NATIVE LIFE IN NATAL.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXIII, Issue 12622, 19 November 1908, Page 4

NATIVE LIFE IN NATAL.

Many interesting particulars in regard to native Hie and customs in Natal are given ii} the report for last vcar of the Undersecretary for Native Affairs. At the end of 1907 tho blaok population of the colony numbered 957,000. Of a total of 6201 marliages, 5182 were celebrated according to native custom, and of the latter 21.3 per cent, were Ihosa of second wives. There were six registrations of wives returned as "over tenth." Twenty-one chiefs and acting chiefs were appointed during the year, 19 chiefs having died, including a brother of Cetewayo, while lour were deposed and two' suspended. The number ot separate tribes decreased from 321 to 312, as the result of the deposition of chiefs and the merging of their tribes in others. Twelve tribes were removed from the list and three new ones formed. Salaries ranging from £6 to .£3O, according to the size of the tribe, are paid to the 207 chiefs in the Natal province, and to eight of the chiefs in the northern districts. Hut tax was paid upon 248,301 dwellings, or 12,667 more than in 1906. Native contributions to the revenue amounted in all to .£295,063. This sum is less hy .£11,422 than the preceding year's total, a deficiency of .£22,585 in the poll tax having much more than counterbalanced increases under all other heads. Part of the decrease in the poll tax is accounted for by the exemption of young unmarried men, who pay hut tax on 'amalawu," or bachelors' nuts. It is stated that in many cases huts have been erected with the object of securing the owners' exemption from poll tax.