THE NATAL SOCIETY OFFICE BEARERS, 1981 - 1982 President Vice-Presidents Trustees Treasurers Auditors Chief Librarian Secretary Elected Members City Council Representatives Cr Miss P.A Reid M.J.C.Daly AC. Mitchdl Or J. Clark S.N. Roberts A.C. Mitchell Or R.E. Stevenson M.J.C.Daly Messrs Dix, Boyes & Co. Messrs Thornton-Dibb, van der Leeuw & Partners Mrs S.S. Wallis P.c.G. McKenzie COUNCIL Cr Miss P.A. Reid (Chairman) S.N. Roberts (Vice-Chairman) Or F. C. Friedlander R.Owen W. G. Anderson F.J.H. Martin, MEC A.D.S. Rose R.S. Steyn M.J.C.Daly Prof. AM. Barrett Cr H. Lundie Cr W.J.A Gilson Cr R.J. Glaister EDITORIAL COMMITTEE OF NATALIA Editor T.B. Frost W.H. Bizley M.H. Comrie J.M. Deane Or W.R. Guest Ms M.P. Moberly Mrs S.P .M. Spencer Miss J. Farrer (Hon. Sec.) Natalia 12 (1982) Copyright Natal Society Foundation 2010Cover Picture Monks processing in the imposing cloisters of Mariannhill Monastery, about 1908. Photograph. Father L.A. Mettler, C.M.M. SA ISSN 0085 3674 Printed by Kendall & Strachan (Ply) Ltd., Pielermarilzburg Contents Page EDITORIAL 5 UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPT Roadside Memories: the Reminiscences of A.E. Smith of ThornviJIe ........................................ 7 ARTICLE Colonial Coalopolis: The Establishment and Growth of Dundee Sheila Henderson ......... ... ...... ... ... .... ... .... ........ 14 ARTICLE In Search of Mr Botha: An investigation into a Natal place name Robin W. Lamp/ollgh . ...... .. . ... ............ ...... .. ... . 27 ARTICLE The 1882 Norwegian Emigration to Natal Frederick Hale ............................................... 35 ARTICLE The Umsindusi: A 'Third Rate Stream"? Trevor Wills . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 ARTICLE Mariannhill Centenary: A look at the Early Years Joy B. Brain ............... ...... ....... ... ........ .......... 58 OBITUARIES Mr H.S. Msimang .......................................... 71 Prof. K. Nathanson ........................................ 73 Prof. E.M. Burchell ... ..................... ... ............ 76 NOTES AND QUERIES J. M. Deane . ............... ... ....... ... ...... . .. .. ... . ... .... 79 BOOK REVIEWS & NOTICES ........... . 89 NOTES ON RECENT PUBLICATIONS S. P. M. Spencer ......... . ...... . .. .. .... ...... .... ... .. ..... 98 SELECT LIST OF RECENT NATAL PUBLICATIONS 1. Farrer ... . . ....... . ... . ........... ... .................... .... 99 REGISTER OF RESEARCH ON NATAL 1. Farrer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS T.B. Frost ................. .... .............. .... ............. 103 OUR NEXT ISSUE We hope to publish several articles on the life and work of Bishop John William Colenso to mark the centenary of his death. 5 Editorial The prospect of sitting down in cold blood to write an Editorial for a journal which appears only annually is a daunting one. Denunciations of the follies of the powers-that-be in the manner of the newspaper editorial are not appropriate here; nor are lengthy sermons on such cliched topics as the evils of pollution or the need for conservation of both physical environment and historical heritage likely to be well received by readers who, by their very choice of reading material, are assuredly converted anyway. So this Editor, at any rate, has decided not to editorialise, and to aspire no higher than a letter of introduction to Natalia 12. During the past year the Editorial Board has welcomed to its ranks Mr Moray Comrie who replaced Mr W.H. (Bill) Bizley, away on sabbatical leave overseas. When Mr Bizley returns in 1983, our other Bill, Dr W. R. Guest will be off to enjoy his sabbatical. Mr J.M. Deane has' taken over responsibility for the Notes and Queries section from Ms Margery Moberly who was a perceptive note-maker and raiser of queries for a number of years. Two past issues of Natalia, Nos. 1 and 8, have been out of print for some while. (Even the Editor did not possess a copy of No. 1!) It is therefore pleasing to be able to announce that No. 1 has been reprinted and is again available. No. 8, however, remains increasingly valuable Africana. In recent issues Natalia has marked the centenaries of the Anglo-Zulu and first Anglo-Boer Wars. 1982 has seen centenaries of events more significant in peace than war - Norwegian immigration to Natal, the foundation of the monastery at Mariannhill, and the establishment of Dundee as a township. We are grateful to Dr Frederick Hale of Oslo University (yes, Natalia is known beyond the confines of Maritzburg!) and Dr Joy Brain of the University of Durban- Westville for drawing our attention to the former two events and offering to write articles on them. Our thanks go also to Mrs Sheila Henderson for her very full picture of late Victorian and Edwardian Dundee. Our old friend, Frank Emery of St Peter's College, Oxford, offered us, as our 'previously unpublished piece', a recently discovered letter from Neville Coghill, written shortly before he lost his life at Isandhlwana. This raised the question of the amount of coverage given by Natalia to wars in general and the Anglo-Zulu War in particular. It was decided by the Editorial Board, as a matter of policy, to leave matters military to the specialist military journals, at least for the time being. (We won't pre-judge our response to the centenary of the second Anglo-Boer War, due seventeen years hence!). Thus, turning swords into ploughshares, we offer in print for the first time an extract from the 'Roadside Memories' of A.E. Smith of Thornville, a typescript in the Natal Archives, noting wryly, however, that Smith could not but observe the soldiers of the 24th Regiment marching past. 6 Trevor Wills, writing from the distant vantage point of Ottawa where he is temporarily resident, offers a fascinating and to many, perhaps, nostalgic look at the Umsindusi. Robin Lamplough's enquiry into the origins of the name 'Botha's Hill' arose from a local history assignment he conducted with a Standard Five class at Kearsney College, which started off as an attempt to compile a history of Botha's Hill. It is a project which reflects considerable credit on pupils, teacher and school. To all these writers, as well as those who contributed obituaries or book reviews, notes or queries, we express our thanks. May our readers receive as much pleasure in perusing this edition of Natalia as the Editorial Board has had in compiling it. T.B. FROST 7 Roadside Memories: the Reminiscences of A. E. Smith of Thornville EDITORIAL NOTE Alfred Edwin Smith (born 1866) was the eldest child of John Smith (c.1826-1893), formerly of Normanby, Yorkshire, and his wife Eliza Ford (c.1840-1921), the daughter of Edward Ford, a blacksmith of Pietermaritzburg, formerly of Warblington, near Emsworth, Hampshire. John Smith was a cousin of Mrs Mary Boast. widow of Henry Boast, the originator of the scheme which in 1850 brought to Natal those Yorkshire immigrants who settled in the area now known as York. Alfred states that his father came to Natal in the early 1860s with ample capital, supplied by himself and a syndicate, 'plus a complete outfit' of the most modern farming implements. In his early