Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/237

 NATIVES OF NATAL. 181 for the Kafir population are made in a somewhat summary way, the European method not having yet been introduced amongst the tribes for obtaining accurate returns of births and deaths. Marriages alone are registered, while the huts are numbered for the purposes of local taxation. The aborigines now settled in Natal belong to a great number of distinct tribes. But the line of migration has on the whole followed that of conquest in the direction from north to south ; hence the great bulk of the immigrants who have thus become British subjects naturally belong to the Zulu, or northern branch of the Kafir family. They are still grouped in separate clans, unconnected, however, by any political ties, and the administration has taken the wise precau- tion of breaking them up into an endless number of distinct communities. In 1886 there were reckoned in the whole of Natal no less than a hundred and seventy, three tribal chiefs, and of this number nearly one-half had been directly appointed by the Government without any hereditary title whatsoever. Such chiefs thus gradually become mere local officials responsible for the preservation of peace, while they are themselves under the immediate control of English administrators, who tolerate the observance of the tribal customs so long as these are not of a nature calciJated to cause any manifest injustice and provided they are not at variance with the established principles of natural equity. Thanks to these judicious administrative measures, no war between the black and white elements has red- dened the soil of Natal since the death of the ZiJu chief, Dingaan. Notwith- standing the great personal influence of the famous Anglican Bishop Colenso, the Wesleyan Methodists seem on the whole to have had most success in this field of missionary labour. Of the hundred and sixty Christian stations now existing in Natal as many as fifty-eight have been founded by these Nonconformists. Immigration. — Co©lte Labour. Direct immigration from Europe acquired but little importance before the middle of the century. About this time a group of British farmers, mostly from Yorkshire, settled in the colony of Natal. Some German peasants also arrived and took possession of concessions of land in the neighbourhood of the port. The white popidation was afterwards increased by a nxmiber of Norwegian settlers as well as by some Creoles from l^lauritius and Reunion. But despite the advantages offered by the climate to all except those of a nervous temperament or with a predisposition to apoplexy, the spontaneous annual immigration has never exceeded a few hundred persons ; a counter-movement has even set in from Natal to Australia and New Zealand. This relative neglect of Natal by British colonists has been attributed to a great variety of causes. The system of large landed estates prevails in the colony, the consequence being that the owners do not themselves work or always even reside on their properties. They employed coolies and native hands, so that the whites who give themselves to manual labour become degraded in the eyes of the aborigines. Immigrants are also naturally discouraged by the great and increasing