
regiments were transferred to Pine town military camp to prevent infection,
remaining there until 1887. Similarly Malta fever occurred from time to time
and was not yet associated with goats' milk.
Malaria, or ague as it was called, was prevalent in the bush north of the
Bay and the hunters and travellers who went down with it were brought into
the Government hospital where deaths were not uncommon. The causes of
malaria were unknown and many doctors believed that it was contracted
from noxious gases emanating from ill-drained marshy ground covered with
vegetation. Quinine had been used for a considerable time but many
doctors, among them David Livingstone, had little faith in its efficacy. He
declared that the 'best preventive against fever is plenty of interesting work
to do and abundance of wholesome food to eat'. 3" One of the most popular
treatments for malaria was the 'Rand Kicker', originally prescribed by a Dr
Rand and consisting of quinine and 'dop', which tasted horrible but had
excellent effects, it is said.
Quinine was also used for the alleviation of toothache. Marianne
Churchill was given 'two or three bottles of strong quinine' when she had
severe 'face and tooth ache'. The pain was driven away and she avoided the
need to have any teeth out, temporarily at least. 3" Aspirin, which would no
doubt have been more effective, was not synthesised until 1899. Dentures
were not available and teeth had often to be extracted at an early age. As
Ellen McLeod remarked to her sister, 'being without teeth affects the health
and speech so much'. 4()
Epidemics of smallpox occurred from time to time but the introduction of

vaccination regulations after 1882 kept it in check. Plague appeared in Cape
Town in 1901 and spread to other ports, including Durban. The Colony's
first Health Officer, Dr Ernest Hill, took strict quarantine measures to
prevent its spreading and patients and contacts were isolated on Salisbury
Island.
A study of the principal causes of death in white people over one year of
age in Durban and Pietermaritzburg has been made from death certificates
at several points in the colonial period, and the results have been compared
with deaths reported for the same population in the whole Republic in 1962.
In the 1860s, 1870s and 1880s about 40% of all such deaths were due to
three major causes: intestinal infections (dysentery and typhoid), pulmonary
tuberculosis, and pneumonia. Of these, pneumonia death rates remained
more or less constant at about 12% of deaths throughout the colonial
period, but deaths from intestinal infections and from tuberculosis were
declining in the early years of the twentieth century, no doubt because of
better sanitation, water supplies and living conditions. Malaria, except in
certain bad years, was relatively insignificant as a reported cause of death,
although it no doubt contributed to ill-health and thus to mortality from
other reported causes. The complications of pregnancy and childbirth caused
about 2% of non-infant deaths throughout the colonial period. Deaths from
cancer increased from about 2% in 1868 to about 10% in 1908, no doubt
reflecting the greater age of the population towards the end of the period.
In 1962 the picture was quite different. Hardly anyone was reported as
dying of infection, except for 7% of deaths from pneumonia; but this is
something quite different from the pneumonia of the colonial period, which
was usually an acute infection occurring in previously fit people, in the
treatment of which the doctor of the nineteenth century was as helpless as
his Hippocratic counterpart twenty-three centuries before. The pneumonia
of modern times is a terminal condition in old patients. Pulmonary
tuberculosis has all but disappeared, as have the intestinal infections, which
make up only 0,06')10 of non-infant deaths. People in 1962 died principally
from heart disease, cancer and accidents; in the colonial period they died
mostly from infections.41
We have seen that many of the migrants to Natal came here because they
believed that the colony was a good and healthy place to live in. Was this
so? When we consider the advanced ages at which many of the British
settlers died, we must conclude that, by nineteenth-century standards, it
probably was. No one could suppose that they had an easy life; as colonies
went, however, Natal had many advantages. Graveyards, as is easily
observed, contain the graves of children, of young women who died in child
birth and of men stru~k down in the prime of life; they also record the
deaths of many men and women who lived to advanced age despite the
vicissitudes of life in the colony and the primitive medical attention available
to them.
REFERENCES
1 The health of indentured Indians has been considered in two papers published in the South
African Medical Journal while the health of Blacks is to be the subject of another paper.
E.H. Burrows, History of medicine in South Africa (Cape Town, 1958), p. 210.
1 H.F. Fynn, Diary (Pictermaritzburg, 1950), pp. 66-9.
4 C. Johnston, Observations 0/1 health and disease and on the physical economy of human life
in Natal (Pietermaritzburg, lR(0). p.v.
5 Burrows, History of medicine in South Africa, p. 192.
o J. Bird, Annals of Natal (Pieterrnaritzburg, 1888), I, p. 695.
7 E.W. Smith, Life and times of Daniel Lindley (London, 1949), pp. 52-4.
R A.F. Hatterslcy. A hospital century; Grey's Hospital, Pietermaritzburg 1855-1955 (Cape
Town. 1955), p. 49.

9 E. Feilden, My African home (London, 1887). p. 185.
10 Ibid., p. 171.
l! See, for example, R.J. Mann, The fitness of the South African Colony of Natal as a residence
for persons inclined to, or affected by, pulmonary consumptive strumous disorders (London,
1808) p. 5.
12 Lofthouse letters. p. 7, in Natalia, 11, 1981, pp. 7-15.
13 D. Child, ed., Merchant family in early Natal; diaries and letters of Joseplz and Marianne
Churchill, 1850-1880 (Cape Town, 1979), p. 134.
14 Diary of J.c. Blarney, April 19, 1852. (Killie Carnpbell Library).
15 S. Norgaard, A Norwegian family looks back (Pietermaritzburg, 1979). p. 5.
16 Data from death registers in the Department of Home Affairs. Pretoria; I am indebted to
the Director-General for permission to examine these records.
17 Diary of J .C. Blamey, April 20, 1854.
IX R.E. Gordon, ed., Honour without riches: the story of an Archibald family (Durban. 1978),
p. 106.
W Diary of J.c. Blamey, Oct. 25, 1851.
20 Ibid., August 1855.
21 D. Child, Charles Smythe, pioneer, premier and administrator (Cape Town. 1973), p. 148.
22 Norgaard, A Norwegian family looks back, p. 2.
23 Diary of Captain Garden, 1851-3, p. 372 (typescript in Killie Campbell Library).
24 Diary of Henry Francis Fynn, p. 311.
25 S. Spencer, British settlers in Natal, vol. 3, (Pietermaritzburg. 1985).
26 Diary of J.c. Blamey, Nov. 9. lR53.
27 Ibid., Dec. 31, 1853.
28 R.E. Gordon, ed., Dear Louisa: history of a pioneer family in Natal 1850-1888 (Cape Town
1970), p. 115.
29 Johnston, Observations on health and disease, p. 231.
30 B. Buchanan, Natal memories (Pietermaritzburg, 1941), p. 268.

31 Gordon, Honour without riches, p. 106.
32 B. Buchanan, Pioneer days in Natal (Pietermaritzburg, 1934), p. 163-68.
33 Journal of Bishop M.J.F. Allard July 2, 1861; quoted in J.B. Brain. Catholic beginnings in
Natal (Durban, 1975), pp. 62-3.
34 Burrows, History of medicine in South Africa, p. 213.
35 Ibid., p. 203.
30 Schulz papers (KilIic CampbeIl Library).
37 Norgaard, A Norwegian family looks back. p. 11.
's M. Gelfand, Tropical victory (Cape Town, 1953), p. 9.
39 Child, Merchant family in early Natal. p. 153.
40 Gordon, Dear Louisa, p. 246.
41 Death certificates: see ref. 16; Republic of South Africa, Statistical yearbook, 1966. The
advice of Dr Peter Brain, especially with regard to the statistical analysis and classification
of deaths, is gratefully acknowledged.
J.B. BRAIN
78
Brother Nivard Streicher at his drawing board.
79
Brother Nivard Streicher
Architect of Mariannhill
1884-1922
Anniversaries tend to gain added significance in a relatively young country

such as Natal. They can serve as occasions for reflection upon our ideals,
especially those that are beginning to sound hackneyed. In 1985 Natal is
celebrating several anniversaries, some well publicised such as those of
Durban and the University of Natal; others less well known such as the
centenary of the founding of the Sisters of the Precious Blood at Mariannhill.
A century ago a young man started work at Mariannhill, whose contribution
to the architectural heritage of Natal has yet to bc fully apprcciated. There is
no evidence that he had ever been involved in architectural planning before
he arrived in South Africa. However, Georg Streicher, who was a master
carpenter, must have experienced the current European architectural trends
before he entered a religious community and came to South Africa. For
forty years he was to guide the architectural studio at MariannhilL
developing a unique style of mission buildings.
Georg Streicher was born in Erding, Bavaria, in 1854, the second child of
a master carpenter. He underwent a thorough training as a carpenter before
entering the Trappist monastery of Maria Stern, in Bosnia. He may very
well have worked there before joining Prior Franz Pfanner's first band of
recruits for the new priory of Mariannhill, South Africa. In July 1883 these
men arrived at their new home. Each man joined the specific trade for
which he had been selected. Streicher joined the building team, who were
erecting a large mill on the banks of the Umhlatuzana River, some distance
from the priory. His ability to understand complex building principles must
quickly have manifested itself, for soon he was called upon to design a
chapel for this mill community. His proposals for this chapel, the Herz-Jesu
Kapelle, was a synthesis of current European architectural thinking.
The emerging manufacturing classes of nineteenth century Europe had
profoundly influenced architectural styles. Architecture was no longer the
prerogative of the aristocratic class. A growing interest in architectural
historical research, at first rather sketchy, but progressively more thorough,
resulted in many pattern books being published. Builders and developers
referred to these books and chose the style they considered most suitable, or
most to their liking. It became generally accepted that the classical style of
ancient Greece and Rome was most suitable for educational and civic
building. The Middle Ages were seen as the ideal period of Christian
80 Brother Nivard Streicher - Architect of Mariannhill
civilization, and it became a moral duty to build ecclesiastical buildings in a

neo-gothic manner. After the discovery of the original plans for the
Cathedral of Cologne, and the recommencement of building operations
there in 1842, the neo-gothic style became almost obligatory.
Streicher's design for the Herz-Jesu Kapelle is very traditional. The plan
consists of a simple rectangular nave, a sanctuary at the Eastern end and a
tower over the entrance door on the western end. The building is typically
neo-gothic - a steep roof and fleche, narrow, vertical windows, small,
engaged buttresses, and internal hammer-beam trusses. What makes this
building particularly interesting is the designer's handling of locally available
materials. There was a good brickyard at Mariannhill from which the walling
material came. He must have been relatively familiar with the aesthetic
possibilities of brickwork, but corrugated iron roofing was a new material to
him. The external roof planes are, therefore, quite simple. He was, however,
able to add great architectural charm to the interior by articulating the
structural roof timbers. The gargoyles on the tower are unique - galvanised
metal pipes worked at the spout end to form fabulous beasts! This charming
building became redundant in the 1940s when the industries formerly housed
in the mill building were moved to the monastery grounds. It has suffered
greatly as a result of moisture penetration and vandalism, and much of the
highly decorated internal wall surface has been irreparably damaged.
In 1886 Georg Streicher was professed at Mariannhill, taking the religious
name of Brother Nivard. The religious community at Mariannhill grew
rapidly in these early years of its existence. All too soon the original priory
church proved too small and it was decided to build a larger church. Brother
Nivard was instructed to prepare designs. The problem called for a much
larger church - to seat more than 300 monks - on a sloping site, adjacent
to the proposed Refectorium and Chapter House. The nave had to be
considerably wider than anything he had built before. He chose a traditional
basilican format consisting of a sanctuary, a nave with two side aisles, and a
narthex. The sloping site permitted him to step the floor down in stages
towards the sanctuary. The choice of a basilican plan necessitated the
provision of columns between the aisle and the nave to carry the clerestory
windows. This allowed him to reduce the span of the roof structure, yet he
took full advantage of the possibilities presented by the timber structure to
create an elegant, dignified interior. There is a wonderful logic in his choice
of materials: brickwork for the low aisle walls, long slender timber for the
columns supporting the clerestory. The infill panels between the c1erestory
windows are timber panelled on the inside and clad with light-weight
corrugated iron on the outside. The external brickwork is similar to that at
the Herz-Jesu Kapelle: piers with infill panels punctured by relatively small
windows. It is interesting to note, however, that the 'gothic' arches in the
brickwork had already been replaced by rounded arches, possibly because
these were easier to construct. The building was renovated in 1981 in
preparation for the centenary celebrations. Internally the building has been
redecorat~d several times. It has now been stripped down to its architectural
elements, and its natural materials, and has become a celebration of
dignified, rational, harmonious design. Externally the corrugated iron roof
was replaced with corrugated asbestos, which was unfortunate, as the scale
of the corrugations is too large.
Brother Nivard Streicher - Architect of Mariannhill 81
$ .... ~~<... 1\'r' tl, .

",• .u~ I'1o-:' ''' C!'
:-..,.,Ji.... •11I.j,,,~
Herz-Jezu Kapelle , Mariannhill , 1893.
(Photograph: Author' s Collection)
Monastery Church, Mariannhill, 1887.
82 Brother Nivard Streicher - Architect of MariannhilL
Lourdes Mission Church, 1895 .

This church set the pattern for Brother Nivard's next major work: a
church for the new mission station of Lourdes, in East Griqualand. This
mission was intended to be as big as Mariannhill, so large-scale plans were
drawn up for a church, flanked by a convent and monastery. These were
never built in this position, though the site was prepared. The church was
planned with a nave, two aisles, a Brothers' and a Sisters' Chapel in the
transepts, and a sanctuary. The entrance porch is flanked by two towers
which give the building greater dignity. There is a curious mixture of
architectural styles: neo-romanesque arches in the brickwork, yet neo-gothic
fleches on the towers. Internally, large plastered piers separate the aisles
from the c1erestory-lit nave. The proportions of these elements are
unsatisfactory; it is a curious statement by a man who is not yet fully
conversant with architecture, but is discovering the potential of his building
materials.
In 1896 he started designing the permanent buildings for a new mission
station at Maria Ratschitz. There are certain similarities in the general plans
of Lourdes and Maria Ratschitz. His presentation drawings show a scheme
linking the monastery to the church, and the convent. The architectural
features are also similar. There were many delays in the finalising of these
plans, and they were set aside until 1904.
r-"" ••.• "· ~ t~t •. ,,. •,
, ,
Maria Ratschitz Mission, first proposal, 1896.

Maria Ratschitz Mission Church , second proposal, August 1904.

;"o.,oIt,m,
t"....;ttj,~'
..... ~ 'P':""
\'\'1
Maria Ratschitz Mission Church, Reichenau Mission Church, 1898.