days in Natal he acted as agent for 'a machine and implement-making establishment' in England. A cousin of Alfred's on his mother's side, Myrtle Foss, wrote that John Smith had been a wealthy man when he emigrated to Natal to farm, but through inexperience, lost nearly all his capital. Thvrnville Park was the name of his farm. It was formed of a consolidation of emigrant allotments on the farm Vaalkop and Dadelfvntein, outside Pietermaritzburg. As a settler location the area had proved a failure, being in low rainfall thorn country, with most allotments far removed from any source of water. Thornville, the village laid out for the settlers, had been sited on an outcrop of shale, and apart from a canteen and a house or two, existed more on paper than in reality. The area took its name from the village, and early in his manuscript Alfred discusses the relation between the original Thornville. and Thornville Junction some six or seven miles away. Thornville Junction came into being when the branch line to Richmond was constructed. Smith points out that there is hardly a thorn tree anywhere at the Junction. The only excuse he can think of for the inappropriate name was that the canteen at Thornville, 'being the nearest point at which liquor could be obtained. was the regular Saturday afternoon rendezvous of the Mauritian navvies who were employed on railway construction work' at the time. John Smith and his family remained at Thvrnville Park until at least the early ISROs. They afterwards went to Pretoria, where he and his wife both died. Alfred trekked to Barberton in the early 1880s, but by 1R8R was back at Thornville, farming at Normanby. He later lived in the Transvaal once more, and at the time of writing this manuscript (which is undated), was resident in Bloemfontein. SHELAGH SPENCER ... Let us get back to the main artery of the colony's economic existence, - the road that ran through the heart of Natal from Durban to the regions known as "up-country", bifurcating at Ladysmith to serve the Free State over Van Reenen's Pass on the one side and over Laing's Nek to reach the Transvaal on the other. To those of us youngsters who attended school, when such an institution happened to be located at the roadside, or who lived in its immediate vicinity, the traffic that passed to and fro was a 8 Roadside Memories constant source of interest, and where lessons were concerned, of distraction. The procession of wagons and their spans of sixteen was a never ending one. In twos and threes, a sign of single ownership, up to a train of a dozen or more where the drivers had moved off together or caught up to each other on the road, these wagons would pass with their loads of miscellaneous merchandise weighing from 60 to 70 cwts - sometimes a good deal more if the load happened to be a heavy piece of machinery. They headed for destinations very often hundreds of miles away and taking a month or more to reach, the time depending on the state of the weather, the roads and the rivers, or perhaps the vicinity of the nearest blacksmith's shop where repairs could be effected, and where a broken axle or disselboom could be replaced. The state of the rivers was perhaps the greatest cause of anxiety; hence the cardinal rule in the transport driver's code: Always outspan on the other side when coming to a drift. The drift might be perfectly safe when the wagons arrived at the banks of a river or spruit but there was no telling but what a spate of water or a flood might come down in the rainy season from a source far removed from the outspan and if the rain persisted the wagons might be held up a week or more until such time as gauging the water with a stick indicated that a crossing was feasible. More often the loads for up-country were of a very miscellaneous nature, in keeping with the varied nature of the stocks to be found in the general stores that served the inland areas and where anything from a needle to an anchor could be obtained. These goods were packed in an assortment of containers as varied in shape and nature as the contents, so the loading of the wagon called for much skill and delicate adjustment and a plentiful supply of ropes and riems to keep the components of the load from falling off or getting damaged. Then of course a bucksail was a very essential part of the wagon's equipment for keeping the load dry during the frequent rain storms that had to be faced; hence greasing the sail to make it waterproof and to see that it was kept in good condition was one of the most important tasks that the transport rider had to attend to. It was not very often that a load suffered damage from rain but a sail was no protection if the waters of a swollen river reached the bedplank and soaked the lower layers of the load. In such cases there would most likely be a bill for damages to pay and that would take all the profits out of the trip, especially should the load have consisted partly of such commodities as flour and sugar. Should a load have been damaged either during the crossing of a swollen river or because of the use of a defective sail that had failed to be proof against a heavy storm of wind and rain, e v i d e n ~ e of the fact would often bc afforded by the sight of a whole load of goods spread out on the roadside to dry. If it was a case of a saturated consignment of sugar the best that could be hoped for was that the consignee would not notice the diminished state of contents in the bags. If it was flour other measures could be resorted to to make the bags look as if nothing had happened. Water, as long as there is not too much of it, will not penetrate very far into a bag of flour. That in contact with the inside of the bag cakes, forming a thin waterproof layer that protects the rest of the contents. However, damages would have to be paid if bags of flour with a plank-like covering were presented for delivery, so the task was to restore the external appearance of those bags to their original pristine softness. So if the passer-by on the road side was confronted with a scene in which all 9 Roadside Memories hands belonging to the outfit were busily engaged in pounding the surfaces of white objects spread on the ground with the flat side of yokes or if he happened to be a transport rider himself he would know what was happening. If the wet layer of flour was allowed to become thoroughly dry first the pounding it received restored it to its velvety softness and if there was anything wrong with the contents of those bags it was for the grocer or baker to find out. Having signed his consignment notes undertaking delivery in good order and condition, the transport rider or kurveyer, as he was often called, was held strictly responsible for all losses and damage however slight, there was no "Act of God" about it. Tales of mishaps and adventures on the road, of dodges and shifts, that had to be resorted to, of difficulties and dangers overcome by the fraternity of transport riders were legion; one had only to listen to the yarns and experiences when these were swopped at any time, when these men of the road met each other at the outspans, or more