Sugar and Settlers - AFRICAN SUN MeDIA

Duncan Du Bois provides a detailed and fascinating history of a hitherto muchneglected part of what was the colony of Natal. Based primarily on original archival
research, he traces the southward advance of the white settler frontier and its
sugar-based economy from Isipingo to the Mzimkulu river and, without the sugar
engine, to the Mtamvuna.
As such it is a valuable addition to the history of white settlement and its impact,
both human and environmental, on southern Africa.
W.R. (Bill) Guest
Professor Emeritus in Historical Studies
University of KwaZulu-Natal
Pietermaritzburg
Sugar and
Settlers
A history of the Natal
South Coast 1850-1910
Duncan L. Du Bois
This study highlights challenges faced by settler enterprise which were not unique
to that particular region, but crucial in shaping its history. These included rugged
geography, slow infrastructural development, insufficient investment capital and a
heavy demand for labour to meet the needs of plantation agriculture. The settler
economy’s relations with and reliance on indigenous African people and imported
Indian workers therefore constitute further important dimensions of the book.
Sugar and Settlers
Dr. Scott Everett Couper
Author of Albert Luthuli: Bound by Faith
A history of the Natal South Coast 1850-1910
From a wealth of archival sources, Du Bois eruditely narrates what is arguably the
seminal chronicle of the South Coast’s development. He comprehensively unravels
the kaleidoscope of personalities and unpacks the various interests that impacted on
this otherwise parochial backwater. Black Africans, white settlers, Indian labourers
competed on the agrarian “playing field” that was dominated by sugar cultivation.
Duncan L. Du Bois
www.sun-e-shop.co.za
Sugar and
Settlers
A history of the Natal South Coast 1850–1910
Duncan L. Du Bois
Sugar and Settlers: A history of the Natal South Coast, 1850-1910
Published by SUN MeDIA BLOEMFONTEIN under the SUN PReSS imprint.
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Acknowledgments
Grateful thanks for financial contributions towards the
publication of this work is hereby acknowledged to the
following people and institutions:
Arnand Moodley
John Du Bois
Mark Perumal
Tony Robinson
Anton Koch
Crookes Bros.
Illovo Sugar
The image on the cover, dated 1914-1915, is of the
pivotal Mkomanzi bridge, with the Umkomaas central
sugar mill to the left (Killie Campbell Library, Durban).
The map on the cover page of chapter three is used
with the kind permission of S. O’B Spencer.
Thanks to Goolam Vahed of UKZN for coming up with
“Sugar and Settlers” as an introduction to the original
thesis title.
Contents
PREFACE ........................................................................................................
i
PART 1 ................................................................................................. 1
CHAPTER 1: THE SETTLEMENT OF ISIPINGO .........................................3
Introduction ................................................................................................................... 5
Agricultural experiments ............................................................................................ 11
Labour shortage ........................................................................................................... 15
Sugar mills: A yardstick of progress ......................................................................... 17
Indentured Indians ...................................................................................................... 20
End of an era ................................................................................................................. 23
Forging community ...................................................................................................... 26
Concluding remarks .................................................................................................... 30
In closing ........................................................................................................................ 32
CHAPTER 2: SOUTHWARD COLONISING PRESENCE ............................33
Introduction ................................................................................................................... 35
Chief Mnini’s relocation ............................................................................................. 37
Missions and missionaries ......................................................................................... 39
Henry Francis Fynn ..................................................................................................... 41
Settlement of Lower Mkomanzi ................................................................................ 45
Umzinto Sugar Company ........................................................................................... 48
Framing the future ...................................................................................................... 50
In closing ........................................................................................................................ 52
CHAPTER 3: THE BIRTH OF ALFRED COUNTY ........................................53
Introduction ................................................................................................................... 55
Nomansland .................................................................................................................. 56
Alfred County, 1866-1870 ......................................................................................... 66
Stagnation ...................................................................................................................... 68
In closing ........................................................................................................................ 72
CHAPTER 4: ALEXANDRA COUNTY, 1860-1870 ......................................73
Pioneering growth ........................................................................................................ 75
Labour question .......................................................................................................... 80
Travel and transport .................................................................................................... 81
Sugar prospects ............................................................................................................ 86
Shipping ......................................................................................................................... 89
Growing European presence ..................................................................................... 93
Georgina Nelson ......................................................................................................... 97
Grant violations ............................................................................................................ 100
Economic trends .......................................................................................................... 102
Recession in Alexandra County, 1865-1866 .......................................................... 104
Sugar planting at crossroads ..................................................................................... 106
Social relations ............................................................................................................. 109