September 1904. (Photograph: Author's Collection)
Meanwhile, plans were being prepared for the new buildings at Reichenau
near Underberg. Again, the proposals showed a central church flanked by a
monastery and a convent. The site was prepared but only the church built.
The site conditions here were quite different from those at any other mission
site, in that the buildings were planned next to a natural waterfall, there was
no suitable clay for bricks, but plenty of fine-grained, good quality
sandstone. The sandstone has been used to maximum effect, and even the
steeple is made of it. The building is Brother Nivard's most perfect neo
gothic structure and there is beautiful integration of various crafts. The
interior consists of a single volume nave - without aisles - but with a
Brothers' and a Sisters' Chapel in the two transepts. Relatively little light
enters tall narrow windows and so the interior is quite mysterious . It is a
little jewel, which has been lovingly repainted by the sisters, and in which
the furnishings are stylistically intact. Externally, the craftsmanship is a joy
be behold, yet the building stands a little unhappily on its vast barren field.
In 1902 Abbot Gerard Wolpert, the second abbot of Mariannhill, took
Brother Nivard to Europe. There he travelled extensively through northern
Italy, before returning to Natal, via German East Africa. He must have
been profoundly influenced by the romanesque architecture of northern
Italy. We may assume that he recognised the textural possibilities of the
brickwork, as well as the similarities in the climate, with the sculptural
modulation of architectural elements heightened by the sunlight and shade
in the two regions. On his return to Natal, he set about the designing of the
Campanile for the monastery church at Mariannhill. It was to be his first
stylistically pure neo-romanesque building, divided into five cubic masses,

each articulated in a different , yet harmonious manner, and each volume
fulfilling a specific function . It was to be the first of a series of such towers:
Mariathal, Centacow, and St Dominic's, Newcastle.
That he was continually learning, and struggling, is clear from a look at
other buildings that were proceeding at the same time, particularly his new
proposals for Maria Ratschitz. The original neo-gothic tower was redesigned
in August, and again in September 1904. His first, rather ham-handed
attempt to break away from the gothic steeple was patently unsatisfactory;
his subsequent solution was most interesting.
His churches are now nearly always of a similar size and plan. Local
conditions determined the detail and building material. His developing
architectural understanding improved with every successive design.
Between 1907 and 1909 the new parish church of St Joseph 's was planned
for Mariannhill. This was to be his largest and boldest work. The integration
of the various elements is beautifully handled. It has an almost Byzantine
clarity of form - a semicircular apse , a clear crossing between the transepts
and the nave. Branching out from these elements are secondary apses in
which the subsidiary altars and confessionals are located. Two grand towers
flank a generous narthex. All the elements are generously proportioned and
one wonders whether Brother Nivard expected this church to become the
cathedral of a new diocese at some later date. It subsequently did become
the cathedral of the Diocese of Mariannhill.
Campanile, Mariannhi11, 1903. St Joseph's Cathedral,

(Photograph: Author's Collectidn) Mariannhill 1909.
(PhotograpJi: Author's Collection)
Whereas St 10seph's cathedral is certainly his boldest articulation of

architectural forms, his new church for Centacow mission must be
considered his most cerebral exercise. It is beautifully detailed, all its
elements are carefully interrelated, and there is an almost classical
completeness about this building. The slope of the site was cleverly
exploited to make room for a pilgrimage shrine under the porch. Internally
the spaces are similar to most of the later churches: a nave, tw:.- transepts
- ~-
Centacow Mission Church, 1911 .

and a spatially separated sanctuary. The windows of these later churches are
much longer, thereby giving the interiors much more light. This church has a
marvellous rose window over the sanctuary, depicting Our Lady surrounded
by the Pope , Bishop 10livet of Natal, Abbot Pfanner, the Mother Superior
of the CPS and several other recognisable personalities of the day. Many of
these later churches were embellished with biblical scenes, and symbolic
decorative elements. Often the same themes were used, but always
originally executed.
His final major church building was started in 1916. This was the church at
Mariazell, East Griqualand. There was a need for a large mission church, in
an area devoid of suitable clay , but with a rich local stone dressing tradition.
Brother Nivard's design breaks away from his neo-romanesque brickwork
detailing. In many ways he emulated the bold, rusticated stonework of the...
American architect , Henry Hobson Richardson; possibly his response to the
nature of this building material, and his growing confidence as an architect,
brought about this renaissance.
Centacow Mission Church.
Mariazell Mission Church, 1916.
There are two asymmetrical towers - one the bell tower, the other the
access stair to the choir loft. The east front's most remarkable feature is the
huge, semicircular east window. This bold element dominates and unifies
the whole of this elevation. It also causes some magical light effects within
the church. It is a wonderful experience to attend an early Mass within this
building. To start with it is dark and mysterious, bathed in soft candle light.
Then, as the service proceeds, the building begins to light up till the first
rays of the rising sun shoot through the nave to light up the apsidal dome
over the sanctuary. Rapidly the building is bathed in beautiful warm
sunshine, and another joyous day has begun.
Nivard was an extraordinary man. He came to Mariannhill at the age of
29 to join his fellow religious as a Trappist monk. Yet his nature and
intellect made him an obvious leader. He was in charge of the architectural
studio, where he supervised the work of Brothers Otto Miider and Theobald
Ebers. He was constantly having to travel to building sites, and land sales, at
which he bought new mission farms. His fluency in English ensured that he
often had to act as public relations man for Mariannhill, entertaining many
dignitaries. His architectural facilities were used by others beyond the
monastery community. He worked for other religious communities as well as
for the Natal Government. In 1909 he was granted a free rail pass, :. .. in
recognition of [his] valuable services to the Colony in various directions, and
as a slight token of their [the Ministers'] appreciation of the energy
displayed by [him] during so many years.' During the 1920 Visitation of the
Monastery he was forbidden to undertake further work outside his
community. His health must already have been failing. Two years later he
was sent to Holland to recuperate. It gave him an opportunity to exercise his
religious calling in peace till he died, in his sleep, on 26th February 1927. He
died a quiet, withdrawn Trappist monk, typical of the community to which
he had dedicated his life. There was no publicity at his going. It is only now
that we are beginning to recognise the contribution he made to the
architectural heritage of Natal.
ROBERT BRUSSE
89
Architects Versus Catholics:
The Emmanuel Cathedral
Controversy
In recent years, Durban's Roman Catholic community has been involved in

a programme to restore the Emmanuel Cathedral in central Durban. In the
light of current interest in the Cathedral, it seems especially appropriate to
recall the controversy which raged around its original construction, and the
court case which brought the dispute to a climax.
The plan of Bishop Charles Jolivet (head of the Roman Catholic mission
in Natal), to build a cathedral, was attended by doubt and difficulty from the
outset. From 1881, Durban's 2 OOO-strong Catholic community had
worshipped in St Joseph's Church, West Street, where the Catholic Church
owned a sizeable section of property. By the late 1890s Bishop Jolivet saw
that this site 'had become inconvenient and unsuitable for a church and
presbytery', largely because of the increased traffic in the locality. 1 The
Bishop was also concerned about the debts which the Church had incurred
in its missionary and other work. He therefore proposed to sell most of the
Church's West Street properties. With the resultant funds, he would pay the
Church's creditors, transfer St Joseph's Church to the quieter area of
Greyville, and still have sufficient money to build a large cathedral and
presbytery off the main street in Durban. However, over the years,
Durban's Catholic congregation had developed strong emotional ties to their
church in West Street, and so there was some disquiet amongst local
Catholics concerning the Bishop's plans. There were also legal difficulties to
surmount: the site on which Bishop Jolivet proposed to erect the cathedral
had been granted to the Church for burial purposes only, and so Supreme
Court approval had to be obtained for the proposal. The determined Bishop
overcame local opposition, obtained the Court order, and prepared to effect
his plan. 2
In 1901, Bishop Jolivet engaged the services of Messrs Street-Wilson and
Paton, a firm of Durban architects, to supervise the construction and
erection of the Emmanuel Cathedral and accompanying presbytery. This
firm had done a 'great deal of work' for the Bishop, and they were now
charged with overseeing the erection of 'the largest and finest Roman
Catholic Church in the Colony'. 3 The contract price of the cathedral was to
be £24000, of which the architects were to receive a commission of 4%.
One half of this commission was duly paid on completion of the plans and
specifications, and work commenced at the hands of contractors Mowat and
Hill.4
90 Architects Versus Catholics
' I I
'~" ~rnc"\ 'ltld C-hJl'" h. ;Dw·/'c"'lq. #~--"
~, .; 1,- ~
1,(, '1'1:.: Ti rci;ITi" \' L-'.,I~J~q.1 Jdl"c( (HI -I t ~i
f{:Jin!"'t .... ibor<l\lllM

;Q"d""l'ed
Original construction drawing

of the Cathedral by WiIliam Street-Wilson and Wall ace Paton - 1902.
(Photograph: Emmanuel Cathedral , Durban 1904-79.
Commemorative Brochure)
Architects Versus Catholics 91
However, relations between the architects and their Catholic clients soon
began to deteriorate. Bishop Jolivet, who regarded himself as 'something of
an architect', repeatedly came to the building site and allegedly made
observations to the contractors without reporting to the architects. 5
Furthermore, the Bishop was anxious to have the cathedral completed as
soon as possible, as St Joseph's Church was due to be demolished by the end
of 1902. But, because of the Anglo-Boer War, it was difficult to obtain
trucks to bring the stipulated 'Maritzburg bricks' to Durban. According to
William Street-Wilson, an informal discussion was held with Bishop Jolivet,
who conceded that, to expedite matters, the builders could use the much
inferior 'Durban bricks'.6 Even so, the deadline of December 1902,
stipulated in the contract, came and went, and the Catholic community had
to worship in the local Drill Hall for five months. In April 1903, the Church
was allowed to take posses~ion of one aisle, but this remained the extent of
its occupation until December of that year. 7 To the great chagrin of local
Catholics, the memorial service for Pope Leo XIII in July 1903 was confined
to the single aisle, while 'the stately building [remained] in unfinished
condition, the marble lining of the roof, the tiling of the floor and other
matters of detail being incomplete'. H It was only at Midnight Christmas
Mass, 1903, that 'the beautiful proportions of the interior were for the first
time fully appreciated', as scaffolding was at last removed from the vicinity
of the altar." Stations of the Cross were erected in April 1904, and the
cathedral was officially dedicated in November of that year.lO
By this stage relations between the Catholic leaders and the architects had
worsened considerably. Bishop Jolivet had died in September 1903, and
from this time Father William Murray, financial adviser to the local Church,
came to the fore. Father Murray wanted economies made, differences
ensued and Father Murray allegedly came to display his disillusionment with
the architects and their work by consistently refusing to meet them.11
Furthermore, the cathedral, once completed, was in several respects a
disappointment to the local Church. It was admitted even by the architects
that the Maritzburg bricks in the lower part of the structure were clearly
distinct from the Durban bricks higher up, and the latter bricks shortly
began to peel. The granolithic flooring to the corridors and elsewhere began
to crack and one of the gables outside soon deteriorated badly.12
Not surprisingly, then, when Messrs Street-Wilson and Paton requested
payment of the balance of their commission, the Church was extremely
reluctant to pay. The disgruntled Church authorities alleged (on dubious
legal advice) that the architects' supervision 'was so careless and negligent as
to be worthless' to them and as to disentitle the architects to any
remuneration at allY The architects thus decided to take legal action.
The case Street- Wilson and Paton v Roman Catholic Mis;·iofl opened at
the Supreme Court, Pietermaritzburg, on 15 October 1906. The Bench
comprised the cautious, capable, Natal-born Chief Justice Henry Bale; the
English soldier-turned-magistrate and judge, First Puisne Judge William
Beaumont; and the highly able Scots graduate and advocate, Second Puisne
Judge John Dove Wilson. The architects were represented by advocate and
attorney William Burne, while the Catholic Church engaged the services of
William Gallwey (instructed by Shepstone, Wylie and Binns). 14
The Cathedral and Cemetery Lane in the early fifties.

(Photograph: Emmanuel Cathedral, Durban 1904-79.
The case stretched over four days, and attracted considerable publicity.
The local newspapers ran reports on each day's proceedings, under headings
such as 'Architects v Mission' and 'Catholic Mission sued' Y Interest was
taken in the forthright comments made on both sides. William Street-Wilson
was highly critical of the local Church leaders. He claimed that on one
occasion he had been refused access to Father Murray because the latter was
'dangerously ill', only to see the Father the following day sipping a glass of
port wine at a local club (evidently, he remarked, an 'excellent glass' of
wine, with restorative capacities). Of Bishop Jolivet he said that 'the Bishop
had his own way of doing things', and that there were 'a lot of things I
should have liked to have got in writing from the Bishop'. On the other side,
Father Murray spoke of the 'unsightly' appearance of the cathedral and of
Bishop Jolivet 'turn[ing] in his grave'. In this emotion-charged atmosphere
the Bench was prompted to intervene at times to check irrelevancies and to
direct witnesses to 'answer first, and explain afterwards'. 16
On 18 October 1906, the case concluded with the judgements of the
Bench. Chief Justice Bale's decision on the main issue was clear and to the
point:
I apprehend that upon his plea as framed the defendant is only entitled
to succeed if he can show that there has been, through the negligence
of the architects, an entire failure of consideration [recompense] for
Architects Versus Catholics 93
fees claimed. That has not been shewn. The buildings still stand, and
are capable of being used, [and] for all I know may be capable of being
used for many years. I?
With this decision Beaumont and Wilson J.J. concurred, the former claiming
that 'it seems to me that it is not possible to contend that the services
rendered by the plaintiffs to the defendant are worthless. IS
The Bench did not, however, decide that the architects had acted
blamelessly. All three judges were careful to add that their decision in
favour of the plaintiffs did not preclude the Church from bringing a later
action to claim for damages arising out of any possible mal performance on
the part of the architects. Mr Justice Beaumont affirmed that there can be
no doubt that where a professional man is employed and paid for his
services, and loss results from his negligence or want of proper skill, he can
be held liable' . 19 Therefore, the Court's judgement in favour of the architects
was qualified so as to be 'without prejudice to any claim the defendant may
have for damages'. 20
The Cathedral interior, around 1965