probably at the roadside canteen, to realise that transport riding, however slow and leisurely its movement, could nevertheless be crammed with incident and excitement and why its urge was so strong among all classes of men. While the majority came from the farms other ranks and professions furnished their quota, including men from abroad who had come to try their fortunes in this land who, attracted by the open life and freedom of the road, took up transport riding. They were well educated and refined men, some of them - onc could always tell these overseas entrants to the game by the way they handled a double handed whip. One has to start early in life to give that artistic touch to a twenty foot lash that denotes the expert able to give the lightest touches or the heaviest of swipes just where wanted and who make the echoes ring with the resounding cracks of the "voorslag". Among the most noted of these experts was a well known Maritzburg citizen, familiarly known as Bill Leathern, whose fame as a handler of the whip was as wide as the subcontinent itself. He was credited with being able to flick the neck off a bottle or send a shilling flying off the ground with the point of the lash. There were lions to be encountered in the days when Mr Leathern was on the road and to the end of his days he bore the marks of a mauling received in an encounter with one of these kings of the veld. In the days when the up-country conveyance of goods was the main feature of the traffic, wagons for the most part had to return empty to the nearest loading point, the distance shortening as the point moved with the railway constructions from Durban to Maritzburg, from Maritzburg to Ladysmith and so on. What down-country traffic there was consisted chiefly of wool and hides, largely game hides. In the earlier days the multitudinous and unique four-footed fauna of the country was being decimated just for the sake of their coverings and to a certain extent for making "biltong". There being no export market for the latter it was used chiefly for local consumption, only a limited quantity finding its way towards the coast where the chief buyers were the transport riders themselves who looked upon it as a standby should provisions run short on the road. Rates on down country traffic were very low compared with those paid in respect of merchandise consigned in the opposite direction; so were the value of wool and hides, the former being of a very inferior quality with very little attempt at sorting and classification. When it was realised that some system of classification 10 Roadside Memories resulted in higher prices, many tricks were resorted to for the purposes of making inferior wool and sometimes rubbish that was not wool of any kind, masquerade as the superior article. Ask any woolbroker who was in business in those days and he could a tale unfold, in fact he could tell of a practice that persisted long after wool ceased to come down to the coast by wagon, of "stovepipe" methods by which inferior wool was neatly packed in the centre of a bale, and even of geological specimens being used for purposes of avoirdupois. The chief drawback to these loads was their bulkiness. To make a worthwhile load, bales and skins had to be piled high on the wagon, and a topheavy load was very liable to capsize on an uneven bit of road and reloading was an awkward business. Wagon transport was by no means confined to the conveyance of trade goods. The ox-wagon, slow as it was, played a vital part in military movements and history, whether these had to do with simple change of garrisons or actual hostilities. Whether the body of troops was small or large, there was the inevitable convoy of wagons required for the purpose of conveying kit and commissariat supplies, each wagon with its guard of two privates marc!)ing behind. The wagon convoy usually trekked ahead of the column and if it was a large one it was a sign that a full regiment or several companies were on the march, and that there was a band at the head of it. The sight of the convoy or the sound of martial music, which on a clear and calm day could be heard for miles, was the signal for all and sundry, especially the native section of the community, to assemble at the village outspan, which was generally the spot where the troops bivouackcd for the night or rested during the hotter hours of the day. On resuming their march the band would strike up to the delight of an appreciative audience of the youths of the village and a heterogeneous crowd of natives of all ages and both sexes who would keep the marching column company for a mile or more. When the convoy of wagons was on the move, each with its guard, was also the occasion when farmers, whose lands abutted on the road, found it necessary to do a little guarding for Tommy's curiosity as to the nature of some of these crops, which he had never seen before, was insatiable. Slipping into a field he would loot a few mealie cobs or a pumpkin or perhaps get a sample of each and Johnny the driver - all natives were "Johnny" - would be asked "What ... these ... things were for"'? It was in wartime that the military element was most in evidence and the road became the scene of greatest attraction for the inhabitants living anywhere in the vicinity. These were the times when the convoys would stretch for a mile or more along the highway and the tramp of infantry could be heard as well as the clop of cavalry and the rumble of artillery, especially on their way to the scene of action in the North. Many a famous regiment took part in this cavalcade. Some had been hastily summoned from service in other parts of the Empire, others from the parade grounds in Great Britain. M y most vivid recollection is of the 24th Regiment of Infantry. Bronzed and bearded they were, men fresh from active service in quelling one of those interminable conflicts between whites and natives in the Transkeian territories. How full of confidence these men were as to the outcome of the coming conflict with Cetywayo's impis. The reason for this confidence was 11 Roadside Memories the demonstration they had had of the superiority of the Martini-Henry rifle, which had only been recently issued, over the falling block Snider, and which they had used for the first time in the Transkei. One man was pointed out who had bowled over a native warrior at a distance of 1 100 yards, which was considered a marvel of long distance shooting and accuracy. What "chance" they askcd had any native warrior, however bold and numerous, against a weapon that would start mowing them down long before thcy got within assegai range? Yet the irony of fate decreed that this crack regiment of the British army should be all but annihilated on that fateful day, January 22nd, 1879, at Isandhlwana. Although, because someone had blundered, the new rifle was unable to accomplish at Isandhlwana what was so confidently expected of it, there is little doubt that the small company of men belonging to the same regiment who so heroically held Rorke's Drift against the Zulu hordes had largely to thank the new weapon for the execution it caused and its