Twenty-Five Years in a Waggon in South Africa: Sport and Travel in South Africa - Andrew A. Anderson

Maritzburg is the seat of Government, and the principal military station. Railways are now pushing their way up towards Newcastle. When I knew the colony in 1860 the principal mode of conveyance was by bullock-waggons and passenger-carts. The colonists are now going in for preserving fruits, which are highly prized for their delicious flavour.

There is some very fine building stone, particularly the marble found near Alfreda. Coal is found at Newcastle and Biggarsberg. Iron is distributed largely all over the country, and copper has also been discovered. Limestone has been found on the Bushman river and Upper Tugela. Slate is also found in several parts, and on the Bushman river, in which are beautiful specimens of fossil ferns. Altogether, Natal is a pleasant and healthy colony, but the native population being so large, now reaching to near 400,000, against a white population of something under 30,000, is a drawback to the whole of the country being profitably utilised, as it would otherwise be, if the colour was reversed. And one does not see what the end is to be, as Natal cannot carry a dense white population whilst the Kaffirs live and increase nearly as rapidly as the whites.

Gold will probably settle the question, as the bulk of the Kaffirs remaining will be crowded out, and a small population of white men will remain and feed the gold-diggers in the Transvaal and beyond.

The End.