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 I RESOURCES OF NATAL. 188 plain of the importation of these troublesome rivals. In 1884 the Hindus settled in Natal already numbered over twenty-seven thousand, and this element is steaflily increasing. Including with the Europeans and Ilindus all other strangers, such as Malays, Chinese, and half-castes, the foreigners of all kinds now represent about one-sixth of the whole population of Natal. Nearly all have special occupations according to their several nationalities. Thus immigrants from St. Helena are generally coachmen and drivers, the Germans farmers or clerks, the Dutch stock-breeders, the Norwegians fishers, and so on. Agricultural and Mineral REsouRrEs. — Communications. The colonial Government still possesses a vast extent of unsold lands suitable either for tillage or grazing. Of a total extent of over 12,000,000 acres, including, however, rocky ground and waste spaces of all sorts, 2,770,000 acres were still undisposed of in 1885, and most of this land was situated in the southern part of the colony near Pondoland. The ground actually cultivated by Europeans docs not exceed 90,000 acres, which is scarcely more than the hundredth part of the domains owned by them. The so-called locations, or reserves, secured absolutely to the Kafirs represent a total area of 2,000,000 acres. The extent of the allot- ments offered for sale or on lease has varied according to the oscillations of the colonial policy. The first Dutch settlers had appropriated to themselves lots of 6,000 acres and upwards, so that about two thousand proprietors would have sufficed to swallow up the whole territory. Since that epoch the average size of the allot- ments has been considerably less, although many have still exceeded 1,000, or even 2,000 and 3,000 acres. But in the neighbourhood of towns there is a general ten- dency towards the creation of small holdings. The staple agricultural product of Natal is the " mealie," or maize. This cereal yields in superabundance all that is required by the Kafirs, the Hindus, and their domestic animals, leaving sufficient fur a considerable export trade. All other European cereals are also cultivated, and every town and hamlet is sur- rounded by a zone of gardens or orchards, which have replaced the old forest vegetation nearly entirely destroyed by the axe or fire. Even the dense mangrove thickets on the coastlands have been almost everywhere consumed, their incor- ruptible wood being highly appreciated for all kinds of joiners' work. Thanks to its sub-tropical climate. Natal also produces plants unknown in the • European temperate zone. But since the year 1872 the extensive coffee planta- tions have suffered so much from the ravages of disease that this industry has been almost abandoned. Attempts have here and there been made to replace it by tea ; but in 1885 the plantations did not exceed 400 acres altogether, yielding lor exportation little over 35,000 lbs. of this article. Attention has also been paid to the cultivation of hemp, Phormium tenax, and other fibrous plants. On the plantations of the seaboard the chief cultivated plant is the sugar-cane, which was introduced in 1851. In 1884 these plantations covered a total extent of 29,000 acres, and produced a crop of 18,771 tons, over a third of which was exported