effect on the enemy. It was the cavalry regiments that excited the most attention and interest, especially among the natives. The beautiful mounts, the like of which in such numbers had never been seen before, made the local nags look sorry specimens in comparison. Yet it generally happened that it was these same nags that had to be resorted to in order to finish a war. However, it was appearance that appealed in this case and no more picturesque sight was afforded on these occasions than a regiment of cavalry on the march, the magnificent horses, and the striking uniforms of the men in orderly procession, half a mile long, being most impressive as well as picturesque. I still call to mind the sight of the 17th Lancers (Death or Glory Boys) defiling through the drift at the M'Pushini as the sun shone on the gleaming steel of the spearheads of their lances and the pennants at the spearheads fluttering in the breeze. Needless to say the sight of the Lancers made a great impression on the native mind, the lances being regarded no doubt as nothing less than a modification of their own favourite weapon, the assegai, greatly improved because of its greater length, but above all appealing to them on account of the gaily coloured piece of bunting that fluttered at the end. One saw the result when the Native Contingents were formed to take part in the hostilities against the Zulus. I was in Maritzburg one day as a mounted contingent rode down Church Street on its way to the front. They were armed with the traditional weapons, the throwing and stabbing assegai. The use and management of a lance being unfamiliar to them a large number had compromised by tying a piece of coloured rag to the correspondil1g position on the regular lance, the decorated weapon being carried in approved lancer fashion. This form of flattery was no doubt quite sincere but a compliment which the Lancers could hardly appreciate because of the burlesque appearance these decorated assegais presented. The more so when side by side with the lancer members of the contingent, other of the mounted warriors carried gaily coloured umbrellas to safeguard their complexions. Dressed in that motley garb characteristic of the native, the whole tout ensemble was anything but a martial one. One form of traffic was the daily and perennial interest provided by the coming and going of the passenger buses and postcarts carrying Her Majesty's mails. Thornville was the first and the last of the stopping places or stages on the Maritzburg to Durban route, where the teams of horses 12 Roadside Memories were changed and passengers were given a chance of stretching their cramped legs and trying to get a little refreshment. There was little opportunity of doing either where postcart passengers were concerned. The postal service was scheduled to be done in six hours from the starting points, which were left at noon, and so there was no time to waste. The fresh team of four and sometimes six horses stood ready harnessed at the stopping place in front of the hotel where the changes were made, to be hitched on as soon as the old team of horses with sweating bodies and heaving flanks were unhitched. The customary shout "All aboard" was given by the driver; the passengers climbed up into the two wheeled conveyance with its limited seating for five persons. If the mails were heavy, as on the occasions when the English mail came into port, passengers often had to seat themselves precariously on top of the mail matter. Then with a swish of the whip the postcart went off on its next eight or ten mile gallop to the next stage. Unless the roads were very bad during spells of very wet weather, the whole distance was done at a gallop, the only pause for more than a few minutes being at "Half Way H-ouse" for more solid refreshment than there was time for at the other stops. The passenger buses followed the same procedure more or less but having ten hours or so in which to do the trip leaving town much earlier in the day, their progress was a little more leisurely. Passengers generally, the full complement of ten or twelve which the buses could seat, had a little more time in which to stretch their limbs and have a little refreshment, both being needed badly by the time the journey was finished. There were at one time two firms engaged in the bus and postcart business, l.W. Welch and Thomas Murray. The postcart would alternate between the two firms, according to which put in the lowest tender. At one time a rate war developed in respect of the bus service. One firm announced a reduction in the customary fare of 21/- to 17/6d. I think it was the rival firm countered with 15/- the response to which was the offer to carry passengers at 10/- till at last, when it came to a threat to convey passengers for nothing at all and a free lunch thrown in, wiser counsels prevailed. The firms reached an agreement which stabilised fares at the original rate and as the "War" only lasted about a week the travelling public did not get much benefit from it. It is remarkable that during all the period from the time when the bus services were inaugurated and the postcart took the place of the native runners who carried the mails between Durban and Maritzburg, until the day when both services were relegated to the limbo of the past by the railway. so few accidents occurred to either buses or carts. This is all the more remarkable in view of the heavy wagon and other traffic which was constantly on the move. This was due to the skilful handling of the reins by the drivers, some of whom were Cape Coloureds who seem to have a flair for handling the ribbons. Their skill was all the more manifest in that they had not only to manage the reins to a team of hard-mouthed hor!!es, but to double handle the whip as well with a sjambok in reserve for the benefit of the "wheelers". White men were equally good at the game. It was all a matter of training and long practice. lohnny and lim Welch, sons of the founder of the firm, were outstandingly good drivers. Another man with a Scottish name but of mixed descent, whose special job was to drive the post cart was regarded with fear and dislike by ~ l l the wagon drivers on the road. 13 Roadside Memories If some dilatory individual had not responded quickly enough to the warning call of the hugle to make room for the cart to pass, he would ae reminded of his remissness hy a flick of the whip as the cart sailed by. An indispensable adjunct to the safety of the buses and postcarts was the hugle which every driver was an expert at blowing. The bugle calL which could be heard half a milc away. not only gave the signal to the change boys to have the new team ready at the stopping places, but was used as a warning to all and sundry travelling on the road to get out of the way - a very necessary precaution where wagons were concerned. When in their stride on the road, ox teams generally went leaderless as they tramped leisurely in the middle of the road with both driver and '"voorlooper" seated comfortably at the front of the wagon. But there was a quick change over the scene when the sound of a hugle was heard in the