Dinizulu the Farmer.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XL, Issue 17, 22 April 1908, Page 50

Dinizulu the Farmer.

HOW HE CLEARED THE LAND FOR CABBAGES. Dinizulu, the paramount chief of the Zulus, who, heedless of past warnings, is said to have been engaged in inciting his people to open warfare, is that strange and unsatisfactory product of colonial development. a “Christian Kaffir,” says a writer In the “Field.” At his “great place” on the Black-Umvol-osi River, he lives In a half savage, half civilised manner. He dresses at times in European garments, at others he falls back on the blanket and red ochre. It is the same with all his actions. Here he has his farm. Dinizulu has no liking for missionaries or other religious bodies, but he is not above obtaining all the assistance he can from these objects of his dislike, and when he decided to establish this farm he sent word to some of his men who had learned tha RUDIMENTS OF FARMING at the Trappists’ monastery in Natal, to come back and place their experience at his disposal. He also got a white man, a farmer in the Cape Colony, to select the most suitable land for this purpose. The white man did as he was requested, but qualified his suggestion by remarking that the land he preferred was largely taken up with huts. “That is nothing,” said Dinizulu, and that evening, acting under the chief’s instructions, a squad of men went out and "set fire to all the huts and drove the owners away. The men came back from the Natal monastery and set to work, and before very long the results of their labour were apparent, for the soil in the neighbourhood of the Black Umvolosi is very fertile. The chief, swayed by his civilised instincts, some of which he had contracted during his enforced sojourn at St. Helena, decided to have a certain portion of the land devoted to the grow'th of vegetables, and later on took A CHILDISH PLEASURE noticing the surprise of any white-men who might be staying at his place when he provided them with an excellent meal of meat and two or three vegetables, for vegetables, except in tins, are comparatively unknown in Zululand. He also made presents of this kind to the traders in his country, though, if the truth must be told, these, gifts were not so well received as might be supposed, for the traders realised that it was their bounden duty to send a gift in return, and as the most highly prized article .in the chief’s estimation was “square face’’ gin, it behoved them to send a case back in return for the few heads of cabbages or basket of beans which they received; but Dinizulu was just in his way, and took them all in turn. The traders said that he kept a roll of their names, so that each should be mulcted in his proper turn. Dinizulu would only have English vege-

tables grown, and tabooed the unlverbll Kaffir crops of mealies and Indian corn. Al he strolled, or in later years rode, for he put on flesh to an alarming extent after hie return to his country, »ound his farm, he presented, from a distance, all the appearance of AN ENGLISH FARMER \ i going round his property, for his thick coat, breeches, putties, and heavy boots added considerably to this effect. Later on he Invested in some angoras and some imported cattle, but did not achieve a success with these, and before long he sold them off to some of the traders, to whom they were veritable white elephants, and took payment in the specie he so much prized. It is improbable that there is another plot of land so highly protected as Dinlzulu’s vegetable garden, though there is no enclosure or fence, but the people know .that it -would bejleatlj_tp the man or woman who intruded here, and this is quite sufficient. It is not possible, however, to deal with the insect creation in such a summary manner, and on one occasion a swarm of locusts wiped the plot bare of vegetation.