(Photograph: Emmanuel Cathedral, Durban 1904-79.
However, the Church, still debt-ridden and possibly fearful of another

risky and costly court-case, did not take further action. The architects had
won a legal victory, their fees were paid, and the survival of the Emmanuel
Cathedral to the present has borne out the Chief Justice's words. Yet, the
architects were evidently chastened by their experience: WilIiam Street
Wilson conceded that he was 'exceedingly sorry [the cathedral] was as it
was'.21 And Catholics of today may well ask the question: would a
restoration programme on such a vast scale of expense have been required,
but for some original 'negligence or want of proper skill',? Father Howard St
George, writing in 1979 on the cathedral's structural deficiencies,
commented:
It had been estimated [in 1906] that it would have cost between £500
and £700 to replace the bad bricks. It has cost a good deal more in the
present year of jubilee when this work has at last been done."
NOTES
1 J.B. Brain. Catholics in Natal ll, 1886-1925, (Durban, 1982).
Ibid.
i'iatal Archives, Supreme Court, 115/229/56.
4 1bid. The final cost of the cathedral rose to £24 659-17-11.
5 Ibid.
" Ibid.
Times of Natal, ] 7 October 1906.
8 Emmanuel Cathedral, Codex Historicus 11, p. l3.
9 Emmanuel Cathedral, Codex Historicus, pp. 21-2.
11' H. St. George, 'Emmanuel: God with us', Emmanuel Cathedral Durban 1904-/979, 1979,
p. 10.
11 Natal Archives, Supreme Court, Tl5/229/56.
12 Natal Witness, 19 October 1906.
l' 1906, Natal Law Reports, 27, p. 618.
14 1906, Natal Law Reports, 27, pp. 617-624.
15 See e.g. Natal Mercury, 18 October 1906 and Natal Advertiser, 17 October 1906.
16 Natal Archives, Supreme Court, 115/229/56.
17 1906, Natal Law Reports, 27, p. 620.
I,' 1906, Natal Law Reports, 27. p. 623.
14 Ibid.
20 1906, Natal Law Reports, 27, p. 624.
21 Natal Witness, 17 OClOber 1906.
- St. Georgc, 'Emmanuel: God with us', p. 11.
PETER SPILLER
-
95
A Brief History of the Farm
Bosch Hoek
The farm Bosch Hoek is situated in the lovely midlands of Natal amid
grass-clad and undulating, timbered hills which are often shrouded in mist.
In the old days, many of these hills were covered in bush which also grew
abundantly along the banks of the numerous streams, flowing through fertile
acres and cascading over rocks to form waterfalls. These natural features of
the countryside, which teemed with wild life, were reflected in the
descriptive names which the first white settlers, the Voortrekkers, gave to
their farms. One such name which has survived in its original Dutch form, is
Bosch Hoek, meaning 'bush corner'.
There were several Bosch Hoeks in the County of Pietermaritzburg. The
subject of this historical sketch is situated about 38 kilometres from Pieter
maritzburg, 29 kilometres north of Howick, and about eight kilometres from
Balgowan railway station, near Michaelhouse school.
Bosch Hoek is distinguished from its namesakes on old title deeds by the
qualifying phrase, 'near Houtbosch Rand'. Today, it is simply 'Balgowan,
district Lions River'. These names are evocative of the early history and
colourful personalities who lived in the district. As one travels along the
national road today in either direction, the turn-off to Curry's Post leads to
the road which passes the main gate to the farm. Curry's Post was the first
centre in the district and was named after Sergeant-Major George Curry,
who had retired from the local garrison. Here at Houtbosch Rand, on the
side of the road, he established a staging post. It also boasted two hotels, a
blacksmith's shop and a few stores. Curry's Post retained its central position
until the main Durban-Johannesburg road was relocated and the railway
station erected at Balgowan. The latter was named after a village in Scotland
by a certain James Ellis. He and his brother-in-law, John King, were the
first British settlers in the area, and they and their descendants were well
respected Natalians. The last lion in the district was shot in 1856 near Lions
River. Near Bosch Hoek and Balgowan, is the Nottingham Road area which
took its name from Fort Nottingham. The latter was one of the military
outposts established in the 1850s by the 45th (Nottinghamshire) Regiment to
curb Bushman raids on isolated farms.
Bosch Hoek was among the Voortrekker claims to be settled in the early
1850s. It was granted on perpetual quitrent to Jan Abraham (Abram) Naude
and Lucas Cornelis Janssen van Vuuren on 1 October, ]852. There is no
record of an earlier title deed having been issued or a claim filed by either or
both these gentlemen. Neither is it known what their exact relationship was,
although they may have been related by marriage. Their claim clearly fell
96 A Brief History of the Farm Bosch Hoek
into Class 1, as defined by Commissioner Cloete, that is, 6 000 acres. They
were, however, granted 5 863 acres, slightly more than the average grant of
5 675 acres ~hich was the standard in the County of Pietermaritzburg. The
original grant, no. 1219, describes Bosch Hoek as 'situate on a stream
flowing ~into the river Umgeni, in the division of Pietermaritzburg, district
Natal'. As Natal was still a dependency of the Cape, it was regarded as a
district within the settlement of the Cape of Good Hope. The name Bosch
Hoek appears on the grant, but it is not clear whether it originated with
Naude and van Vuuren or an earlier owner. The name was not uncommon
and would have been descriptive of the natural features of the farm.
There were several conditions attached to the grant. Firstly, it was subject
to the payment of an annual quitrent of £2.18s.8d which was by no means
the highest levy on a farm of this size. Secondly, the grantees had to
undertake ' . . . to have the boundaries properly traced out, and the land
brought into such a state of cultivation as it is capable of ... ' The average
cost of surveying a piece of ground in those days was estimated at £l1.lOs,
which had to be paid by the grantee. No grants were registered until the
survey had been completed. The surveyor's diagram of Bosch Hoek is dated
August 27th 1850, and bears the interesting annotation, 'Copied by me,
Alfred Watts, Government Draughtsman'. His map of the Colony of Natal
(1855), on which Bosch Hoek appears, has become a rare item of Africana.
Bosch Hoek is depicted on the survey diagram as being seven-sided. It is
described as bounded on the north-east by Lot 68 and 69, south-east by the
farm Geelhout Boom and south-west by the farms Bosch Fontein and Wilde
AIs Spruit, and west by Lots 70 and 72.
One does not know to what extent Naude and van Vuuren cultivated the
farm, but they would have had to clear the ground of bush before ploughing.
The land was suitable for crops of Indian corn, wheat, oats and turnips. Like
most Voortrekkers, they probably owned a small herd of cattle and a flock
of sheep. Jackals and wild dogs were, however, a menace to the farmer's
livestock in those days, as were marauding Bushmen.
It was customary, at the time, for farmers to make the journey to Pieter~
maritzburg roughly every six months to barter their produce for supplies of
groceries and other provisions. The wool clip, which was sold in the spring,
was worth about fourpence per pound. Cheese and butter, which had been
made during the summer months, was sold in the autumn. If the potato crop
had been good, it would sell for three shillings a sack. The farmers would
have supplemented their food supplies by hunting and the skins of the
animals would also have been put to good use. The twice-yearly visits to
Pietermaritzburg provided the only opportunity for social intercourse for
these farmers who were almost completely isolated on their farms.
Their living conditions would have been rather primitive and the dwellings
unpretentious. Not for them the elegant Cape Dutch gabled homesteads of
the affluent Western Province farmers. The majority of the Voortrekkers
were from the Eastern Cape where they had pursued a simple life-style.
They lived initially in their wagons or tents, sometimes erecting a few
rondavels (thatched huts) which served as kitchens or storerooms. Their first
houses, known as the hartebeeshuisies, were built of sticks and reeds and
plastered with clay and cow~dung. Their furniture was simple. In the Cape
Monthly Magazine series, "Life at Natal", by a Lady (in reality the youthful
A Brief History of the Farm Bosch Hoek 97
Sir John Robinson) is a description of a visit to a Boer farm in April 1865.

The farmstead consisted of a low, stone, one-storey house with small
windows, and a double door in the centre, a stoep in front, no
verandah, a circular enclosure for cattle on one side, a few peach-trees
on the other, a brightly-painted wagon drawn up in front, and about
ten acres of ploughed land, surrounded by a sod-wall. I am not sure
whether there is a stable or not. This represents the whole evidences of
habitation and cultivation upon this farm of ten thousand acres. There
are, of course, some fine cattle and a few sheep ... '
The only light in these houses was provided by home-made candles until
1859 when paraffin came into use. The British settlers initially also lived in
wattle-and-daub houses. Whin-stone, quarried in the neighbourhood of
Pietermaritzburg was available for stout er dwellings and a poor quality brick
which sold for twenty-five shillings per 1 000 in 1850 was being made in
Durban. Pantiles, manufactured from clay deposits found to the north of
Pietermaritzburg, came on to the market at seven pounds per 1 000 in 1853.
Timber, particularly the indigenous yellowwood and sneezewood, was
available for construction and furniture manufacture. Several of the British
settlers had brought their saw mills and water-wheels with them to Natal.
The way of life of the first owners of Bosch Hoek would probably have
closely followed the pattern described in the previous paragraphs. A third
condition which their grant imposed on Naude and van Vuuren was 'that the
land hereby granted shall not be sold, alienated, mortgaged, or let to hire, at
any time before the Fourteenth day of November, one thousand eight
hundred and fifty seven, unless there shall have been first paid to the
Treasurer-General the sum of one penny per acre, upon the same, or such
part thereof as shall be so sold, alienated, mortgaged, or let to hire ... '
Undeterred by the conditions imposed on the sale of ground before 14
November, 1857, van Vuuren sold half of Bosch Hoek, 2934 acres in
extent, to a certain P.J. van der Westhuysen on 19 January, 1857 (T. 15).
This portion became known as Lot or Subdivision A of Bosch Hoek. Van
der Westhuysen's ownership was of short duration and he sold this portion
to Jan Abraham Naude and his new partner, Johan Lambert Wilhelm
Brukerhoff on 22 October 1857 (T. 362). Thus, within less than five years of
the original grant, Bosch Hoek suffered the fate of so many large farms,
namely, continuous subdivision and a succession of owners who disposed of
the ground almost as fast as they had acquired it.
Our story is concerned with the subsequent fate of the portion known as
the Remainder of Bosch Hoek, that is, literally the remainder of 2934 acres
of the original grant which Jan Abraham Naude retained, after Lucas
Cornelis Janssen van Vuuren sold off Lot A. Life probably continued
normally for Naude until the 1860s when he seems to have been affected,
like so many others, by the severe economic depression which Natal was
experiencing. The price of land dropped to half-a-crown per acre, and even
lower, and many farmers in the County were forced to surrender their land.
In 1868, Naude mortgaged Bosch Hoek to Johannes Stephanus Boshoff for
£150. Two years later, on 8 June 1870 (T. 196), it became the property of
Edward Way, originally of Great Yeldham, Essex, England. The year of his
arrival in Natal is not known, but he was a bachelor of twenty-five when he
married a local girl, Gertruida Johanna Erica Landsberg, on 3 December,
98 A Brief History of the Farm Bosch Hoek
1868 in Pietermaritzburg. Five daughters were born of the marriage. His

wife died sometime between 1878 and 1881, when he remarried. The notice
of his marriage to the widow, Frances Elizabeth Edwardes (nee Norman),
originally from England, describes him as a widower. His eldest daughter
was eleven at the time and the youngest was three years old. The second
Mrs Way had one daughter of eight from her previous marriage.
After twenty-two years on Bosch Hoek, Way decided to sell off some of
his land. One does not know the reason for this decision, but it is possible
that he was influenced by the land boom which Natal was experiencing and
the rise in the price of land in the early 1890s. This led to the subdivision of
many of the original large Voortrekker farms and, in nearly seventy percent
of the sales, one pound or more was paid per acre. Subdivision B, known
as Norwood, was sold to Stephen Thomas Nurden on 12 November 1892 (T.
1139) for £805.18.0d. Norwood was 805 acres 3 roods and 20 perches in
extent. Way, therefore, realised a pound per acre. This demonstrates the
increase in the price of land. The entire farm consisting of 2 934 acres was
valued at £1 467 a mere decade or so earlier, according to a valuation roll
which has been preserved in the Natal Archives.
If Nonvood appeared to be a rather small farm, it must be borne in mind
that advances in farming techniques and animal husbandry had promoted
the creation of smaller units. The majority of 'new' farms, resulting from
similar subdivisions, were under 1 000 acres, particularly in the Natal
midlands where dairy farming and wattle plantations came into vogue in the
1890s. The quitrent on Nonvood was apportioned at 8s. 6d. per annum.
After the sale of Norwood, Way was left with 2 128 acres and 20 perches
which he transferred to his step-daughter's husband, George Hildebrand
Burgmann, on 2 September 1902 (T. 2038). The process of subdivision was
continued by Burgmann and subsequent owners until 1947, by which time,
Naude's original 2 934 acres had been reduced to 1 668 acres. This portion
of the farm, referred to as the Remainder of Bosch Hoek, was purchased in
1951 by Mr Charles Sydney (,Punch') Barlow, a Johannesburg businessman
and industrialist, from Mrs Ingrid Olga Moller (nee van Schwerin).
Barlow, who had previously owned the historic Cape farm, Vergelegen,
and Ehlatini in the Karkloof, enlarged Bosch Hoek to form one unit of just
over 4 000 acres. Between 1951 and 1968, he judiciously purchased portions
of adjacent farms, including subdivisions of The Wolds, Norwood, Spencer
Farm (portion of Lot Al and Lot A of the original Bosch Hoek), Geelhout
Boom and Dornoch.
When Punch Barlow purchased Spencer Farm, nobody could have
foreseen the turn of events which would link the Barlows' business interests
with those of a relative of the former owner of the farm. It had belonged to
Sir Charles Smith's sister-in-law for over thirty-four years, from 14 March
1912 until her death on 5 December 1946. Mabel Mathilda Smith (nee
Reynolds), an Australian by birth, was the wife of Sir Charles's brother,
Herbert Holdsworth Smith, who predeceased her in May 1933.
In 1980, Barlow Rand, Limited, acquired the influential Durban-based
e.G. Smith & Co., Limited, founded by Charles George Smith in 1888. An
interesting parallel existed between his early business career and that of
Ernest (Billy) Barlow (Punch's father), founder of Thos. Barlow & Sons in
Durban in 1902. Both men established one-man businesses which grew from
A Brief History of the Farm Bosch Hoek 99
humble beginnings into powerful companies. Thos. Barlow & Sons