distance. more especially when it was known that it was the postcart that was coming along. The "voorlooper" would make a rush for the "touw"; the driver would leap down with his whip in order to get the team to the side of the road to enable the bus or cart to pass. Awkward occasions were when a wagon had stuck fast in the middle of the road with the team stretched diagonally across and perhaps another team standing by waiting to he hooked on to the one in difficulties. This immunity from accidents was not only attributable to skilful driving and close attention in seeing that the vehicles and harness were kept in good repair, but to the fact that dangerous drifts were few and far between. This was because the road for the most part traversed the ridge that divided the catchment areas which fed the rivers on either side, the road chosen by the Voortrekkers with their unerring instinct for choosing the most practicable route for their wagons. The most dangerous of the drifts was that on the M'Pushini in the seasons of floods. Being at the confluence of two streams, it was simply impassable after a heavy storm. But except on those rare occasions when heavy rains persisted for a week or a fortnight, the floods soon subsided and it was rarely that bus or postcart with their high wheels was held up for more than an hour or two. 14 Colonial Coalopolis The Establishment and Growth of Dundee The genesis of a small mining community in the 1880s in the heart of the pastoral paradise of Buffalo and Biggarsberg was a phenomenon of the Victorian Colony of Natal. The founding of the cosmopolitan township of Dundee gave a new dimension to the remote frontier. By juxtaposing highly professional British stock, tied by deep-rooted loyalties to the Empire of the Great White Queen, cheek by jowl with the rugged Republican Boer veterans of Blood River, it produced a political dichotomy in the colony. The swift growth of its prime industry, coal, gave the town an influence out of proportion to its size. By 1910 Dundee could call itself "Coalopolis" and the "Capital of the North". Empty Triangle Major Grantham's map of Natal in 1864 shows the great empty triangle north of the Tugela River to Amajuba, bounded on the West by the Drakensberg escarpment and on the east by the Buffalo River, as the Klip River County. The meticulous cartographer marked only the tiny villages of Ladysmith, Newcastle and Helpmekaar. The great plateau and plains were empty of all but the names of farmers and traders living by the strategic river drifts, or prominent ivory hunters, or tradesmen offering a vital service. Between 1865 and 1875 the Umsinga magistracy to the east, manned by the second of a great Natal pioneer family, Henry Francis Fynn, in a tiny stone building on the Enhlahleni slopes looking down the Sandspruit valley to towering Umsinga mountain, was the frontier's sole link with law and order. Our first account of the vale where Victorian Dundee was to grow comes in the records of the famous Wenkommando of 1838. Two years later Commandant Andries Pretorius, heading the Beeskommando, led his men back to the area. The chronicles of an imperious French naturalist Adulphe Delegorgue, recorded the strong river (die Sterkstroom) flowing northwards to the Buffalo and its tributary flowing down from a high mountain in the east, where they found coal, and made fires on the banks of the river where they camped (die Steenkoolstroom) . The promise of. the empty triangle north of the Tugela River was great. Well-watered and well-timbered it offered prime grazing and a climate much healthier for cattle, sheep and horses than the lowlands of the coastal plain. Land was to be had for the taking, game was plentiful and for hunters like the Vermaaks, the trails led direct to the great elephant grounds of Zululand, Swaziland, Maputoland and Matabeleland. 15 Colonial Coalopolis The triangle of No Mans Land as it was commonly known, was indeed a crossroads. Whilst this geographical factor was in time to prove an asset in the economic development of the region, in its formative years, it proved a curse, putting the area at the mercy of marauding groups of Basuto and Swazi buccaneers or making it the dumping ground of African refugees. From the moment of their settlement in 1843, for the Biggarsberg and Buffalo Boers the next thirty years were a period of sporadic turmoil. In the thirty years following that, (1873-1903), this restless frontier was to be the cockpit of war. New Settlers This wild land attracted other men from wild places. As the clans of Moodie and Murray so amply prove, the Gaels and Celts easily assimilate with the Boer. Physically they too felt at home in the mist-clad Biggarsberg. Two middle-aged 1850 settlers, hillmen and doctors trained at Edinburgh, Prideaux Selby of Alnwick and John Sutcliffe Robson of Hawick had settled in the mountains east and west of the Sterkstroom. Many people of British farming stock moved into the area between 1850 and 1870. The Sterkstroom valley attracted a Scot and a Cornishman. In 1860 a farmer's son and an ex-Ballarat golddigger, Thomas Paterson Smith, put the name of his native town Dundee on the map when he took over from Gerrit Gerhardus Dekker of "Dumain" the lease of over 3 041 acres of land on the eastern side of the valley running down the summit of Talana hill across the Steenkoolstroom towards the Sterkstroom and Impati Mountain. A builder by trade, Tom found good clay in the river flats. Burning his own bricks, he built a two-roomed thatched butt and ben in the shelter of Talana. Four years later he was joined by his younger brother Peter, who brought his wife Ann and three children to join their bachelor brother and uncle. Peter's farming venture near Ladysmith had been hit by drought, disease and the current collapse of markets in Natal. The brothers set about restoring their fortunes, Tom developing his brick-making and building skills, Peter farming and exploiting a seam of good quality coal which he found a few hundred yards north of the cottage on the slope of Talana Hill. The Cornishman was Edward Jasper Howe Pascoe. Born in Penzance, Cornwall in 1839, Pascoe came of roving stock and followed the family tradition, though he could scarcely have got further from the sea-girt land of his birth than the drought-stricken Klip River County of the late 1860s. On 6th January 1861 Melmoth Osborn the A.R.M. of Klip River County in Ladysmith signed the receipt for the payment of 3.3.8d sterling, quitrent payable for the farm "Coalfield" granted to G.G. Dekker for the year ended December 1861. This grant and the name attached to it would make it clear that there was already knowledge of local coal deposits and would imply that such deposits were being worked. Ten years later E.J. Howe Pascoe became the owner of "Coalfield". On the 1st June he married Mary Aire Ritchie, the daughter of a well-to-do brewer in Edinburgh, in St. Peter's Church in Pietermaritzburg. Her marriage dowry was 500 sterling and it was a great help to the young people in purchasing the farm and setting up their house and their store. On "Coalfield", Howe built a