Africans ................................................................................................................. 109
Settler society ...................................................................................................... 113
Public works .................................................................................................................. 118
In closing ........................................................................................................................ 119
CHAPTER 5: A DECADE OF LOST OPPORTUNITIES ...............................121
Introduction ................................................................................................................... 123
Alexandra County ......................................................................................................... 123
Bridge over the Mkomanzi ......................................................................................... 125
Roads .............................................................................................................................. 127
J.B. Aiken and the Railway Bill ................................................................................... 128
Seagoing transport ..................................................................................................... 130
Labour and sugar production .................................................................................... 134
Economic growth ......................................................................................................... 138
Political representation ............................................................................................... 139
The Anglo-Zulu War .................................................................................................... 141
Social life ........................................................................................................................ 143
Alfred County ................................................................................................................ 146
Minimal government ................................................................................................... 146
Lost opportunities ........................................................................................................ 148
Aiken enterprise ........................................................................................................... 149
In closing ........................................................................................................................ 152
CHAPTER 6: THE THOMAS REYNOLDS YEARS .......................................153
Introduction ................................................................................................................... 155
Accessing the Mzimkulu ............................................................................................. 156
Mzimkulu harbour works: The struggle for government funding ...................... 159
Roads, a post office and a township ........................................................................ 164
Request for a magistracy in Lower Umzimkulu ..................................................... 166
Official indifference ..................................................................................................... 168
Telegraph link ............................................................................................................... 170
Applying for fiscal port status: 1883 ........................................................................ 173
Applying for fiscal port status: 1884 ........................................................................ 173
Applying for fiscal port status: 1885 ........................................................................ 176
Elements of handicap: The Mkomanzi – the punt, shipping, a bridge ............ 178
Marburg’s Norwegian settlers ................................................................................... 181
Development overview: Alfred County ................................................................... 184
Development overview: Alexandra County ............................................................ 185
Political engagement ................................................................................................... 187
In closing ........................................................................................................................ 190
CHAPTER 7: CINDERELLA COUNTY ..........................................................191
Introduction ................................................................................................................... 193
General Sir John Jarvis Bisset .................................................................................... 193
Fiscal port status .......................................................................................................... 196
Bridge over the Mkomanzi ......................................................................................... 199
Factionalism .................................................................................................................. 199
Gold fever ..................................................................................................................... 201
Tardy progress .............................................................................................................. 204
Hime and the bridge over the Mkomanzi ............................................................... 206
Coastal shipping ........................................................................................................... 210
Mzinto Bay ..................................................................................................................... 212
Mzimkulu mouth .......................................................................................................... 213
Fiscal port ...................................................................................................................... 214
Evaluation of “Cinderella” status .............................................................................. 215
In closing ........................................................................................................................ 220
PART 2 ................................................................................................. 221
CHAPTER 8: A REVIEW OF AFRICAN INTERACTION
WITH COLONISATION ..........................................................223
Introduction ................................................................................................................... 225
Land and labour ........................................................................................................... 225
Drunkenness ................................................................................................................. 231
Crime and security ....................................................................................................... 233
Environment .................................................................................................................. 236
Education ...................................................................................................................... 237
Health ............................................................................................................................ 239
