THE NATAL TROUBLES

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13195, 5 June 1906, Page 4

THE NATAL TROUBLES

I There are various indications that the native troubles in Natal have taken a turn for the better and that the surrenders of rebellious chiefs and the assistance now preferred by doubtful, chiefs herald the collapse of the native insurrectionary movement. Even" Europeans are influenced by, the survival in them of the primeval instinct to applaud the strong and to pounce upon the weak, but with the sava; .: peoples of the world this instinct i< still a passion. It is at once the strength and the weakness of native icvolts. Initial success will light sympathetic fires across a whole country, while one or two crushing defeats will discourage native races out of all proportion to the loss sustained. This essential condition of the relations of Europeans to native races meant more in South Africa than in any other British settlement, for there the blacks outnumber the Europeans by ten to one, and the general acceptance by the negroes of the idea, that they could successfully attack the whites would have brought about the most horrible of all internecine wars, that in which a savage horde hurls itself upon civilised masters. There is no doubt that/this dangerous'idea was beginning to spread among the Zulus. Desperate efforts were made by our countrymen in Natal to disabuse their minds of any belief that the white men's hour had come, and it would seem that those efforts are being crowned with success.