pleasant thatched home and storehouse and his Mary planted bluegums and pampas grass and cultivated her wild ferns 16 Colonial Coalopolis and plants. They gave four acres for a church and with the help of Peter Smith and John Robson and the Wade brothers, the Coalburn Church, of home-baked brick and local yellowwood and thatch, was built in the year of their marriage and a cemetery for the small but growing community begun, planted to cypress. Peter Paterson and George Turner became trustees for a Methodist Chapel on "Dundee" under Talana Hill and Peter Smith set aside land for that and a family cemetery. Wagonmakers, wheelwrights and blacksmiths came to join the infant community and a Mr. Wright, seeing the need for education, opened a boarding school and gathered 40 pupils from the neighbourhood. Charles Willson, a young Londoner, arriving in 1871 "without a penny to buy a match in my pocket" set up a rival store to Pascoe at a junction where seven tracks met. Peter Smith imported Cornish miners to improve the mining and the quality of his coal. Dr. John Robson, uneasy at the Zulu rumblings along the Buffalo River, encouraged the local men to form their own volunteer Regiment, the Buffalo Border Guard (1873). The Pomeroy Gold Mining Co. and the Elandskraal Helpmekaar Syndicate (1868) busily sought the pot of gold. The Pascoe idyll in this time of bustle was brief. Howe Pascoe died of fever on the 29th July 1875, and Mary sold up their few possessions and leased her property. Anglo-Zulu War The Anglo-Zulu war of 1879 was the making and the breaking of the little hamlet. Savagely stricken by the battle of Isandhlwana, in which four of their men died among the troopers of the Buffalo Border Guard, the scattered villagers went into laager and only began to return to "Dundee" and "Coalfield" when the vale of the Sterkstroom was chosen to be the H.Q. camp of Lord Chelmsford's Second Invasion Force. Within weeks, morale and fortune changed and the local folk rallied. In April 1879 world maps marked DUNDEE in heavy black type. Visiting war correspondents expected a sizeable town and were appalled when they could not buy notepaper or stamps in the rudimentary stores. But coal mining boomed as a bitter winter made a ready sale for it amongst the troops, and transport riders, bringing up commissariat stores from Pietermaritzburg, welcomed the chance to return with wagons laden with a saleable commodity. Social life boomed and officers enjoyed a ride out to Peter Smith's cottage, below Talana hill, to help drink the droplets from his whisky still, whilst his son-in-law Dugald Macphail, a clansman of the Duke of Argyll, thrilled fellow Highlanders with tales of his escape from Isandhlwana. The impetus thus given to the burgeoning Dundee could not be restrained - not even by the further traumas of the death of the Prince Imperial (June 1st 1879) nor a second war and disastrous defeat (Amajuba, February 1881). Local men turned from war after the victory of Ulundi (July 1879) and hurried to build their fortunes. Establishing a Township Dundee was unique in that it was the product of free enterprise. Whereas Ladysmith and Newcastle had been established by government as administrative centres for the control of a remote yet vital frontier, the coal 17 Colonial Coalopolis Mary Aire Pascoe (born Ritchic), later the wife of Hon. Gcorge Sulton and owner of Coalfield. (Photograph : Dundee Museum) town was fired by the steam of its own economic potential, now recognised by leading men in the legislative and commercial capitals of the colony, Pietermaritzburg and Durban. By 1881 the race was on to establish a township and the major rivals for first place were the owners of the farms "Dundee" and "Coalfield". Early in that year Mary Aire Pascoe married after four years of widowhood. Her second husband was 47 year old George Morris Sutton who had settled at Howick in 1872 after some years of adventure in the United States. He had rapidly become a force in Natal colonial affairs, being elected to the Legislative Council in 1875. In 1882 he was to become an Executive Council Member. Mary could look to realising her assets well with help in high places and Sutton quickly recognised their value. In March 1881 he was up with his friend from the Dargle, Fannin the surveyor, discussing with Frederick Still, the lessor of the store, the planning of a township on "Coalfield", deciding the site of the main road, the streets, the market square, public places and a commonage. 900 acres, 2 roods and 6 perches of land would be set aside for the township of which 420 acres, 2 roods and 6 18 Colonial Coalopolis perches would be for the above public and open spaces. Still understood from the on-site discussion that his hotel would be in the heart of the township and it was on this understanding that he signed an agreement on 26th August 1882 to accept five erven which would include Still's house and stable, his hotel and stable , his store and woolshed and a row of W.Cs. Fannin' s surrey was a neat geometrical grid with each street duly given a family name ("Sutton" "Fannin" "Morris" "Aire" etc) , the domestic erven a full acre each and the commercial erven along the main road half an acre each. The plan and deeds of transfer were printed, under the name of "DUNDEE TOWNSHIP COALFIELDS". As Tommy Dodds , a local "character" with a sense of humour, told the story in the "Courier" fifty two years later (1924) (when the town belatedly celebrated its Golden Jubilee) the Smith family was stung by this preempting of its family name "Dundee" . Moreover the Smith protege , Charles Willson , was determined that his store should be the heart of the future town. Peter Smith with the concurrence of his son William Craighead Smith and son-in-law Dugald Macphail set aside I 000 acres of land fronting on the Steenkool river. The Ladysmith surveyor George Tatham did a hasty survey and laid out a grid of streets . This second township was pointedly named "DUNDEE PROPER". A quick sale of erven was a great success. Sutton' s township did not flourish and when Frederick Still in 1887 bought out his interests, Still complained that his hotel was now on the outskirts of the settlement. The heart of Dundee was where Willson's store stood Coalfield store and/or home, 1905. (Photograph: Dundee Museum) 19 Colonial Coalopolis opposite the Market Square and the Town offices at the crossroads of Victoria and Willson Street. Thereafter growth was phenomenal. When Mrs Peter Smith opened the Dundee Public Hall on 24th April 1885 papers in the foundation stone revealed that "Dundee Proper" could boast 91 inhabitants, 25 solid new buildings and twelve flourishing businesses. Coal Mining Coal was the key to Dundee's fortunes and it was about 1885 that the local interests which had been mining since the 1870s, went public. The Dundee Coal Co. (on occasion named the Durban-Dundee Coal Co.) had as its first chairman Sir Benjamin Greenacre and was backed by the Durban shipping magnates, King and Sons. Importing a brilliant Scottish mining engineer, Wiliiam Maconochie, to spur on development, absorbing the Sutton coal interests