developed into the powerful Barlow Rand group of companies, of which
Punch Barlow was chairman until his death in June 1979.
Bosch Hoek became an important part of Barlow's life. Determined to
create a model farm, his many improvements included the building of dams,
which he stocked with trout, and the introduction of modern farming
methods. Pig farming became an important part of his operations as well as
beef raising, land cultivation and timber, but the indigenous yellowwood
trees were preserved. At Bosch Hock, he was transformed into the true
farmer, conversant with everything that happened on the farm. He rose
early and traversed his land with his managers, recording in detail
everything that was happening in a little notebook which he always carried
with him. However, Bosch Hoek was also a place of relaxation, where he
enjoyed playing golf, fishing, and entertaining family and friends.
After Punch Barlow's death in 1979, Bosch Hoek became the property of
his stepson, Peter Gallo.
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
Primary Sources:
1. Natal Archives
SGO: Surveyor-General's Office and CSO: Colonial Secretary's Office
2 Deeds Office
Pietermaritzburg Farm Registers, vols. 2. 6. 39, 51 and 55 D.
3. Master of the Supreme Court
Deceased Estates
Secondary Sources:
Rarter. C. Dorp and Veld (London, 1852).
Bitenski, M.F., The Economic Development of Natal, 1843-1885 (Thesis; microfilm in Natal
Archives).
Rrookes, E.H. and Webb. C. de B., A History of Natal (Pietermarit7burg, 1965).
Buchanan, B.L. Natal Memories (Pietermaritzburg, 1941).
Pioneer Days in Natal (Pietermaritzburg, 1934).
Bulpin, T. V., Natal and the Zulu Country (Cape Town. 1966).
To the Shores of Natal (Cape Town, 1953).
Christopher, A.l., Natal: A Study in Colonial Land Settlement (Ph.D. Thesis, NA Th. No. (2).
Hattersley, A.F., The British Settlement of Nillal: A Study in Imperial Migration (Cambridge,
1950).
More Annals of Natal (Pietermaritzburg. 1936).
The Natalians (Pietermaritzburg, 1940).
The Natal Settlers, 1849-1851 (Pietermaritzburg. 1949).
Pietermaritzburg Panorama (Pietermaritzburg, 1938).
Portrait of a City (Pietermaritzburg, 1951).
King. M., Sunrise to Evening Star (London. 19:16).
Konczacki, Z.A., The Public Finance and Economic Development of Natal, 1893-1910 (Thesis,
NA Th. No. 46).
Lady, Life at Natal a Hundred Years Ago (Cape Town, 1972).
Maclntosh, K.P., Some Old Natal Families (Pietermaritzburg, 1974).
Mackeurtan, G., 'The Cradle Days of Natal, 1497-1845 (Pietermaritzburg, 1948) (2nd edition).
Natal Witness, A Century of Progress in Natal, 1824-1924 (Pietermaritzburg, 1924).
Sellers, J .M., The Origin and Development of the Merino Sheep Industry in the Natal Midlands,
1856-1866 (M.A. Thesis, 1946; NA Th. No. 53).
Shaw, C.S. Stories from the Karkloof Hills (Pietermaritzburg, 1971).
MARYNA FRASER
100
Obituaries
Mark Fiennes Prestwich
Mark Prestwich, Emeritus 'Professor of Historical and Political Studies at the
University of Natal, died in Kidlington, near Oxford, on March 18th, 1985 ,
his seven ty-fourth birthday.
He was an outstandingly intelligent, sensitive and cultivated person
perhaps indeed one of the most distinguished people to have lived and
worked in Pietermaritzburg.
Born in Manchester, he had a brilliant career at Cambridge, before
coming to the Natal University College (as it then was) in 1938. He soon
acquired a reputation as a highly accomplished and witty lecturer, and was
an animated participant in various campus activities, most notably those of
the dramatic society. He left South Africa in 1951, in order to take up a post
at Queen's University, Belfast, but returned in 1953, and was for a few years
the editor of the Natal Witness. In 1957 he rejoined the university staff, as
senior lecturer in History and Political Science, and in 1963 was appointed to
the chair, on the retirement of Professor Edgar Brookes. He himself retired
in 1976, and went to live in England in the following year. He is survived by
his widow, Rose , (lnd ,by his two sons and two daughters.
Professor M.F. Prestwich.

Obituaries 101
Mark Prestwich was an historian, and his life was steeped not so much in
the past - for he was no mere antiquarian - as in what he felt to be the
best value that could be carried forward from the past. His particular love
was the eighteenth century: English eighteenth-century history was his very
special interest; he delighted in some of the great battles for human and civil
liberties that took place in Britain in that century; and he had a profound
devotion to, and insight into, the work of Edmund Burke. (Burke, it must
be remembered, propounded the view that a society - if it was of any value
at all, that is - should grow and change and develop in an organic way.
Burke was in some ways the patron of the more respectable strand of British
Toryism; and for that reason Mark Prestwich, in his last years, was
distressed by the rather theoretical, monetarist conservatism of Mrs
Thatcher.) In some ways, indeed, he was an eighteenth-century man. There
was something pre-industrial about him. (He once confessed to a friend that
he had never been able to master the mechanical principle that lay behind
the working of a tin opener.) And in his superb command of the English
language, his particular way of using and choosing words suggested a kinship
with Burke, Gibbon, Samuel Johnson.
Yet it would be wrong to suppose that his interests were confined to the
eighteenth century. He had a deep and searching knowledge of many
aspects of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, not to mention earlier
eras, and there were numerous people and events and concepts from these
periods that he had a grasp of and (so to speak) incorporated into his own
way of life.
What was his way of life? He was a man, a husband and father, a friend, a
university teacher, a writer. In each of these roles he was able to live out his
beliefs, his values. He was also, at certain crucial moments, a leader-writer
for - and, as has been said, for a few years the editor of - the Natal
Witness. As a commentator on political events, he was able to apply to the
ever-dramatic South African situation the full wealth of his cultured and
vigorous wisdom.
Perhaps the word 'wisdom' is a little unsatisfactory: it doesn't suggest the
dynamic quality that characterized his perception and his imaginativeness.
There was nothing merely solemn about him. He often had a gleeful eye, a
good-humouredly ironical twist to his lips. Indeed his humour was one of the
deepest things about him. As with some of his admired eighteenth-century
writers, and as with writers like Sydney Smith and Dickens, humour was no
mere ornament but an essential facet of his vision of life and of society. He
had such a faith in the values that he knew to be sound and alive, and such
confidence that those who opposed these values were hopelessly and often
absurdly off the track (and daily contact with the statements of certain
cabinet ministers could not but strengthen this conviction), that he was often
able to see the battle for right thinking and just action as in some ways
tremendous fun. It was a certain deeply rooted joy - a joy that would flash
out from time to time in memorably, dazzlingly witty formulations - which
helped to sustain him, and some of his friends, and many of the readers of
Witness editorials, in the especially dark days of the late 1950s and the
1960s.
In the end one can only do justice to Mark Prestwich by thinking of him
as an artist - an artist of living. He loved life and the richness of life.
102 Obituaries
The question that he often asked of a book, or of an editorial written by

someone else, or of an experience, was whether it was enjoyable: his
imagination was in many ways aesthetic rather than merely moral or
gloomily factual. His colleagues remember that there were two things that
mildly vexed Mark at Arts Board meetings: unwise contributions to the
debate, and anything which prolonged matters beyond the time when it was
normal to have a late afternoon drink. On some occasions, in his amusingly
circuitous way. he would produce a speech which charmingly articulated
both of these irritations.
It would be quite wrong to regard him, however, as a highly-cultivated
jester. That is what he was, partly; but of course he was very much more
than that. He was a man of profound seriousness, a man of conviction and
devotion. He was indeed a living embodiment of the quality and the subtlety
of the humane values that he dedicated his life to.
C.O. GARDNER
George Selwyn Moberly

Selwyn, as he was always called, first saw the light of day on 15 February
1897, the eldest child of George and Florence Moberly. His father was
junior partner in a medical practice in Ladysmith. He was named after the
renowned pioneer Bishop of New Zealand, whom he came to hold in the
highest esteem. This undoubtedly influenced his whole life and helped to
make him a committed Christian. A volume on Bishop Selwyn's life and
work given him as a boy was onc of his cherished possessions.
Due to the unsettled conditions in Natal before the outbreak of the
Anglo-Boer War in 1899, Dr Moberly decided to take his family to England.
With the raising of the Siege of Ladysmith, the three year old Selwyn,
having been born there, became something of a patriotic mascot to the
inhabitants of Stow-on-the-Wold where the family was then living.
Soon after the conclusion of hostilities, Dr Moberly accepted an
appointment as district surgeon of Eshowe. In the still tiny capital of
Zululand, Selwyn spent some years of his young boyhood, mostly confined
to holidays, for in 1905, just before his eighth birthday he was sent to St
David's preparatory school in Grey town, then a three-day journey from his
Eshowe home. Under Mr Owen, St David's was considered one of the best
preparatory schools in Natal: a large number of Rhodes Scholarships were
won by former pupils, while in the Great War more military distinctions
were won by its old boys than by those of any other similar school. Selwyn's
memories of his time at St David's included his first snow storm and a
minstrel show and bioscope. His most vivid recollection, however, was of an
alarm, given in the small hours of the morning, of an impending attack by
Zulu rebels. A half mile tramp followed, first to a packed town hall which
was being prepared as a laager, and then on to the already fortified
courthouse. No attack materialised, but these events heralded the start of
the Bambata Rebellion.
Obituaries 103
At the end of his second year at St David's Mr Owen recommended that

Selwyn should move on to some other school where he could get more
advanced teaching. In 1907 he entered Hilton preparatory school, and the
following year was sent back to England to be prepared for entry to
Winchester College.
Mr G.S. Moberly,
photographed on a commemorative steam train · excursion on the Grey town line,
familiar to him from his schooldays at St David's.
(Photograph: Natal Mercury)
It had become a tradition for successive generations of Moberly boys to

receive their schooling at this famous ancient seat of learning, but Selwyn's
years there were not altogether easy. The young colonial found it difficult to
adjust to the habits and customs of the society from which the other boys
came; he was much happier after he was excused games because of a minor
health problem and thus free to spend his afternoons exploring the English
countryside on a bicycle.
Then came the first World War. Leaving Winchester, Selwyn was
accepted as an officer cadet at the Military Academy at Woolwich. After a
six months' concentrated course he was commissioned into the Royal
Artillery, and in due course was commanding one of the newly formed anti
aircraft batteries in France. After the Armistice in November, 1918 and until
peace was signed the following year, he served in the army of occupation on
the Rhine. But his homeland was calling, so he resigned his commission and
returned to his family, now residing in Empangeni.
104 Obituaries
He soon found work in the labqratory of the Umfolosi Cane Planters Co
operative. Sugar chemistry fascinated him and he decided to study the
subject in depth at the Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge which was
recognised in the 1920s as being the leading institution in the world in this
field.
After obtaining his B.Sc., he was appointed chief chemist at the Tongaat
Sugar Company. Within two years he successfully applied for the newly
created post of Supervising Technologist of the Cane Growers Association,
and it was for his work in establishing and developing the cane testing
service that he is best remembered in the sugar industry. In 1943 he
produced the Cane Testers' Handbook, long regarded as an authoritative
work on the subject. He became a foundation member of the S.A. Sugar
Technologists Association, served as its President on three occasions, and
on retirement was made an Honorary Life Member. He left the sugar world
officially in 1948, but retained a keen interest in it.
For many years he had made his home in Kloof, but in 1951, he returned
to live in Eshowe where he interested himself in local affairs and particularly
in those of the parish church. Here he is still remembered for composing and
producing 'The Forest Noel' - a nativity pageant - in which the local
churches all took part. It was performed in a clearing in the Dlinza Forest
known as the Bishop's Seat. The pageant made such an impression that it
continued to be presented at three-yearly intervals sponsored by local
Round Tablers.
In 1955, he was invited to use his skills again as a chemist at the Natal
Chemical Syndicate wattle extract factory in Vryheid, which position he held
for fourteen years. Here again he took a keen interest in church affairs
serving at times as churchwarden and synod representative. He was also
encouraged by Bishop Trapp of Zululand to write a history of that Diocese,
and after much painstaking research the task was completed and given the
title The Bamboo Cross - a reference to the simple cross placed over the
grave of Bishop Charles Mackenzie in Central Africa, and in whose memory
the Zululand Diocese was founded and endowed in 1870. Unfortunately no
publisher could be found to bring out this work, but a typed copy has been
deposited in the Killie Campbell Library in Durban. This was not Selwyn
Moberly's only literary effort. In 1961, he had written his autobiography
entitled Half a life, of some 470 closely typewritten pages, giving a
detailed account of the first 32 years of his life. This provides a fascinating
insight into the thoughts and feelings of a young man who had lived through
and experienced many of the traumatic events of the first quarter of the
twentieth century and his reactions to them.
Then in 1970, he wrote a history of Eshowe with the title A city set on a
hill. In the foreword, Harry C. Lugg, former Chief Native Commissioner of
Natal and Zululand writes 'an interesting and most absorbing story ... a
valuable work by an able pen'. This book was sponsored and published by
the Rotary Club of Eshowe.
In 1969 Selwyn and his wife, Eirene, left Vryheid to make their home in
Pietermaritzburg. Here they were able to live to enjoy a quiet, peaceful
retirement finding pleasure in reading, in friends and family and in their
small garden; for both had always enjoyed flowers. Selwyn contributed
humorous verses regularly to the Natal Witness.
Obituaries 105
In 1979 they celebrated their Golden Wedding, a great occasion on which

they received warm congratulations from family and friends, many of long
standing. They had made their vows as man and wife on 3 April 1929 in St
Mary Magdalene's, Isipingo Beach. They were blessed with three daughters,
Gillian (known as Biddy), Helen and Margery to whom they were devoted,
and who returned that devotion. So they built a truly Christian home, and
many were enriched by the kindly hospitality they offered to so many in
their wide circle of friends and acquaintances.
Selwyn became increasingly frail during the last year of his life, so it was a
happy release when his earthly pilgrimage came to its end and he quietly
passed on through the valley of the shadows into the Greater Light on 22
July 1985. He was in his 89th year.
He will be remembered by all who knew him as a fine, honest,
trustworthy Christian gentleman. He was Godfearing in the true meaning of
the word, giving due honour to his Lord, and using his God-given talents in
the service of his fellow-men, regardless of creed or colour. Well done, thou
good and faithful servant.
F.A. FUGGLE
106
Notes and Queries

