or less affected by our action in this matter. On the whole, I am
of opinion that the Government that replaces Cetywayo on the throne
of his fathers will undertake a very grave responsibility, and must be
prepared to deal with many resulting complications, not the least of
which will be the utter exasperation of the white inhabitants of Natal.

NATAL AND RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT

_Natal--Causes of increase of the native population--Happy condition of
the Natal Zulus--Polygamy--Its results on population--The impossibility
of eradicating it--Relations between a Zulu and his wives--Connection
between polygamy and native law--Missionary work amongst the Zulus--Its
failure--Reasons of its failure--Early days of Natal--Growth of the
native question--Coming struggle between white and black over the
land question--Difficulty of civilising the Zulu--Natal as a black
settlement--The constitution of Natal--Request for responsible
government--Its refusal--The request renewed and granted--Terms and
reason of Lord Kimberley's offer--Infatuation of responsible government
party in Natal--Systematic abuse of colonists in England--Colonial
speculators--Grievances against the Imperial Government--Sir Henry
Bulwer--Uncertain future of Natal--Its available force--Exterior
dangers--The defence question shirked by the "party of progress"--
The confederation question--The difficulty of obtaining desirable
immigrants--The only real key to the Natal native question--Folly of
accepting self-government till it is solved._

Natal has an area of about 18,000 square miles, and its present
population is, roughly, 25,000 whites and 400,000 natives of the Zulu
race. When, in 1843, it first became a British colony, the number of
natives living within its borders was very small, and they were for the
most part wanderers, fragmentary remnants of the tribes that Chaka had
destroyed. I shall probably be under, rather than over the mark, if I
say, that the Zulu population of the colony has multiplied itself by ten
during the last thirty years. Two causes have combined to bring about
this extraordinary increase; firstly, wholesale immigration from the
surrounding territories; and secondly, the practice of polygamy.

This immigration has been due to a great want of foresight, or want of
knowledge, on the part of the Home authorities, who have allowed it to
go on without check or hindrance till it has, in conjunction with its
twin evil polygamy, produced