on "Coalfield", building its own railway line from Glencoe to Talana to the Buffalo River, the Dundee Coal Co. by 1891 was supplying four-fifths of the total output of the Natal mines (97 387 tons) and the of Mines in his Departmental report could refer to its steady rise in production and its sure markets. Its headgear at the bottom of Boundary Road on the banks of the Steenkool river and its thirteen shafts under Little Talana Hill (Lennox) dominated the valley. The company locomotives busily steaming through the village, which was rapidly expanding south and west into the Crown land known as "Dundee Extension" and onto land set aside by Dugald Macphail, underlined its dependence on mining success. Proving good deposits in 1892 and 1897, the Dundee Coal Co. expanded dramatically. The local man who was indefatigable in his promotion of Dundee in its early days was Charles Willson. "Again and again (post 1879) he travelled by post-cart to the city to plead the case for Dundee" battling opposition from the Colonial Government, from the shipping companies and the Natal Government Railways. Homely Peter Smith, the "Father of Dundee", and his kindly Ann, sitting on the flagged verandah of their simple cottage in 1899, looking down on the bustling mines and village, beheld a miracle. An endless trail of wagons moving in and out of the town square transporting mining equipment, coal, lime, copper, asbestos, lead and silver and gold marked the upsurge of interest in a Zululand Eldorado and the growth of satellite coal mining villages. The Governor of Natal had called on them on his way to meet the claim holders. Victoria Street, the main street, was wide enough to turn a wagon and a span of sixteen oxen. Profits on coal and other trade were rising an average 25% per annum and the population was almost doubling itself annually. The drab wood and iron prefabricated shops and cottages of the start were being replaced by stylish buildings built in the fine local facebrick and the lovely golden sandstone. Stone Town Offices on the Market Square, an elegantly furnished Magistrate's Court and Gaol, an imposing double-storied Post Office, and charming Presbyterian and Methodist Churches were solid proof of the permanence of the settlement. Ryley's great mill and agricultural machinery depot, Oldacres' stylish emporium with its wrought-iron pillars and mahogany fittings and the Victoria Hotel 20 Colonial Coalopolis with its quality table silver were symbols of Dundee's commercial preeminence. St. lames's Church, the new Masonic Hall in Gladstone Street, the Talana Hall in Ladysmith Road and the Dominican Convent in Ann Street added further tone. Facing old Peter across the vale on the slopes of vast Impati Mountain his dynasty lived in style, his son William Craighead in "Balgray", a splendid stone mansion built in 1894 and marked by a great palm avenue. Southward along the same slopes stood "Craigside" house, the lovely home of the irrepressible Dugald Macphail, his son-in-law. Each family had its own private mine and on the profits could live as mining magnates should. Anglo-Boer War Dundee mining magnates proved a powerful political lobby. In 1899, as the threat of invasion from the Boer Transvaal grew, against the better judgment of military advisers, the decision was taken to defend Dundee and the coal mines. Lt. Gen. Penn-Symons, in command of the 4500 men camped there on Ryley's Hill, had sentimental links with the town. Twenty years before he had spent several weeks in camp at Fort Jones with the despondent remnants of the ill-fated 24th Regiment. His gallantry did not save the town. Directing the assault against General Lukas Meyer's commandos stationed on the summit of Talana Hill on the misty morning of October 20th, (the first battle of the Anglo-Boer War), he was fatally wounded. Though the hill was taken by his successor, General Yule, the British situation was untenable and the town had to be abandoned. Wives and children had already been hastily evacuated by train on the 18th and 19th. Then imperturbable dignified Francis Birkett, the Town Clerk, in top hat and frock coat, had ridden through the town, knocking on doors, enforcing the order to pack and go, despite protests about bread still baking in the oven. The Boer occupation of Dundee lasted eight months. Many prominent men escaped, like Charles Willson and Francis Birkett, and trudged with Yule's withdrawing troops through the slush of flooded tracks to Ladysmith. where they endured the rigours of the siege. Craighead Smith, the heir to "Balgray", was amongst them - he died there. The Dundee Coal Co. manager stumbled in barefoot - his boots had disintegrated in the march. It was a bleak time in Dundee. A few civilians remained to protect their interests. the Rev. Bailey of St. lames's Church and the Rev. Norenius of the Betania Mission to care for the abandoned British wounded, Oldacre to try to save his store stocks and young Norman. the clerk at Ryley's Mill, to control, if he could, Boer demands for horse fodder. Some bewildered refugees from the Transvaal wandered in unwittingly from Glencoe and had perforce to stay there. Young Denys Reitz observed with contempt the orgy of drinking and looting whieh his comrades-in-arms indulged in. a providential orgy for the men of Dundee, trudging desperately towards Ladysmith. Within days the mines ground to a standstill and as General Lukas Meyer's commandos rode out to join Commandant-General loubert at his H.Q. on the Modderspruit. a silence fell on the battered little town. They buried the fallen on Talana, at St. lames's and at Betania; then they buried the Rev. Bailey himself, dead from enteric, his young widow cradling her orphaned two-month-old son in her arms. The handful of townsfolk 21 Colonial Coalopolis grew dejected as siege news filtered through; the Boer guards in the town celebrated the victories of Colenso and Spioenkop. Hope for besieged Ladysmith and their own future dwindled; they were hungry and many were ill. The electrifying news of the Relief of Ladysmith got through by native runner on the 2nd March 1900 and the Dutidonians dared a few cheers and chaffed the Boer guards. But weeks passed and the only military activity was the heavy Boer fortification of the passes through the Biggarsberg. At the beginning of May rumours spread of an impending British attack on these positions. Oldacre and Norman scrambled to the shoulder of the Indumeni and watched General Buller's 30 000 troops fanning out from Zendoda Mountain onto the Waschbank plain. A week later from their stores on the opposite side of Victoria Street the two men watched winded Boer horses and smoke-begrimed commandos clatter through and disappear towards Glencoe. An hour later Natal Carbineers and British cavalry under the command of Lord Dundonald galloped into 'town. The relief of Dundee on May 13th 1900 began a recovery that was swift and impressive. Dundee men, haggard from the privation of the Siege of Ladysmith, r:eturned overnight and resurrecting the Town Guard under the command of Charles Willson, set about resettling the civilian population who