Unrest ............................................................................................................................. 241
In closing ........................................................................................................................ 242
CHAPTER 9: INDIANS ON THE SOUTH COAST .......................................243
Introduction ................................................................................................................... 245
Domestic conditions amongst the indentured:
Pre-Wragg Commission (1885-1887) ..................................................................... 246
Human rights abuses and the Wragg Commission of 1885-1987 .................... 249
Human rights abuses post-Wragg Commission .................................................... 251
Land grants .................................................................................................................... 254
Education ...................................................................................................................... 256
Indian commercial presence ..................................................................................... 258
Public representatives and Indians .......................................................................... 260
Some remarks ............................................................................................................. 264
Case study: Reynolds Bros. exploitation of indentured labour .......................... 266
The Reynolds Inquiry .................................................................................................. 269
In closing ........................................................................................................................ 275
PART 3 ................................................................................................. 277
CHAPTER 10: ECONOMIC GROWTH, PESTILENCE AND WAR ............279
Introduction ................................................................................................................... 281
Shipping on the Mzimkulu ......................................................................................... 281
Railways ......................................................................................................................... 286
The Isipingo–Umzinto railway .................................................................................. 289
The Park Rynie–Port Shepstone railway ................................................................ 293
Other developments .................................................................................................... 296
Property investment .................................................................................................... 299
Tourism .......................................................................................................................... 300
Commercial agriculture .............................................................................................. 300
Locusts and rinderpest ............................................................................................... 302
Settler society ............................................................................................................... 306
Patrician lifestyles ........................................................................................................ 308
Politics ............................................................................................................................ 309
Recreation ..................................................................................................................... 310
The Anglo-Boer War ................................................................................................... 312
In closing ........................................................................................................................ 313
CHAPTER 11: COAST OF DREAMS AND STAGNATION ..........................315
Introduction ................................................................................................................... 317
Property development ................................................................................................ 317
Social life ........................................................................................................................ 322
Railway service and extension .................................................................................. 326
Port Shepstone harbour ............................................................................................. 333
Political issues and trends: Towards union ............................................................ 341
African unrest and the Bhambatha rebellion ................................................ 341
Alexandra’s representatives ............................................................................. 342
The 1906 election .............................................................................................. 344
The Union issue .................................................................................................. 346
In closing ........................................................................................................................ 349
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................351
BIBLIOGRAPHY .............................................................................................365
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................376
INDEX .............................................................................................................377
APPENDIX A: EMPLOYMENT OF INDENTURED INDIANS ......................384
APPENDIX B: DIRECTORIES OF MALE INHABITANTS ............................385
APPENDIX C: SHIPPING MOVEMENTS TO AND FROM
DURBAN, 1880-1902 ...........................................................391
Preface
Composition is for the most part an effort of diligence and
steady perseverance to which the mind is dragged by
necessity or resolution.
— Samuel Johnson
i
Preface
This work is based on my Ph.D. dissertation entitled “Sugar and settlers: The
colonisation of the Natal South Coast, 1850-1910”, which was accepted by the
University of KwaZulu-Natal in 2014. As such, what follows is an attempt to provide
a comprehensive account of the settlement and economic development of a region
which hitherto has been subjected to limited scrutiny. Although the primary focus
of this study is on white settlers as colonisers and their sugar enterprise, their
interaction with and dependence on the role of the indigenous African inhabitants
and indentured Indian immigrants forms a substantial part of the work.
The colonisation of the South Coast was premised on the cultivation of sugar cane,
with the Isipingo district constituting what has been termed the ‘cradle of the South
African sugar industry’. Confidence in the success of sugar cultivation resulted in
the coastline south of Isipingo being exploited by sugar planters in the years after
1858. As a result, a settler presence was established in the territory between the
Mkomanzi and the Mzimkulu rivers. However, sugar cultivation did not account
for the addition of Alfred County in 1866, which extended Natal’s southern border
to the Mtamvuna river.