The Cover Illustration of Natalia 14.
The picture on the cover of Natalia 14, acknowledged in that issue as being
taken from a photograph in the possession of the Durban Local History
Museum and described as being a view of the Durban bayside in 1900, led to
an interesting correspondence between the Editor and Mr G.W. McDonald
of Kenilworth in the Cape. The original painting, of which our illustration is
a photograph, was purchased by Mr McDonald some forty years ago, and,
once he had recovered from the surprise (and understandable mild chagrin)
of finding his picture reproduced without proper acknowledgement, he
provided us with much interesting information about the painting and its
artist, together with permission to quote from an article by himself which
was published in Antiques in South Africa (number 8) in 1981.
The painting was in fact done in about 1910 by one John Roland Brown.
It is a water colour, and an extraordinarily accurate rendering of the bay
from a vantage point in Albert Park at the Congella end of the Victoria
Embankment. The trees that dominate the foreground are, Mr McDonald
points out, those that hid Commandant Pretorius' men from Captain Smith's
advancing troops on the night of the battle of Congella in May 1842. Beyond
them is the boathouse of the Durban Rowing Club with the adjacent bathing
jetty, then the waters of the bay dotted with sailing boats whose rigging is
faithfully portrayed. The jetty, with the woodstrip screen that hid Durban's
gentlemen from the eyes of the townsfolk as they changed into swimming
attire, and the boathouse are now gone, but the Rowing Club survives, with
an lll-year history.
John Roland Brown was a South African artist, born in Port Elizabeth in
1850, whose life was somewhat out of the ordinary.
He was deaf and dumb, ... and orphaned at the age of 5, when he and
his brother were placed in the Dutch Reformed Orphanage in Long
Street, Cape Town. Not knowing what to do with the two children, the
Principal gave them some old issues of the Illustrated London News,
with pencil and paper and left them to copy the pictures to while away
their solitary hours. John soon developed an extraordinary talent and
was later sent, in 1864, to the Roeland School of Art and Evening
Classes in Cape Town which had been founded in that year by Mr
Foster. There he was trained for about 3 years under T.M. Lindsay
who had come to the Cape as Principal of the school.
When he was 17 years of age Brown was sent as a student to the
Liverpool School of Art where he gained great distinction, winning a
Queen's Scholarship and the National prize as well as other awards and
silver medals. Later he became art master at the school - a post he
Notes and Queries 107
held for some 30 years, during which time he exhibited regularly at the
leading art galleries. He was acknowledged as one of the finest artists
in the north of England and was trusted with many commissions for
portraits of well-known personalities.
When in England, Brown married, but having lost his wife, he with
his only son, returned to South Africa in 1902 and shortly afterwards
retired to live in Grahamstown. He spent his remaining 21 years in
various parts of the country, painting mainly for pleasure and holding
exhibitions in Durban, Port Elizabeth, Grahamstown and elsewhere.
After having devoted his entire life to art, he died in Grahamstown in
1923, aged 73 years.
Mr McDonald exressed some mystification as to how an excellent
photograph of his painting came to be in the Local History Museum in
Durban, and would welcome an explanation of this.
A History of South African Bhojpuri

As observed in the editorial, this issue of Natalia, in marking the 125th
anniversary of the arrival of the first indentured Indian labourers in Natal,
attempts to make good past omissions by giving extensive coverage to
aspects of the Indian experience in this region. One interesting element in
that experience, which has hitherto not received serious academic study, has
been the evolution of distinct South African varieties of the Indian
languages. Because of this neglect, many persistent misconceptions exist as
to their names, their structure, and their status as languages.
Dr Rajend Mesthrie of the University of Durban-Westville has recently
undertaken a major study of the language generally known as Hindi but
properly termed Bhojpuri. Among Indian languages in South Africa,
Bhojpuri has the second largest number of speakers. Tracing the Indian
origins of the people revealed a complex socio-linguistic picture: Their
indentured forebears came from a very wide area of North India which
spanned several languages. The most widely used of these was Bhojpuri,
and, through a comparison of the essential grammatical structures of the
Bhojpuri of India with trends in the South African usage, Dr Mesthrie has
determined that a distinct South African language variety has evolved here.
It is a blend of features from dialects of Bhojpuri and, to a lesser extent,
from Awadhi, Standard Hindi, Maithili and Magahi, but does not accord
perfectly with any language or dialect of North India. Such a language,
drawing upon different but related sources over a short period of time, is
known as a koine, and Dr Mesthrie prefers to term this koine South African
Bhojpuri rather than Hindi. Hindi, the official title, leads to unfavourable
and unfair comparisons between the South African variety and the standard
official language of much of North India. Moreover, Dr Mesthrie has
identified and described three distinct dialects of South African Bhojpuri: a
coastal variety, a Northern Natal variety, and an intermediate variety
spoken in and around Pietermaritzburg.
Dr Mesthrie's study of South African Bhojpuri reveals the influence of
other locally-used Indian languages (chiefly Urdu and Tamil) as well as
108 Notes and Queries
Zulu, Fanagalo, and, most of all, English. These include minor phonetic
influences, some syntactic changes, and a great many lexical borrowings for
new concepts and items (though many borrowings merely replaced existing
usages). From English came such words as motar, rum, and tichar (car,
room and teacher); from Zulu/Fanagalo, bagasha (a visit) and basop kar (to
look after): from Tamil, the names of snacks like vedde and dose. Semantic
shifts also distinguish South African Bhojpuri from its Indian ancestors; for
example, the word daliddar has shifted in meaning from "poor" to "greedy"
and the word chandal, which in India still refers to a particular (out)caste
group, has in largely casteless Natal become a term of abuse or contempt
without caste connotations. Dr Mesthrie has also used his study of
vocabulary changes to show how the language has made the transition from
a predominantly rural North Indian setting to an increasingly urbanised
South African one.
The study examines the changing functions of Bhojpuri over the last 125
years in South Africa, its restriction to domestic contexts, its status as a
minority language, and the attitudes of its own speakers towards it. The
language is declining, and the effects of this obsolescence on the structure of
the language as used by its 'semi-speakers' (young speakers whose command
of the language lacks complete fluency and deviates from the grammatical
norms of older speakers) is also studied. Among the reasons for its current
obsolescence, Dr Mesthrie cites the multiplicity of vernacular Indian
languages in South Africa, the lack of prestige of Bhojpuri (a 'plantation'
language misconstrued as a 'broken' form of speech, strongly denigrated by
priests and others educated in standard Hindi), its low socio-economic value
in the last fifty years, and the neglect of the vernaculars in the Indian schools
(where it has until very recently been relegated to part-time classes in some
areas, functioning under less than optimal conditions).
Dr Mesthrie's study includes samples of the Bhojpuri and Awadhi of India
of the late nineteenth century, interviews with a range of Bhojpuri speakers
(including some born in India at the time of the emigrations), and a small
selection of proverbs, riddles, folk verses and talcs extant in South Africa.
St Saviour's, Randjesfontein
This church at Halfway House in the Transvaal has been built from material
salvaged from St Saviour's Cathedral in Pietermaritzburg. Charles Lloys Ellis
and Keith Parker, the developers of the rural housing estate Randjesfontein
at Halfway House, purchased portion of the Cathedral for one rand and
spent about R500 000 in re-erecting it.
Originally built in a matter of months in 1868 as a result of the Supreme
Court decision whereby Bishop Colenso was to retain all Anglican Church
property, St Saviour's Cathedral in Commercial Road at first consisted of a
simple nave with side-aisles and a yellowwood porch on the street frontage.
In 1876 the Cathedral was enlarged with a new entrance and two transepts at
the Commercial Road end. The porch was then moved to the north-west
side. In 1881 a Chapter Room and Library were added to that side, while in
1898 the edifice was further enlarged with a new sanctuary, two more
transepts and St Michael's Chapel. When the Cathedral was demolished in
1981 the major portion went to Randjesfontein, while the remainder, viz.
the 1876 addition was taken by the Natal Parks Board for the construction of
a small church at the Midmar Historical Village.
Mr LIoys Ellis commissioned the well-known Durban architect Robert
Brusse to prepare plans for the new church. By a clever rc-arrangement of
the sanctuary, transepts and St Michael's Chapel, a church seating 200
worshippers has been created. St Michael's Chapel has become the new
baptistry and the yellowwood porch has been replaced in its 1868 siting at
the main entrance.
The new church has been tastefully situated among a grove of old
conifers, and adjacent to the cemetery of the Erasmus family, the original
owners of the farm Randjesfontein, giving the impression of an old
established edifice.
To the south is a cloistered garden which will in the future link the church
with a proposed hall and creche, to be built of material from the original
nave of the cathedral. This building will be similar to the original 1868 St
Saviour's.
The Randjesfontein St Saviour's was dedicated on 11 May this year, and a
group of Cathedral of the Holy Nativity members travelled to the Transvaal
for the event. Among them was Dean LIoyd Wellington, the Dean of St
Saviour's at the time of the amalgamation in 1976 of that Parish with the
Parish of St Peter to form the congregation of the Cathedral of the Holy
Nativity and his successor, Dean John Forbes of the Cathedral of the Holy
Nativity.
It is now an interdenominational church, available to all congregations
which subscribe to the Apostles' Creed.
The Natal Society of Arts

1985 is the eightieth year since the founding of the Natal Society of Artists
which in 1964 changed its name to the present Natal Society of Arts.
Instituted in 1905 by Cathcart William Methven (who is better known,
perhaps, for his engineering work) and the architect William Paton, the
N. S. A. has made a significant contribution to the fostering of the arts in
both Natal and the country at large. Amongst the most active of its council
members was Clement Seneque, whose works were the subject of a
retrospectivc exhibition which was noted in these pages last year. The
N.S.A. Gallery, now located in Durban's Overport City complex, has
mounted a number of important exhibitions (receiving an Art Critics' Award
in 1978), and in recent years the Society has extended its sponsorship and
assistance to artists and art teachers in KwaZulu.
Commemorating 125 Years of Railways in South Africa

The following Note has been supplied by Mr Bruno Martin.
The 125th anniversary of the opening of South Africa's first
locomotive-powered railway was commemorated. in Durban on 22
June 1985. To mark the occasion, the Natal Branch of the Railway
Point Station, c. 1876. Natal Railway Company's locomotive Perserverance with a

motley rake of carriages.
(Photograph: Local History Museum, Durban)
Society of Southern Africa operated a special train from the new

Durban station to the Point. Vintage carriage stock and a former Natal
Government Railways main line engine, resplendent in Brunswick
green livery, were used for the train composition.
Appropriately, the proceedings for the commemorative trip
commenced in front of the preserved locomotive, Natal, which is set on
a plinth in Durban's new station complex. To this engine , albeit a
reconstruction of the original,l belongs the distinction of having been
the first in South Africa to raise steam and be taken into service.
Following the opening ceremony, dignitaries and invited guests, about
250 in all, boarded the special train on Platform 16 and departed at
1Oh45 to the skirl of the Caledonian Pipe Band. Since the track has
long been lifted from the route initially taken to the Point, the train
first proceeded to Maydon Wharf and then took to the line skirting the
Victoria Embankment. It was only once the harbour area was reached
that the last part of the journey corresponded closely with the
alignment of the railway built in 1860. On arrival, the passengers were
welcomed by the music of the Railway Police Band, after which the
main proceedings were held in front of the old NGR Point Station
Building. The general public was then given the opportunity of riding
the commemorative steam train and three further runs were made
from the Point to Maydon Wharf during the course of the afternoon.
According to a contemporary account,z it was sometime between
3 and 4 in the afternoon of 23 June 1860, that the shrill of a locomotive
whistle was heard for the first time in Durban. Some six weeks earlier;
the crates containing the components of the locomotive had been
BAYOFNATAL
NGR Point Station I
(1888) I
Original Ourban - Point line, 1860

THE POINT!
Route taken by Commemorative Train
\ I
\ I
Approximate coastline, 1860

\ I
\ I
\ I
\ I
I \
'I, \ \
i=======i,------.J, mile \ \
500 metres \ "
" (--lM:inc's Pier
'--.~
MAPWORK BY BMARTIN
The reconstructed engine Natal. Built by Robert Legg, City of London Engine
Works, 1860. The first train in South Africa was hauled by this engine on 23 June,
1860.
(Photograph: S.A. Transport Services)
Former Natal Government Railways engine no. 88, built by Dubs & Co., Glasgow,
Scotland, 1892. This engine provided the motive power for the 125 years
Commemorative Train on 22 June, 1985
(Photograph: B. Martin)
oft1oaded from the brig Cadiz, and brought in open goods wagons to a
makeshift structure draped in tarpaulins in Pine Terrace. Here Henry
Jacobs, who was not only the Chief Engineer, but also the fitter and
driver, assisted by Alexander Davidson, formerly a marine engineer.
assembled the 'iron horse'. The bodywork of the 12 ton engine was
painted green while the four wheels and connecting rods were a copper
colour. Prominent features were the huge dome cover of polished brass
and the American design chimney which incorporated a wire mesh to
trap the sparks emanating from the firebox. Burnished copper plates
on either side of the cab displayed the name of the engine: Natal. With
a number of officials on the footplate, driver Jacobs turned on the
steam and Natal made her inaugural journey to the Point. About half
an hour later, she returned with five trucks in tow loaded with 40 tons
of sugar mill machinery and some passengers.
The official opening ceremony took place on Tuesday. 26 June lR6U,
amid lavish celebrations. A notice in the Natal Mercury stated that the
inaugural train would leave Market Square Station at 11 a.m.
conveying His Excellency (Major Williamson) and officials, after which
the train would continue to run throughout the day for the return fare
of one shilling for second class. At the Point Station, a dejeuner would
be served to which the public was invited at a cost of IOs 6d per
person. To conclude the celebrations a ball would be held in the
Masonic Hall under the patronage of the Directorate of the Natal
Railway Company, from whom tickets could be obtained.
The inaugural train carried about 60 passengers, half of whom were
seated in the one and only carriage, while the others were
accommodated in one of the open trucks that had undergone a
makeshift conversion. Planks had been nailed across from side to side
to provide seating and an awning protected the passengers from the
sun. By the end of the first day, the train service had conveyed some
800 passengers.
Although historically the two mile long stretch of 4 ft 8 1/2 in. gauge
track connecting the harbour with the town centre of Durban was the
first in South Africa on which a steam locomotive operated, the
honour of having possessed the first railway engine belongs to Cape
Town. This engine, together with its driver, one William Dabbs, was
landed in September 1859, but did not undertake its inaugural journey
until February 1861.
NOTES:
1 The Natal was made redundant following the change over to a narrower gauge in 1878 and
sold to a farmer in Port St Johns. who put her to work as a stationary engine to drive a
sawmill. The farm labourers, however. refused to work on the estate that harboured a
'devil's machine' and the locomotive was subsequently buried. It was not until 1943 that the
chassis and wheels were recovered and brought back to Durban where the engine was
reconstructed in the railways workshops and put on display in 1946.
2 Russell, G. The izistory of old Durban and the reminiscences of an immigrant of 1850.
The Naming of Port St lohns

