NOTES FROM NATAL.

Colonist, Volume VII, Issue 661, 26 February 1864, Page 3

NOTES FROM NATAL.

We subjoin some instructive notes from the Graham's Town Journal :—

The colonists of Natal have been unusually excited about the vices and crimes of polygamy amongst the Zulu Kaffirs. The custom has been always abhored by the settlers, but recent acts of cruelty which have come to light, have forced the public feeling to speak out and demand Government interference. The case which has so deeply moved Natal people, is that of a young girl, who is said to have been roasted to death over a slow fire, because she refused to live with the man who had bought her—he being old and having alfeadyjfbur wives. The publications-of the harrowing particulars of this case led to a public meeting at Durban, at which the following facts, taken from the Mercury, were the staple of remark, and from which home readers may gather some idea of what polygamy is in Natal :—

That polygamy is a cherished and recognised institution amongst the Zulu Kafirs of Natal.

That Kaffir girls, when they reach a marriageable age, are sold by their fathers, whether they will or not, to'the man who oners for their persons the largest number of the fattest cows.

" That twenty years of peaceful residence under British rule has equalised the sexes, and that girls are becoming scarce: and, therefore,

_ " That the price has gone up, and tho richest suitor has the best chance: consequently,

" That old, debauched, and repulsive polygamiats, with largo harems of their own already, have the best chance, seeing " That having wives already to work for them, their wealth is necessarily much greater than the men who have no wife slaves.

; " That when, as often happens under such circumstances, the girl sought after shrinks irom her repellant suitor, torture is employed to compel her to yield. "That, on a late occasion, a Kaffir girl died from the effects of the tortures administered by her lather; but that the latter cannot, owing to the law of the" land;; bepunished.

" That polygamy, - wife-slavery, and their consequent evils, are all sanctioned by the Kaffir law, which is in force here according to the royal instructions. °. ■" That the British magistrates are unable to shelter a Kaffir girl fleeing from her pursuers, but have to give her up to her father and his accomplice, the would-be purchaser. " That in the event of a Christian Kaffir dying, his wife and family are liable to be sent back to their heathen connections, and his widow and daughters sold to unconverted

pavages,

"That the Home Government is now asked through its local representative (the Lieut. Governor) to iuterpose, with the view of checking by judicious expedients, these abominable practices, and removing the shame their existence implies from our national name.

" T^ at Public opinion in Great Britain is solicited to express its condemnation of a system so opposed to the instincts and principles of our race."

Notwithstanding that there are nearly 200,000 natives in Natal, such is their indis"position to regular labor, and the inefficiency of the Government system of management, that the planters have to look to India for a supply of hands for cultivation. At present there must be from 1500 to 2000 coolies in the colony. They were all very speedily allotted. The new arrangement—by which employers have only to pay for the passage expenses of the laborers or servants they employ, an annual sum of £2 10s for the period of five years, during which they secure the man's services, is found to be a great convenience, and the consequence is that although 700 more are on the way, a further number has been applied for. The discovery of important coal-fields in the northern angle of the colony has given a powerful impetus to railway speculation. Mr. David Smith, a gentleman who visited Natal for the purpose of testing the reported coal measures at Compensation, has proposed, under certain conditiona, to construct a line between the discovered coal district and the sea board.

In its monthly summary, the Durban paper thus notices the agricultural prospects of the colony:—" Sugar is coming in in large quantities. Unfortunately, though the crop is plentiful, prices are low, and growers are looking out for a better market than is presented either by South Africa or England. It is probable that a party or two may be sent to Australia.