From the Mlazi to the Mzimkulu 26 rivers traverse the coastal belt, and thus
ensured that geography played a critical role in the history of the South Coast as
it affected travel and transportation. The decades-long delays in building bridges
and the perennial complaint about the poor state of roads severely hampered
economic growth and resulted in the South Coast becoming a “Cinderella” region
in comparison to other parts of Natal. Innovative attempts at river port shipping
provided some measure of relief from the woes of transport, but they were not
sustainable. It was not until the attainment of responsible government in 1893 that
meaningful development of infrastructure took place.
Despite the economic difficulties which prevailed, the sugar enterprise was witness
to considerable mechanisation and amalgamation, based largely on foreign capital.
By the 1890s what may be termed a ‘sugarocracy’ was emerging with two families,
the Reynolds and the Crookes, dominating the sugar business on the South Coast.
The growth of the sugar industry was based on Indian indentured labour, with the
Reynolds brothers in particular constantly facing allegations of ill-treatment of
their workforce.
A consequence of the extension of the railway to Port Shepstone by 1901 was the
establishment of a tourist and hospitality industry which greatly augmented the
economy of the region. This was important, as the sugar output of the South Coast
was always a distant second to that of the North Coast. The absence of a mineral
iii
Preface
of value such as coal, which was located in vast quantities in northern Natal, and
the isolation of the South Coast from the main trading route with the diamond and
gold fields of the interior, deprived the area of investment appeal. As such, it was
regarded as a backwater for most of the colonial period.
Settlements at Verulam, north of Durban, and Isipingo, south of Durban, constituted
the respective coastal frontiers of Natal in the early 1850s. What constituted the South
Coast changed during the period of this study. Only with the grants of Crown land
after 1857, in what was then called Lower Mkomanzi – Alexandra County from 1865
– was the southern coastal frontier extended. In 1866, with the annexation of Alfred
County, Natal’s South Coast reached its full extent. In that frontier characteristics
of remoteness and isolation as a result of distance and geographical barriers were
an integral aspect of the South Coast, the Isipingo settlement is featured only in the
first chapter. Before1880, it had ceased to reflect those characteristics. Moreover, the
existence of the African reserve area of chief Mnini and his Thuli people between
the Lovu and Mkomanzi rivers constituted a barrier between the settler district of
Isipingo and the settler nodes within Alexandra County. That barrier ensured that
the coastal area south of the Mkomanzi river was not only isolated from the rest of
the colony, but as such evinced the characteristics of a frontier domain.
As a consequence of the inextricable linkage between the themes of infrastructure
development, politics and economics, a chronological approach has been taken in
assessing the evolution of the colonisation process. Although this minimised the
risk of overlap and repetition whilst serving to enhance focus on the circumstances
which prevailed, it also proved problematic in accommodating the research on the
Indian and African communities. In order not to detract from their importance
within the study, partitioning of this work into three segments appeared as the most
satisfactory solution, using 1893 –the year in which representative government gave
way to the responsible government dispensation – as the dividing point.
As a region, the history of the colonial South Coast is confined to a number of
hagiographies. The only contemporary account is Jane Arbuthnot’s Autobiographical
Sketch (1897). A most useful settler source was the diary of David Chalmers
Aiken, even though its entries spanned only the late 1860s. Although useful in the
information and views that they provide, the focus of secondary sources is limited
to a single place, as in the case of Eric Slayter’s book on Isipingo (1961); a specific
community in the case of A.H.E Andreasen and A. Halland’s review of the Norwegian
settlers (1982); or on family in the case of Ruth Gordon’s work on the Archibalds
(1978); Anthony Hocking’s study of the Crookes (1992) and Denzil Bazley’s account
of the Bazleys (2000). Daphne Child’s diary-based narrative of Sidney Turner (1980)
iv
Preface
affords only a glimpse of the Mzimkulu area during the mid-1860s. The only other
secondary source is Robert Osborn’s pioneering chronicle on sugar planting (1964).