The following letter has been received from Mr A. R. Willcox of Winterton:
During research for my recently published small work Shipwreck &
Survival on the South-East Coast of Africa I became interested in the
origin of the name Port St 10hns. It has been generally believed that
the place was so named because the wreck of the Sao 10ao took place
there, or nearby. This is repeated in the article 'The Great Galleon Sao
10ao: remains from a mid-sixteenth century wreck on the Natal South
Coast,' by Tim Maggs just published in Annals of Natal Museum, Vol26
(1) 1984, in spite of the fact that it is established that the wreck of that
ship did not occur there, but some 110 km to the North-East.
Another theory of the naming is mentioned in the article on Port St
10hns in the Standard Encyclopeadia of Southern Africa. This is that a
priest on a Portuguese ship anchored at the river mouth thought he
saw in the mountain now called Mount Sullivan the outline of the face
of St 10hn. It is not explained how he knew what St 10hn looked like!
Not being satisfied with either of the explanations and knowing that
Portuguese and Spanish navigators commonly named geographical
features after the saint on whose 'day' the bay, or cape, or whatever,
was first seen - for example Sao Bras and St Christopher's Bay - I
decided to check the first sighting of the river mouth against the data.
The sighting was by Da Gama and his company and they were
entitled to give it a name. As to the date, according to Eric Axelson
Da Gama was about 25 miles south of Port St 10hns on December 25th
1498, when he gave the name Natal to the land he saw. Some time on
the 28th the mariners caught fish at a point identified as Durban Bluff.
About the morning of the 27th they must have been off the river
mouth, and December 27th is the Feast Day of St 10hn the Apostle.
It seems to me overwhelmingly probable that Da Gama and his pilot
attached the name to the river mouth or the headland (perhaps as
Ponta or Puta Sao 10ao, both words mean point) and it was placed on
a chart subsequently lost with so many of the early records. but that
the name was passed on to later mariners. Variants of the name appear
on maps from 1691, such as Rio da S.Ioao, Rio de Sao 10ao, etc., and
the full name Port St 10hns only when the town was established in the
1880s.
~
Conservation and Development in Pietermaritzburg: The Way Ahead!
Mr R.F. Haswell reports that the City Council at its meeting held on 30
July, 1985, considered, and accepted in principle, a report entitled
'Conservation and development in Pietermaritzburg' which was prepared by
Mr Brian Bassett, the Conservation Consultant.
A 1982 report by Mr Bassett launched the cataloguing of all buildings in
the central area, and his latest report attempts 'to chart the way ahead in
general terms and provide a framework within which environmental control
could operate to the benefit of the citizens of Pietermaritzburg'. More
fundamentally, however, Mr Bassett argues convincingly that the city is not
quite ready to list and protect all of the structures which may be worthy of
such action. We do not have the necessary staff, and we should avoid
creating the impression that conservation would 'freeze' the CBD.
Accordingly, the report calls for greater recognition of the unity of the built
and natural environment, and of conservation as an alternative form of
development.
In particular. a coherent system of conservation-minded environmental
planning, consisting of three main elements, is advocated:
(i) an Environmental Services Division within the City Engineer's
Department:
(ii) a process of public participation;
(iii) various conservation incentives.
Although the City Engineer's Department already contains the embryo of
an Environmental Services Division, several additional specialists as well as
a broadly trained and experienced Director are called for. (In the current
economic climate additional staff is wishful thinking and Pietermaritzburg
really needs to be adopted by a benefactor.)
In order to stimulate public participation in the creation of the
environment they occupy daily, the report recommends the establishment of
'A Heritage Board' and 'A Heritage Centre'. The former would advise the
local authority on how the public, as represented by their organizations. fclt
about sensitive projects. whereas the latter would be a place in which the
city's heritage is interpreted for the public. (Clearly the Heritage Centre
would be ideally housed in a prominent landmark, and surely there is room
in the Old Supreme Court!)
The report deals in some detail with the ways and means of encouraging
conservation ranging from easements in the form of Town Planning and
Building Bye-Law concessions to rates rebates granted to the owners of
listed properties. To the question of whether our city can afford this the long
term answer must definitely be 'Yes'. for conservation will result in
extensive urban renewal. an increase in property values and hence an
increase in rates income to the city. Add in greater tourist revenue and
conservation will certainly more than pay for itself.
'Conservation and development in Pietermaritzburg' is well worth reading
and digesting. It makes it clear that the imminent publication of the
Catalogue of Buildings in Central Pietermaritzburg is not the panacea for all
our conservation ills. If we the citizens, and our City Council, are serious
about conservation then we need to act with all due haste on the
recommendations which have been accepted in principle. The time for
talking about conservation is almost over: it is high time we began to
practise the art of conservation-minded development.
National Monuments
The most recent report of the National Monuments' Council, that for the
year ended 31 March 1984, lists the following monuments newly proclaimed
in Natal.
1. The property with the so-called Colinton House thereon, at 68 Ridge
Ruad, Durban:
This residence was built in 1898 by the architect William Street-Wilson
for Sir David Hunter, General Manager of the Natal Government
Railways from 1879 to 1906.
2. The Queen's Tavern,. at 16 Stamford Hill Road, Durban:

The Queen's Tavern, which was built as a g~ntlemen's club in 1894, is
one of Durban's few remaining links with the colonial past of Natal. It
is also the oldest licensed premises in the city.
3. The S.A. Railway Institute (N. G.R.) Building, on the corner of
Murchison and Albert Streets, Ladysmith:
This double-storeyed Victorian sandstone building, the corner-stone of
which was laid on 25 September 1903 by Joseph Baynes, was erected
by the then Natal Government Railways as a recreation centre for
railway staff.
4. The Natal Botanical Gardens, Pietermaritzburg:
These botanical gardens, the original portion of which was established
in 1870, consist of an exotic garden and an indigenous garden. The
plane tree avenue of approximately 300 metres, which was planted in
1908, is a world-renowned sight and stretches mainly through the
exotic section. The indigenous garden, which was started in 1970,
contains natural Natal vegetation.
5. The property with the double-storeyed Victorian house thereon, at 149
Pietermaritz Street, Pietermaritzburg:
This double-storeyed Victorian mansion, which dates from the
eighteen-nineties, forms an integral part of the historic facade of
Pietermaritz Street which is one of the oldest streets in Pietermaritzburg.
6. The property with the so-called Kneisel's Castle thereon, at 24 Reynolds
Street, Port Shepstone:
This late-nineteenth century residence with its distinctive German
colonial features was erected by C.F. Kneisel, a settler from Mainz,
Germany, shortly after his arrival in Natal in 1882.
7. The building known as the Carnarvon Masonic Lodge, in Russell Street,
Richmond:
This rectangular brick building with its Victorian embellishments was
erected in 1883 to accommodate the local Freemason's Lodge. This
Lodge was established in 1876 and named after the fourth Earl of
Carnarvon.
8. The site with the Elandslaagte Battlefield thereon, on the farm Braak
Fontein 1046 in the County of Klip River:
The battle of Elandslaagte on 21 October 1899 was the second action
of the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902). In this battle the Boers lost 60
men, while 140 were wounded and 200 were taken prisoner. British
casualties numbered 50 dead and 205 wounded.
9. The Victorian cast-iron Bandstand in the Gardens in front of the Town
Hall at Kokstad:
This ornamental Victorian cast-iron bandstand dates from 1912. It was
donated to the Town Council by the engineers who were responsible
for Kokstad's water scheme.
10. The property with the Museum Building thereon, at 104 Main Street,
Kokstad:
This building with its Victorian and Edwardian characteristics dates
from 1908. It was used as the Public Library until 1982.
11. The Llandaff Chapel, together with 10 metres of surrounding land, on

Lot 115 Van Reenen Town:
This red brick chapel was erected in 1925 by Joseph Maynard Mathew,
at the time a magistrate in Natal, to house a memorial plaque in
memory of his son Liandaff, who died during the Burnside colliery
disaster.
12. The so-called Bergtheil House with 20 metres of surrounding land, at 16
Queen's Avenue, Westville:
The Bergtheil House, the core of which dates from 1847, formed the
nucleus of the Westville residential area. It was built by Jonas Bergtheil,
industrialist and member of the Legislative Council from 1857 to 1866,
as the centre for the administration of the well-known New Germany
settlement.
The Pietermaritzburg Philharmonic Society

Mr John Miteheli, recently appointed director of the Pietermaritzburg
Philharmonic Society, has been researching the early history of musical
performances in the capital. He writes:
There is no doubt that 1864 was the year in which music really began
to flourish here. The year hegan with the first performance of the
'Messiah' in the cathedral on January 6. We know a surprisingly large
amount about the nature of this performance, and a frustratingly small
amount about the people responsible. The guiding hand was certainly
that of Dean James Green who planned and managed the project.
The choir numbered between 30 and 40 voices - a great deal more
authentic than our present day elephantine forces! The anonymous
conductor seems to have been an extremely versatile musician since he
not only conducted the choir with the bow of his violin, which he used
to 'help out' those voice groups which required it, but also sang the
bass solo in The trumpet shall sound'. The remainder of the
accompaniment was carried by an unnamed lady at the harmonium
who, seemingly, acquitted herself very well! The critic of the Witness
noted that the ladies' voices overshadowed those of the men - plus <;a
change!, and that '0 Thou that tellest' was performed as a duet. For
me the greatest curiosity of the evening was the discovery that the
soprano soloist in 'Rejoice greatly' was a black lady who apparently
made a great impression.
The Messiah was performed again on August 5. Apart from the
oratorio Maritzburg in 1864 seems to have been musically very much
on the ball. Davis and Sons of Longmarket Street imported large
quantities of the latest sheet music including an arrangement for piano
of Verdi's opera 'Un Ballo in Maschera' written only five years
previously.
The regimental band in residence under the direction of Mr Moran
played popular and regular programmes which included Rossini's
overture 'Semiramide', only ten years old at the time, and selections
from '11 Trovatorc' and 'La Traviata' which were both eleven years
old. The band was obviously a draw card and took a regular spot at the
St George's Theatre in collaboration with the new dramatic company
which was running a season of the comedy 'Take that girl away'.
Tickets, incidentally, were rather pricey at £1.lOs and £1.15s - this,
mind you, at a time when you could buy yourself an acre of land in
Town Bush Valley for £6.lOs!
Investigating the origins of the Philharmonic Society itself, he has
discovered that it came into existence in 1881.
The Society opened its doors on 21 March. The meeting was held at
the Masonic Hall and Charles Lascelles conducted a rehearsal of
Mendelssohn's 'Hymn of Praise' for the opening session.
Lascelles was a magic name in the province at this time. It was he
who gave Natal its first opera company at the Theatre Royal here in
Maritzburg. He was obviously the darling of the public and the press,
for very few editions of the Witness do not include some eulogy for his
latest enterprise.
Apart from founding the Philharmonic his activities in March '81
included the direction of 'The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein', an organ
recital in St Peter's Cathedral and a 'Grand Music Festival' at the
Theatre Royal. The latter was sponsored by the Commander and
Officers of the garrison with proceeds to the Widows and Orphans
(presumably of the recently ended Transvaal war) Fund. The highlight
of the programme was a performance of the 'Fantasia on Oberon'
played by eight young ladies on four grand pianos. The concert
concluded with the presentation to Lascelles of a ceremonial baton.
On 7 April 1881 the Theatre Royal was closed due to a legal dispute
over the lease. The opera moved to the Dramatic Hall to complete its
season before travelling to the Trafalgar Hall in Durban to begin a new
season of the opera 'FausI'. The exercise must have been highly
successful as the company stayed an extra week by public demand.
Obviously, during Lascelles' absence the Philharmonic lost some
momentum because frantic announcements in the Witness implored
members to attend extra rehearsals after his return on 6 May.
During May Pietermaritzburg saw 'FausI' for the first time together
with Vincent Wallace's opera, 'Maritana'. These two works were
composed respectively in 1859 and 1845 and it says much for Lascelles'
enterprise that they came so quickly to Natal. He was even quicker off
the mark with his next project. The 'Pirates of Penzance' was
premiered in London in April 1880 and just fourteen months later it
was presented here at the Theatre Royal. How supremely ironic it is
that 104 years after LasceIles gave Pietermaritzburg three operas in
almost as many months, NAPAC should withdraw operas from this
city altogether.
Compiled by MORAY COMRIE
119
Book Reviews and Notices

VOORSLAG 1 - 3: Originally edited by Roy Campbell, William Plomer and
Laurens van der Post. A Magazine of South African Life and Art. Facsimile
reprint of Nos. 1, 2 and 3 (1926).
Edited by COLlN GARDNER and MICHAEL CHAPMAN
Pietermaritzburg, Killie Campbell Africana Library and University of Natal
Press, 1985. 308 pp. R24 plus GST.
Voorslag and the 'Maritzburg Connection'

Writing in The Cape Argus from England in 1927 Roy Campbell castigated
what he had earlier referred to as the 'grocer's mentality' of Durban and,
more generally, South African 'colonial culture':
Truly the rage of the sheep is terrible! If we had been at all timid of
that moronism which has come to be associated with the name of
South Africa, we should not have attacked it in the regions where it
takes the most virulent forms. For, be it remembered, we edited
Voorslag not only in South Africa, but in Durban, the Mecca of
Moronism, the unbroken ignominy and dullness of whose history is
only relieved by the inexplicable phenomenon of my birth there.]
Such arrogance and relish, hyperbole and pertinent comment, taken
together, provides an apt summary of the direction and temper of the
'Voorslag venture' which, during the winter months of 1926, exercised the
creative and iconoclastic energies of three of South Africa's brightest young
writing talents, those of Campbell, William Plomer and Laurens van der
Post.
Produeed at Umdoni Park, near Sezela, and enthusiastically pilloried in
the daily press in Durban, Johannesburg and Cape Town, Voorslag, A
Magazine of South African Life and Art set out to bring to the 'colony' the
challenge of the European avant garde: in Plomer's words, 'to sting with
satire the mental hindquarters of the bovine citizenry' ,2 to remind it of its
commercial smugness and racial bigotry, and to promote the ideal of the
artist as the isolated genius amid the philistine herd. Voorslag finally ceased
publication at number 11, but only the first three were under Campbell's
editorship. It is these numbers, together with an Introduction, annotations
and Appendices of contemporaneous reactions in the press and several of
Campbell's letters pertaining to the journal, which have now been re-issued
in a facsimile edition. 3
Campbell dramatically announced his resignation in Number 3, an action
precipitated by the issues at stake: 'art' versus 'commercial interests':
'youthful enlightenment' versus 'bourgeois conservatism'. Aged twenty-four,
twenty-two and nineteen respectively, Campbell, Plomer and Van der Post
120 Book Reviews and Notices
had cast themselves in opposition to their financial backer Lewis Reynolds

