of development
has been disturbed. In 1870 many of the most active spirits were drawn
away to the newly-discovered diamond-fields of Kimberley. In 1879 the
presence of the large British force collected for the great Zulu war
created a sudden demand for all sorts of food-stuffs and forage, which
disappeared when the troops were removed; and since 1886 the rapid
growth of the Witwatersrand gold-fields, besides carrying off the more
adventurous spirits, has set so many people speculating in the shares of
mining companies that steady industry has seemed a slow and tame affair.
At present not many immigrants come to Natal to settle down as farmers;
and the Colony grows but slowly in wealth and population. Nevertheless,
its prosperity in the long run seems assured. It is more favoured by
soil and by sky than most parts of Cape Colony. It has an immense
resource in its extensive coal-fields. Its ocean trade and railway
traffic are increasing. In proximity to these coal-fields it has
deposits of iron which will one day support large industrial
communities. And its inhabitants are of good, solid stuff, both English,
Dutch, and German, for there are many German immigrants. No British
Colony can show a population of better quality, and few perhaps one
equally good.

Besides the railway question, which is bound up with the problem of the
port of Durban and its bar, the question which has most interest for the
people of Natal is that of the coloured population, Kafir and Indian.
The Kafirs, mostly of Zulu race, number 460,000, about ten times the
whites, who are estimated at 50,000. Nearly all live under tribal law in
their own communities, owning some cattle, and tilling patches of land
which amount in all to about 320,000 acres. The law of the Colony wisely
debars them from the use of European spirits. A few of the children are
taught in mission schools,--the only educational machinery provided for
them,--and a very few have been converted to Christianity, but the vast
majority are little influenced by the whites in any way. They are
generally peaceable, and perpetrate few crimes of violence upon whites;
but however peaceable they may have shown themselves, their numerical
preponderance is disquieting. A Kafir may, by the Governor's gift,
obtain the electoral suffrage when he has lived under European law for
at least seven years; but it has been bestowed on extremely few, so that
in fact the native does not come into politics at