This study is based on extensive perusal of the Colonial Secretary’s Office (CSO)
files dating from1849 to1910, which proved highly productive in harvesting
original, unpublished material. Equally rich and important for this study were the
files of the Secretary for Native Affairs (SNA) for the years 1881 to 1893 and 1903
to 1904; also the files of Indian Immigration (II) and European Immigration (EI).
These official sources, as well as the copies of the Government Gazette, Blue Books
and parliamentary sessional papers, constitute a bedrock of information. But of
special value as sentinels of the ebb and flow of daily life were the newspapers of
the period, particularly the Natal Mercury, the editions of which were thoroughly
perused from 1852 to 1910. As a shipping gazette, the Mercury provided the most
comprehensive coverage of the coastal movements of ships, as the details contained
in the appendix indicate.
Attempts to locate the magistrates’ records for Alexandra and Alfred counties proved
unsuccessful, despite thorough searches in both the Pietermaritzburg and Durban
archives repositories, as well as in the Scottburgh Magistrates’ Court. Records for
the Lower Umzimkulu magistracy from 1889 to 1906 do exist and were perused
in the Durban Archives Repository, as well as a limited record of the files of the
Umzinto magistrate, which refer to the late colonial period.
The aim of this study is to contribute to the important and growing literature on
settler society in Southern Africa. Focused regional studies invite comparisons with
other parts of Natal, South Africa, as well as other sugar-producing regions of the
world or areas colonised by the British, and afford the opportunity to evaluate the
extent to which outlooks, trends and practices were shared, integrated or replicated.
They also provide a more comprehensive perspective on the relationships between
settlers and the colonised, as well as between different racial, ethnic, linguistic and
national groups and cultures.1 As a collection, such studies would provide a more
specific picture of a period which hitherto has often been limited to generalisations.
Duncan L. Du Bois
Durban 2014
1
A note on orthography: although modern Zulu lexicography has resulted in changes in the spelling
of Zulu names, I have maintained the original spelling of Isipingo and Mkomanzi while otherwise
keeping to the spellings used by Norman Etherington in his publications.
v
The past is irretrievable, yet inescapable.
— Duncan Du Bois
Part 1
1
1
The settlement of Isipingo
Mr. Jeffels is the type of a class that forms the pioneers of all
successful colonisation.
— Natal Mercury, 25 July 1856
3
This chapter examines the settlement of Isipingo in
the context of the annexation of Natal and the Byrne
immigration scheme, noting the earlier arrival
of American missionaries. As with all settlement
in Natal, the early years were pioneering ones
particularly in respect of survival in an untamed
frontier environment and experimentation in
agricultural cultivation. Until Michael Jeffels proved
sugar was ideally suited to the Isipingo flat, settlers
tried to cultivate cotton. Jeffels’ historic role in sugar
production and Isipingo’s role as the cradle of the
South African sugar industry therefore form the
central thrust of this chapter. This analysis takes place
within the context of labour problems, the arrival of
the first indentured Indians and the growth of the
Isipingo community. Isipingo’s later detachment
from the South Coast frontier as a result of bridge,
rail and magisterial links concludes the focus of this
study on it.
1 • The settlement of Isipingo
Introduction
Isipingo was the most southerly part of the coast in which a settler community was
established, until the grants of Crown lands south of the Mkomanzi river were taken
up after 1857. In terms of defining the Natal South Coast, for the purpose of this
study, and as understood by contemporaries, Isipingo constituted the starting point.
The region beyond Isipingo was described by Charles Barter in his 1852 publication,
The Dorp and the Veld; or, Six months in Natal, as a “belt of land, extending inland from
ten to fifteen miles, covered for the most part with thick underwood, occasionally
interspersed with fine timber”. Although he noted that “the alligator lurks in the
sandy beds of the wide shallow rivers”,1 he did not point out that between Isipingo
and Natal’s southern boundary, formed by the Mzimkulu river, some 26 rivers flowed
into the Indian Ocean and posed great difficulty for travel and transport.