(son of a sugar millionaire), who was a friend of Smuts and Creswell and
who had political ambitions of his own in the constituency of South Coast,
and to Maurice Webb, described as the 'business manager', who worked for
A.c. Braby of Durban. (This firm printed Voorslag along with its regular
order of business directories.) 'A coffee-coloured [magazine] which would
have disgraced a tradesman's catalogue!'4 exclaimed Campbe\l at the
appearance of the first number; and, in response to Webb's preface, he
wrote in a private letter: 'One can't introduce new ideas into a stale country
by being meek and modest. We shall merely have the flies sitting on us. If
you had not put in such an apologetic little preface ... damn you!"
Satirized by Campbell in his poem 'The Wayzgoose' (1928) as Polybius
Jubb, Webb would in later years distinguish himself in the fields of race
relations, education, social services and Christian unity. At the time of
Voorslag, however, he was seen by the three young writers as the prude
who, once editorial control of the journal had been relinquished by
Campbell, would drape a fig-leaf over the 'exposed' ending of Plomer's
serialized short story 'Portraits in the Nude'. In addition, Webb favoured the
inclusion of stories by Sarah Gertrude Millin, whose novel God's
Stepchildren (1924) - a dire warning against the consequences of
miscegenation - had the 'official' approval of white middle-class South
Africans, including that of General Smuts. 'An ill-bred little hussy,' said
Campbell of Mrs Millin, and in a perceptive review he recognized the
alternatives posed by Plomer's novel Turbott Wolle (1925), a scathing
denunciation of colonial prejudice and a book which had been slated in the
local press.
Campbell contributed several other articles to Voorslag, including one of
the first 'modern' responses to T.S. Eliot's poem 'The Waste Land', while
Plomer wrote a far-sighted review of Dr Norman Leys's book Kenya, in
which he reminded South Africans of the necessity of recognizing 'every
man's human qualities as a contribution to the building of an indestructible
future, to judge every man by the colour of his soul and not by the colour of
his skin'. Voorslag refused to separate 'art' and 'politics', and several of its
comments would probably produce today, in many white South Africans,
the same angry and guilty explosion as they did when they were first written.
We thus begin to understand more complex reasons for the generally hostile
reception of the journal in the mid-1920s.
Interestingly however - and this is the point of my title -
Pietermaritzburg did not, to any noticeable extent, join in the denunciation
of Campbell or Voorslag. While the daily press in the larger centres attacked
with vigour (and at times with petulance) the 'radicalism' and the 'youthful
pretension' of Voorslag (ironically, Mrs Millin offered one of the morc
balanced responses)," The Natal Witness, under Desmond Young's
editorship, adopted a stance at sharp variance with that of Henry Wodson's
The Natal Advertiser (in Durban). Soon after Campbell returned to Durban
in 1924, having enjoyed both an unsuccessful spell at Oxford and a successful
debut as the poet of 'The Flaming Terrapin' (1924), he had angered the
good citizens of Durban in a lecture to the town. 'It is not enough to have
made a grocer's paradise of half the earth [he concluded] ... We must have
a deeper and less ostentatious pride in ourselves than that which is born of
Book Reviews and Notices 121
our richness and power.' Slammed by The Natal Advertiser Campbell's talk,
'Modern Poetry and Contemporary History', was printed in full by The
Natal Witness, as a 'brilliant analysis' (19 & 26 March, and 2 & 16 April,
1925), And of his satirical poem 'The Wayzgoose' (which existed in
manuscript by the end of 1929 when he left South Africa), Campbell was
able to say in his autobiography Broken Record (1934): 'I publicly offered in
The Cape Ar~us to publish my 'Wayzgoose' at my own expense rather than
take it to England ... Only Desmond Young of The Natal Witness had the
spunk to take it up, but was forbidden to do so by his firm's lawyers.'
Whatever fascinating story lies concealed here - involving the rivalries of
personalities, ideologies, newspapers and cities - it is perhaps fitting that
the present facsimile edition of Voorslag should have been published and
printed not in Durban, but in Pietcrmaritzburg, respectively by the
University of Natal Press and, especially in view of Young's attitude to the
'Voorslag trio', by The Natal Witness.
NOTES
I 'We hear from Roy Campbell: A "Long Range" Attack', June 1927; reprinted as Appendix
L in Voorslag 1-3, facsimile edition with Introduction and Notes by Colin Gardner and
Michael Chapman (Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press, 19R5), p. 73.
Douhle lives: an autobiographr (London, 1943), p. 43.
See No. 1, above.
4 R.C.'s unpublished memorandum to William Plomer, August 1926 (Durham University
Librarv).
R.C. io Maurice Webh, June/July 1926; reprinted as Appendix D in Voorslag 1-3, p. 4~.
b 'A South African Magazine. Is Voorslag What It Should Be?', Rand Daily Mail, 16 June
1926; reprinted as Appendix B in Voorslag /-3, pp. 43-45.

MICHAEL CHAPMAN
INSIDE THE LAST OUTPOST

by DAYID ROBBINS. Photographs by WYNDHAM HARTLEY
Pietermaritzburg, Shuter & Shooter, 1985. 198 pp. illus. R25.
The image of Natal as claustrophobic and Kafka-esque, its colonial heritage
depressing and suppressing, is not one commonly purveyed by Natalia
journal. I imagine, however, that Natalia's readers would confess that there
might be more than a grain of self-protection in the way we grip on to our
past, and that there is need for such a 'medicine' as Mr Robbins's book
offers us; a far-reaching antidote to the attempt to lean on the past in order
to avoid a present that we don't want to see. I found Inside the Last Outpost
at times an inspired observation of cross-cultural symbols and moments, at
times an unforgettable reportage of the cruel life-style our white self
protection implies for other Natalians, and at times an assault on white
'guilt' feelings that was moralistic to the point of being predictable and
counter-productive. (In respect to the sincerity of the author, I offer this
qualification whilst readily admitting my status as a third-generation white
Natalian.)
Where is the book strong? In the quality of its first-hand observation. No
academic tricks of getting the statistics first and then imposing them on the
local landscape.
Blacks fill the pavements near the railway station. Tribal dress and
suits; the shops of herbalists dingy with roots and bark and bottles of
witchcraft; eating houses which offer, to the accompaniment of jive and
laughter, hollowed half-loaves of bread filled with curried stew, and
from which customers tumble in a finger-licking, foot-tapping
profusion ... In the late afternoons, Blacks fill the buses, the pirate
taxis, going home; they don dark-glasses and drive big muddy
automobiles with a careless sort of American style, radios thumping,
elbows crooked through open windows, fingers tatooing the tops of
steering-wheels ...
Later, the statistics. The location, the 'home' that the taxis return to, was
laid out in 1846 for about 8 000 Blacks. Today 'it is slightly smaller, but
contains well over 100 000 people'. In feeling something of the smart of
these uncomfortable figures, I again and again respect the order of priorities
of Mr Robbins's procedure. He always stands at a place first, takes in the
sensations, and then writes.
Thus on Indian shops:
Snazzy Girl and Bombay Girl; Popattlall Kara and French Fashions
Hair Boutique; sari shops and a confectioner's window filled with dusty
cakes in the shape of ocean liners and aeroplanes . . . In a travel
agency, booklets advertising pilgrimages to India and the Far East; in
another window, ornate and garishly coloured pictures of a multi
armed woman reclining on a lion ... You suddenly realise the Indians
are no more Indian now than the Whites are European.
Given such vivid detail, the author's conclusion has point and force.
Now when this procedure is applled to some of the more stressful aspects
of our national and provincial life, one finds one can accompany Mr
Robbins on his honest and uncomfortable journeys - the sort that most of
us try and avoid - without ever feeling that he will suddenly bully one with
selected views or figures. The chapters on Msinga, 'the warren', and on the
'resettlement camps', like Compensation, are powerful through the sheer
eloquence of observation:
There is a big resettlement camp at a place called Ntambanana about
30 kilometres west of Empangeni. It is a dry and rocky place, and in
the winters there is little water. More than 6 000 outcasts already live
there. Close by, there is a whole field filled with the iron of demolished
and not yet erected fletcrafts (tin huts). If you stand near the police
station, you can see the marks, extending over large bushy hillsides, of
what the future holds. The bush has been cleared in systematic criss
crossing tracks which break the inhospitable land into squares. These
tracks are plainly visible; even plainer are the four fletcraft lavatories
which stand at the centre of each square. Almost certainly people will
live here one day.
Robbins does not always stand at such a place alone. There are some
striking altercations with his accompanying photographer. These are some of
the most moving passages in the book. The two argue as to the appropriate
'white' response in such unlovely situations. At one stage his companion
says: 'For me, when I think of everything we've seen on this so-called
journey of ours, it's not so much guilt I feel as anger'.
Now I must say that I thought Robbins was at his best at those places
where I felt anger, and not at his best at those places where he wanted me to
feel guilt. Am I prodigiously complacent if I say - by way of suggesting
where I was not touched - that I did not find 'my' people in this book?
Robbins admits the necessity of urbanisation, admits that you have to
have, for a while, First World hospitals in the Third World environment, but
I can find no room in his vision for those more ordinary colonial souls who
built those things. Significantly, the only times 'ordinary' whites speak
intelligently about Natal, is in the Msinga chapters, where farmers and
agricultural officers show surprising perception of the sociological straits that
make the area so distressed.
But elsewhere the whites are either the small band of super-dedicated
missionary-doctors, or else they're beach-boys, with 'the sheer sloth of dark
glasses above mouths faintly pursed or parted as if to savour the anticipation
of the evening's discotheques, movies, dinners, clean sheeted love-making
...' When the life of luxury takes them from the sea to the mountains, they
mouth platitudes about the scenery and leave behind them 'tea-bags,
cartons, broken glass, discarded food.' Then at Game Reserves they
corrupt, it seems, even the animals:
We saw giraffe and zebra and White tourists sunbathing with their
transistor radios at the hutted camps.
Robbins ends the book with a juxtaposition of what for him are two
representative images: two school-boys, one white and one black. One has
'red eyes and a black swastika painted on his satchel' and the other is found
'bleeding in the churchyard'. No need to say which is which. For me such
conscience-mining is unnecessary in a book that is undoubtedly a 'moment'
in Natal's literary self-awareness. Where it is strong. the book made me feel
anger that 'my' people might, through greed and imperviousness, not inherit
the best they have done. But I don't respond to a strategy of disqualifying
the doing.
The photographs have the wit of the text at its best, but, without captions,
it is not always easy to locate the incidents they refer to.
W.H. BIZLEY
JOHN DUNN: The White Chief of Zululand

by CHARLES BALLARD
Craighall, Ad Jonker, 1985. 288 pp. illus. R34,95 plus GST.
Zulu history seems to hold a curious fascination for Americans. Donald
Morris, author of the classic Washing of the Spears which appeared nearly
twenty years ago and which remains, arguably, the best general history of
the Anglo-Zulu War, is an American. So, too, is Norman Etherington who
recently visited Natal. So likewise, is Charles Ballard, lecturer in history at
the University of Natal in Durban and author of this new study of John
Dunn.
Dunn was a colourful transfrontierman curiously neglected in South
African history. Moving to Zululand in 1857, he married one coloured and
forty-eight African wives by whom he reputedly sired 117 off-spring (of
whom the last one died only very recently).
This startling statistic seems to have been the basis for two historical
novels by the late Oliver Walker, sometime music critic of the Star, which
showed greater interest in Dunn's supposed sexual athleticism than in his
economic and political role and significance. Those who seek more of the
same from Charles Ballard will be disappointed. This volume is a reworking
of Ballard's doctoral thesis on Dunn and bears the marks of all the historical
research and judicious appraisal that one is entitled to expect in a book with
such a pedigree.
Victorian Natalians were shocked at Dunn's 'polygamous bohemianism'.
(Their modern descenpants are more likely to be shocked by the fact that he
and his hunters had killed off most of the game in southern Zululand by the
mid 1880s.) He was a renegade and a villain, to be ostracised when he
visited Natal, even if his baronial and lavish hospitality was enjoyed by many
travellers north of the Tugela.
But none could deny Dunn's influence. Even if economic self-interest was
his only motive, he not only sold large numbers of arms to the Zulus before
1879 but also, as 'Protector of Immigrants', he established an early migrant
labour system for the Tsonga workers on whom the Natal colonists were
much dependent. His economic importance was exceeded only by his
political significance when he became one of Cetshwayo's most trusted
confidants and advisers in the I 870s.
Inevitably, the Anglo-Zulu War was the supreme crisis of Dunn's life. He
desperately desired to remain neutral. His sympathies lay with the Zulu, but
he knew that Zulu valour could not withstand British resources and arms.
Imperial arm-twisting eventually forced him to abandon his neutrality and
join the British invasion (for which colonial opinion promptly derided him as
a Judas). He regained the favour of the British authorities for services to the
British army during the campaign, while after the war he was drafted into
(and, seemingly, helped draft) Wolseley's disastrous scheme for the indirect
rule of a fragmented Zululand, and managed to retain and, indeed, enhance
his position as one of the thirteen chiefs (variously described by disgruntled
colonists as corrupt, traitorous, infirm and imbecilic) in the post-war
political economy.
The restoration of Cetshwayo in 1883 and the subsequent Zulu civil war
brought Dunn's political involvement to an end. He spent his last years as a
farmer and cattleman and died at Emoyeni in 1895 at the age of 65.
There is no doubt that this book is an important contribution to Natal
historiography. Scholarly, readable and thoroughly researched, Ballard's
study of Dunn shows that the latter was far from being the mere sensualist
and moral leper which many of his contemporaries thought him.
Ballard portrays him as a versatile, complex, determined and extremely
capable man, balancing with considerable success his political, ideological
and economic priorities between the colony of Natal and the Zulu kingdom.
It deserves a place on the bookshelf of anyone seriously interested in the
history of Natal and Zululand, just as much as Dunn's numerous
descendants deserve their place in the Natal-KwaZulu of a century later.
T.B. FROST
(Reproduced with permission of the Editor, The Natal Witness)
•
SHIPWRECK AND SURVIVAL ON THE SOUTH-EAST COAST OF

AFRICA
by A.R. WILLCOX
Winterton, Drakensberg Publications, 1984. 44 p. illus. R8,50 plus GST.
Well-known for his three decades of work on African rock art, Mr Willcox
has now produced a very readable monograph on shipwrecks before 1800
which resulted in parties of survivors making their way up or down our
coast, and in some cases striking quite far inland. Their fortunes have been
researched not so much to dwell on the terrible hardships they suffered as to
assemble evidence about the exact sites of the wrecks, the routes taken by
the survivors, and the disposition of the various native peoples in South East
Africa at that time. Some of the re-tellings are less fluent and attractive than
Mackeurtan's versions of the same events (The Cradle Days of Natal, 1930),
but Mr Willcox has brought the record of investigation and scholarship up to
date, drawing, for example, on recent work by the archaeological
department of the Natal Museum, and accounts by divers investigating
specific wreck sites. There are a few minor blemishes in the form of errors
which have slipped through in the proof-reading - including the repeated
use on pp. 30-31 of 'Stavemisse' (and once, even 'Stravemisse') instead of the
usually accepted 'Stavenisse'. Although there is a list of References and
Further Reading, references in the text are not det2.iled, and amount only to
bracketed mention of the author consulted. This will not trouble the general
reader, but may be inconvenient to the serious scholar. The book, however,
is clearly intended for the former, and so the absence of full notes and
critical apparatus is understandable. It is well illustrated with maps, tables
and pictures, with some good colour work, including photographs of parts of
the coastline mentioned in the text.
I.M. DEANE
GREY'S HOSPITAL, PIETERMARITZBURG: A Commemorative Brochure

1855 to 1985
Edited by 1. DUCKWORTH
Pietermaritzburg, the Hospital, 1985. 92 pp. illus. R7,50.
The compiler and her assistants are to be congratulated on producing this
very comprehensive record of a much respected institution. A tremendous
amount of effort and research has gone into its compilation, and the large
number of interesting photographs adds to its charm and attraction.
There is one unfortunate omission which should be rectified if ever there
is a second edition. Mention is made of all the Regional Matrons and part
time visiting medical staff, but there is no reference to the Assistant or
Deputy Medical Superintendents who unstintingly gave of their services to
the nursing staff by attending to their medical needs at daily sick parades,
and undertook other important administrative duties.
The brochure is well worth reading, particularly by all those who have had
many years of association with Grey's. It will remain an important historical
record of this great hospital.
V.A. VAN DER HOVEN
-
VALLEY OF THE ELAND

by VENN FEY
Cape Town, Timmins, 1984. 183 pp. illus., maps. RI9,95.
This is the story of 'the transience of humans, individually and collectively,
and the impermanence of their works', with the valley of Garden Castle in
the Drakensberg as its setting. It is a combination of the history and natural
history of the area, together with a soupr,;on of autobiography, pleasingly
illustrated with drawings by the author's son, Keith.
I REMEMBER
by ESME STUART
Pietermaritzburg, the Author, 1985. 183 pp. illus. R15,00.
This little volume forms the reminiscences of a much-travelled octogenarian,
the niece of lames Stuart of Stuart Archive fame, and grand-daughter of
both David Dale Buchanan and Marthinus Stuart, first magistrate of
Stuartstown (Ixopo). The last few pages contain snippets of family history.
WILLIAM JOYNER (1818-1887) AND HIS DESCENDANTS

by PATSY lOYNER
Groen Vlei, Swartberg, Typescript, 1985. 41 pp. illus.
Although not a published book in the accepted sense, this excellent
chronicle of the loyner family in Natal and East Griqualand requires
publicizing. It was written to commemorate the centenary of loyner
ownership of the farm Groen Vlei in East Griqualand.
WILLIAM ANDERSON (1790-1873) AND HIS DESCENDANTS

by ROBERT WATT ANDERSON
Pietermaritzburg, Typescript, 1984. 141 pp.
Here is another work which falls into the above category. Besides biographical
information on the Natal settler William Anderson and his thirteen children,
this book aims to provide details of all Anderson's descendants to the
present day. Typed and printed on computer, the copies produced are being
continually updated as new information comes in.
THE BEHRMANN FAMILY FROM OCEAN LODGE, 1883 to 1983

by ADOLF and IAN BEHRMANN
Pietermaritzburg, the Authors, 1984. 49 pp. R7,50.
Adolf and Dorette Behrmann and eight children emigrated to Natal from
Hanover in 1883. For generations the family had owned the farm
Meinerdingen near Walsrode, but because of ill health Adolf had to leave his
homeland. In Natal he purchased Ocean Lodge, a 600 acre farm near
Stanger. Written on the occasion of the family's centenary gathering at
Ocean Lodge Estates (now in the ownership of the Balcomb family), this
little book traces the history of Adolf and Dorette and their 108
descendants.
Book Reviews and Notices ]27
ALIVE, ALIVE-o!
by RUTH E. GORDON
Pietermaritzburg, Ruth E. Gordon. 1984. 234 pp. ilIus. R15,OO.
This is the autobiography of well-known Pietermaritzburg local historian,
Dr Ruth Gordon.
Dr Gordon has been an indefatigable traveller and much of the book is
the record of her adventures. both in this country and abroad.
FIGHT US IN THE OPEN

by JOHN LABAND
Pietermaritzburg, Shuter & Shooter and KwaZulu Monuments' Council,
1985. 49 pp. illus., maps. R4,46.
In this slim volume. second in the KwaZulu Monuments' Council series on
Zulu history, the author consciously attempts to redress the imbalance of
previous purely white perceptions of the Anglo-Zulu war by looking at the
conflict through Zulu eyes.
BRITISH SETTLERS IN NATAL 1824-1857: a Biographical Register

Volume 3, Bond to Byrne
by SHELAGH O'BYRNE SPENCER
Pietermaritzburg, University of Natal Press, ]985. 108 pp. illus. R24 plus
GST.
The third volume of Shelagh Spencer's British Settlers in Natal, 1824-57
appeared in May. This volume completes the names beginning with Band
includes the well known Pietermaritzburg brothers, David Dale and
Ebenezer Buchanan. Some early Ladysmith residents found here are
Thomas Burchmore, lames Brown, WilIiam Brown and Alfred Bowes, the
ferryman on the Tugela river. Famous Durban and coastal characters are
Waiter Brunton, lames Brickhill, Samuel Butcher and Alexander Brander.
128
Select List of Recent Natal
Pub licatio ns
BROUGH, P.J. and Bromley, K.A. An experimental land-cover map of the

Natal Midlands using landsat imagery. Pietermaritzburg, Natal Town
and Regional Planning Commission, 1984.
COASTAL zone management; proceedings of a seminar. Pietermaritzburg,
Natal Town and Regional Planning Commission, 1984.
GROBBELAAR, J.A. The population of NatallKwaZulu 1904-2010.
Pietermaritzburg, Natal Town and Regional Planning Commission, 1985.
HOUSING for the Indian community in Pietermaritzburg City. Proceedings
of a Symposium. Pietermaritzburg, Natal Town and Regional Planning
Commission, 1984.
JUUL, Natalie, Editor. Open testimony; the story of The Natal Witness,
South Africa's oldest newspaper. Pietermaritzburg, The Natal Witness,
1984.
MEER, Fatima, Editor. Factory, and family; the divided lives of South
Africa's women workers. Durban, Institute for Black Research, 1984.
MEIJER, Sjoerd. Next six exits; a camera essay. Durban, Durban Arts
Association, 1985.
MIRRILEES, R.1. Report on NatallKwaZulu regional input-output table.
Pietermaritzburg, Natal Town and Regional Planning Commission, 1985.
MORRAN, Elda Susan. Faith for the fearful? An investigation into new
churches in the greater Durban area. Durban, University of Natal,
1984.
OOSTHUIZEN, A.J. The application of the Sea-Shore Act and related
legislation on the Natal Coast. Pietermaritzburg, Natal Town and
Regional Planning Commission, 1985.
RIDGE WOMEN'S INSTITUTE. Annals of the Scottsville area. Pieter
maritzburg, The Institute, 1984.
STANWIX, John. A study of the Natal regional economy. Pietermaritzburg,
Natal Town and Regional Planning Commission, 1985.
TROTTER, G.J. A survey of educational facilities and social rates of return
to education in the Durban metropolitan region. Durban, University of
Natal, 1984.
Compiled by JUNE FARRER
129
Register of Research on Natal
This list has been compiled from individual submissions from subscribers to
Natalia and from the Natal Archives. Persons knowing of current research
work that has not been listed are asked to furnish information for inclusion
in the next issue. A slip is provided for this purpose.
BARNES, P.M.
Periodicity of sea-gales and cyclones in Natal's weather over the last
few centuries
BELL, B.
Clement Seneque
BONNER, P.L.
American Board Mission
BURTON-CLARK, J.
Weenen County
CHErrY, V.R.
Employment of Indians by the Durban Corporation
CHRISTISON, G.
Gold and Christison families
DOMINY, G.A.
The application of archival theories in a museum documentation system:
the case of the Methley Family Papers, Howick Museum
DROOGLEEVER, R.W.
History of Natal Police, 1874-1913
DUBE, S.W.D.
Amakholwa communities
DUCKWORTH, J.G.
St Mary's Catholic Church, Pietermaritzburg
DOMINY, L.
Royal and Marine Hotels, Durban
ELLIS, B.
Natal environment
ERLMANN, V.
African urban performance
ESPREY, C.
Fishing, Natal
ETHERINGTON, N.
Criminal court cases
FORSYTH, P.
Natal native education, 1893-1910
FRANCIS, M.
Transport in Pietermaritzburg
130 Register of Research on Natal
GASA, E.D.
J.L. Dube, his Ilanga Lase Natal and the administration of Blacks in
Natal, 1903-1910
GORDON, Dr R.E.
1820 Settler Ulyate family origins and genealogical statistics
GRACE, Dr A.
Veterinary history in the Biggarsberg and Buffalo regions
GRANT, Mr & Mrs P.
Boer Field Hospital "Thornley" October 1899
GROVE, R.
Conservation
GUNNER, E.
Isaiah Shembe
HALE, Dr F.
History of Norwegian immigrants and missionaries in Southern Africa,
1844-1948
Norwegian missionary correspondence from Natal, Zululand, and
Swaziland, 1844-1930s
HASSELHORN, F. and I.
Hermannsburg Mission
HOTCHKISS, S.E.
Shipwrecks off the coast of Natal, particularly 1850-1900
HUNTLEY, P.
Theophilus Shepstone's relations with Lieutenant Governor Scott
JENKINS, A.N .M.
William Butler
JEWELL, c.J.
History of Durban City Police
KHAN, U.
Indentured labcur
LABUSCHAGNE, J.A.
Urban economics, Pietermaritzburg
LA HAUSSE, P.
African women and the informal sector in rural Natal, 1900 to present
LAMBERT, J.
Social and economic changes in black Natal, 1888-1905
LEUSCHKE, A.
German settlement in Natal
LEVIN, M.
Benjamin Pine
LOTTER, W.
'n Geskiedenis van die Nederduitse Gereformeerde gemeente Vryheid
- die eerste 50 jaar, 1886-1936
McCRACKEN, D.
Botanical research and exploitation in Colonial Natal
McFADDEN, P.
Agriculture in the Biggarsberg and Buffalo regions
MARTIN, B.
Natal railways
MATHEWS, J.
Lord Chelmsford as General in Southern Africa, 1878-1879
Register of Research on Natal 131
MEINTJES, S.M.
Social and economic history of Edendale
MESTHRIE, U.
The agents of India
MINNAAR, A. de V.
Regional history of Zululand
MORPHEW, J.
Centenary of Furth Farm
MOSTERT, H.G.
The Afrikaners as viewed by The Natal Mercury during the Second
Anglo-Boer War period
NICHOLLS, B.M.
Zululand and the Colensos
NUTTALL, T.A.
A social and political history of black people in Durban in the 1940s
PARLE, J.
Impact of the economic depression of the 1860s on Maritzburg
PERRY, J.E.
Natal estuaries
PETE, S.A.
Natal prisons
PILLA Y, M.S.
Coal mining, Dundee
POSEL, R.
Durban history
RAYBOULD, J.S.
Pietermaritzburg, 1906-1914
SCHOTTE, H.
German missions
SCOTT, D.
Bayhead area, Durban
SPENCER, S.P.M.
Natal settlers 1824-1857
SPILLER, P.
Natal Supreme Court
STRACHAN, A.
Voortrekker laers
STREICHER, H.
Vryheidsdeputasie
SWANEPOEL, A.c.
J.c. Boshof
TURNBULL, M.
Durban Art Gallery
VAN DIJK, B.D.E.
Home family
WARHURST, P.R.
Natal and the Far Interior
Compiled by JUNE FARRER
132
Notes on Contributors
JOY BRAIN, formerly librarian at the Edgewood College of Education,
lectures in History at the University of Durban-Westville.
ROBERT BRUSSE is a Durban architect. He has recently been responsible

for the restoration of St Joseph'sCathedral at Mariannhill and the re
erection of St Saviour's at Randjesfontein, Halfway House.
MARYNA FRASER, also a former librarian, is archivist for the Barlow

Rand group of companies.
ROBERT HASWELL, a regular contributor to Natalia, lectures in

Geography at the University of Natal in Pietermaritzburg. He is also a
Pietermaritzburg City Councillor.
UMA MESTHRIE is a graduate of the University of Durban-Westville

where she now lectures in the Department of History.
PETER SPILLER, another regular contributor to Natalia, is Senior

Lecturer in the Department of Public Law at the University of Natal in
Durban.
T.B. FROST

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THE NATAL SOCIETY OFFICE BEARERS, 1984-1985

President Cr Miss P.A. Reid

Trustees M.l.e. Daly

Treasurers Messrs Dix. Bayes & Co.

Chief Librarian Mrs S.S. Wallis

Secretary P.e.G. McKenzie

Associate Members F.J.H. Martin. MEC

City Council Representatives Cr N.M. Fuller

EDITORIAL COMMITTEE OF NA TALIA

Editor T.B. Frost

Natalia 15 (1985) Copyright © Natal Society Foundation 2010

SA ISSN 0085 3674

Printed by Kendall & Strachan (pty) Ltd., Pietermaritzburg

construction of Durban's Emmanuel Cathedral. The adjective

"Make haste my Lord

You cannot help

Mr C.W. Tomkins once promised to Mr Fricker manager of Estcourt and

very much pammg because of my infirmity. Those who go by the train

Interview with Mr Sam Chetty

Are the buildings still surviving?

We had words with Mr Schumann, I think he was the transport manager,

I don't know if it was in 1952 or something - used to give the chairman of

And Group Areas. Did that affect you residentially?

125 Years - The Arrival of

1. Scene at Calcutta docks, about 1870.

Groups of Natal agriculturalists had begun to agitate for the importation

machinery had to be set in motion in India. William Collins, the Postmaster­

2. Awaiting medical examination outside Depot, Calcutta.

(Photograph: Author's Collection)

20 125 Years - the Arrival of Natal's Indians

h o\'! ' IONS.

01 !t() \!' '\I'al,',

3. Schedule showing rations to be c.a rried by ships.

(Photograph: Author's Collection)

125 Years - the Arrival of Natal's Indians 21

For WOUlt' fL PO" Boy••

It) P till J ... ~(I ,)- ])rill JAd: t"U. Infants.

(Photograph: Author's Collection)

22 125 Years - the Arrival of Natal's Indians

Finally the ship was provisioned and ready to depart.

}; ' . I, . .......... ...... ..... ... ... /'

Jp. '0 .\ I · j! •..••• • • ••••••

] " r l " • • • . • • • • • • • ••• •••• •••• ~ ~~« ... J'£.L'

".' " w k·, ............ ..... . ... /u : f<<.~7~kr

r : :.'" ; '." :'.- 11) IJ hI .. "" d ....:riiwa h loom I M'I'C en!l'll~cd n

. I ....: ! ~ (, ~. (I " ',.:t.:.

6. Emigrant certificate issued in 1874.

(Photograph: Author's Collection)

125 Years - the Arrival of Natal's Indians 23

8. Coming ashore. Port Natal.

(Photograph: Local History Museum)

24 125 Years - the Arrival of Natal's Indians

opposed to the importation of Indian labour from the beginning. However

9. Landing. Port Natal.

(Photograph: Author's Collection)

10. Crossing the railway line on the way to the Bluff.

(Photograph: Natal Museum)

125 Years - the Arrival of Natal's Indians 25

11. F.ree Indians at the Diamond Fields in the l870s.

(Photograph: Kimberley Public Library)

26 125 Years - the Arrival of Natal's Indians

The conditions under which Indian indentured workers were employed

1£.. ~JJ,,,,, ~>J~~ LAJ<'~~I

machinery had to be set in motion in India. William Collins, the Postmaster

1£.. ~JJ,,,,, ~>J LAJ<'I