Apart from five isolated American Board missionary outposts which were
established south of the Mlazi river,2 Natal’s southern coastal strip was almost devoid
of any European presence.3 In July 1853 Henry Francis Fynn became the first official
colonising authority south of the Mkomanzi river when he was appointed assistant
resident magistrate and based himself at the Ifumi mission station.4
The South Coast was singled out for settlement by British immigrants as early as
1846. Joseph Steer Christopher, author of Natal, Cape of Good Hope (1850), was an
ardent proponent of emigration as the solution for the socio-economic ills besetting
mid-nineteenth-century England.
Christopher visited Natal and saw great potential for immigration. In 1846 he
applied to Lieutenant-Governor Martin West to have blocks of land, some 300 000
acres in extent, set aside for settlement between the Mkomanzi and the Ifafa rivers.
Each immigrant family would be given 75 acres. Christopher argued that settlement
of this area would serve as a barrier to the “unrest” and “tribal divisions” which
simmered south of the Mzimkulu and the Mtamvuna rivers.5 West approved of the
scheme, but it was turned down by the secretary of state for colonial departments,
Earl Grey, on the grounds that Crown land could only be acquired by public sale.6
1
2
3
4
5
6
Barter 1852:165.
Etherington 1978:26-27. The stations were: Umtwalumi (1851), Ifafa (1848), Amahlongwa (1848),
Ifumi (1847) and Umlazi (1837).
CSO 131, No. 491, 1 April 1861. Bunting Johnstone claimed to have lived in Lower Mkomanzi since 1848.
Pridmore 2004:135.
Reference to the causes of the tensions within the region is made in chapter three.
Hammond 1926:11; Hattersley 1950:112-113.
5
1 • The settlement of Isipingo
Indifference towards Natal as a colony of settlement tended to frame the thinking
of certain officials in the Colonial Office. In 1835, in response to concerns raised by
the Cape governor, Sir Benjamin D’Urban, at the arrival in Natal of missionaries
from the United States of America, Lord Palmerston, the foreign secretary, stated
that as a territory Natal had no significance for British interests.7 Although Natal
was subsequently annexed as a British territory, Galbraith has argued that there was
“no symmetrical explanation” for that.
Lord Russell, who was colonial secretary in the government of Lord Melbourne
(1839-1841), saw commercial prospects in acquiring colonies like Natal. But his
view was not shared by Lord Stanley, who was colonial secretary in the Peel ministry
(1841-1845). Stanley believed that Natal could never become prosperous because it
lacked an adequate harbour and because its coastline was hazardous for navigation.8
Cape governor, Sir George Napier, was even more direct in his opposition to the
annexation of Natal. In a despatch to Stanley in August 1842 he stated that he
had never been led away by the flattering accounts of the beauty of the
country and its fertility, in which so many travellers indulge … I have never
for a moment viewed it as a lucrative possession, nor have I been unmindful
of the expense of its settlement as a colony.9
In deciding to annex Natal, the Peel government was obliged to consider local political
and ‘moral’ factors pertaining to the presence of the independent trekboers to the
west and north. According to Galbraith, Stanley annexed Natal “largely because
he was convinced that the independence of the Boers was reconcilable neither
with order nor with humanity”.10 The annexation of Natal did not bring about a
change in attitude towards it as a colonial acquisition. In 1846 James Stephen, the
permanent undersecretary in the Colonial Office, was quoted as stating that Natal
was “too worthless to justify throwing the burden on our national resources even
for a time”. Earl Grey, took the view that he would “discountenance the expectation
that any plans for the improvement of the Natal district, which would involve large
expense to be provided for by Parliament, can be adopted”.11
Added to those perspectives was the prevailing imperial philosophy of economic
liberalism which, in practice, meant that state involvement in a colony should be
minimal. “A commercial, rather than a territorial, dominion was the goal of ministers
7
8
9
10
11
Galbraith 1963:182.
Galbraith 1963:195.
Brookes & Webb 1965:45.
Galbraith 1963. Humanitarians were concerned that the Boers might reintroduce slavery or
maltreat Africans.
Etherington 1978:10.
6