were equally prompt to return. Repairing their shattered homes and businesses, sorting out their furniture from the jumble of broken and damaged loot in the Masonic Hall, householders were soon back to normal. On the anniversary of the Battle of Talana the leading ladies of Dundee, impeccably dressed with wide picture hats, lace mittens and parasols, laid wreaths on the military graves and looked down to the Steenkool River where the local brickfields and the mines were once more in full production. Post-War Development Mining recovery was rapid and development was vigorous. New fields were exploited during the post-occupation boom, and these satellite mines powered a period of great economic expansion in Dundee and district in the first decade of the 20th century. This expansion is the more remarkable in that the area faced continual setbacks. In 1901-1902 threat of a second invasion by CommandantGeneral Louis Botha's forces, British military disasters at Bloedrivierpoort and Scheepersnek, sabotage to railway lines and bridges and flying raids from the International Brigade at Utrecht all combined to lower morale. A specially recruited crack Natal unit, the Natal Composite Volunteer Regiment, was stationed in Dundee and the crucial line of the Bufalo-Blood River frontier was heavily garrisoned and fortified. The upheaval of the war and of industrialisation with all its social problems affected the local African population. Correspondents in the local paper spoke ominously in 1903 of the "native trouble". The local paper had been founded in 1900 after the Relief by a Mancunian Hughes (of "Manchester Guardian" connections) and a printer Teversham, but Hughes died within six months. Thereafter the "Dundee and District Courier" took on the grandiose title of "Dundee and District Courier And Northern Natal News". Under its third owner W.H. Doidge it became an 22 Colonial Coalopolis outspoken weekly, reporting in considerable detail the vigorous provincial and municipal politics of Dundee. It was remarkably early and frank in debating the relative virtues of Federation and Union. But not everything was rosy. The Boer community, proscribed after the war, was struggling. The Bambatha Rebellion of 1906 not only disrupted farming life and depressed agriculture, but was directly responsible for the terrifying scourge of East Coast Fever spreading disastrously. The proliferation of mines round Hattinghspruit bade fair to give Dundee a rival. As though to cap the calamaties, on Thursday, February 13th 1908 an explosion at Glencoe Colliery entombed 12 Europeans, including the Deputy Commissioner of Mines, and 60 Africans. "The shadow of a great catastrophe has spread its gloom not only over the community and a colony, but through the world at large", said the clergyman at the mass funeral. It was perhaps not surprising that Dundee lost heart for a while and that an irate Hon. Secretary of an AGM, prayed for something to stir "the green slime of apathy off the stagnant pools of so many Dundee clubs and societies! " Clubs and Societies There was a plethora of such clubs and societies. The powerhouse of affairs was the Dundee and District Club, housed in new double-storied premises at Lower Victoria Street, after 1901. The photograph shows Oldacre's Store (still standing) on the left, with Ryley's Mill and the Victoria Hotel on the right. Talana Hill, much less heavily bushed than today, is on the skyline. (Photograph: Dundee Museum) 23 Colonial Coalopofis Central Buildings in Victoria Street, where gentlemen could sit on the glassed-in-verandah with its "splendid views" and "free from the dust of the street," summon the white stewards by the "plentiful array of bellpushes" to order "tea or otherwise". Tradition has it that "otherwise" was the popular choice! The lowlier grades of society had their Institute in the old club premises in Lyle's "Enterprise Building" in Gladstone Street, where nonalcoholic beverages were served. The liveliest societies were the Patriotic Societies, and the mining communities boasted flourishing Caledonian and Cambrian Societies and Sons of England. One old resident still recalls the Scottish Institute making the night hideous in the Talana Hall in Ladysmith Road "with the awful squealing of their pipes and their reeling from too much whisky"! Scottish concert parties often filled the Masonic Hall to capacity and on one occasion featured a formidable "Hieland Flingist"! The Masonic Hall was the centre of flourishing theatre life, where the Pieter Toerien of the day was Atwell, the talented local photographer. He brought the latest novelties to the town, Wolfram's Bioscope, an Aux-te-tophone recital and the Chronophone. Local families too were talented; the Labistours gave chamber concerts, Mr. J.W. Holding staged minstrel follies and musical soirees and Mr. Bert Head brought the house down with his comic songs. St. James's Dramatic Society made more serious attempts at drama and staged the first South African production of George Bernard Shaw's "The Devil's Disciple". The daring title roused some misgivings in local breasts! Schooling Schoolchildren were well provided for in Edwardian Dundee. Excellent public schools existed. An ex-Hiltonian, Mr. Clifton M.A., conducted the first preparatory school for boys north of Cordwalles, The Talana Preparatory School. The Dominican Convent (later Holy Rosary Convent) expanded and added a second storey, St. John's School for girls in Pietermaritzburg opened a branch on the Berea, where the fashionable new suburb was opening up; nearby, Government built the Dundee Intermediate School where the Principal Mr. Gowthorpe laid the foundations of an excellent academic standard. But poverty amongst the Boer community restricted schooling for many to two or three years; moreover language barriers created further problems, although the provision of a Dutchspeaking Inspector and of Dutch textbooks and special syllabi in 1908 began to meet their needs. Through the Betania trade school promising young Africans and Indians had a hope of education as also through the churches and missions; here they were fortunate in having excellent establishments like "Nazareth" at Elandskraal and "Maria Ratschitz" at Mlatikulu and several others. The Amakholwa villages in the district produced many good workmen and stable families. Indeed the picture grows of a compassionate society moved by the plight of vagrants of all races, the Benevolent Society and the Child Welfare 24 Colonial Coalopolis Society working with the missions to alleviate distress. One of South Africa's first orphanages for African children was at Kalabasi near Dannhauser; the townsfolk and the farmers gave support in cash and kind to the pioneer hospitals at Betania and Pomeroy. Certainly the community was pious; the churches were many and well supported. Building Boom The town was a quaint mixture of the affluent and the poor. Rickshas plied up and down the main street and the Victoria Hotel horse-bus collected passengers from the station. Indian hawkers jostled the genteel Victorian housewives round the market stalls. The gentry trotted into town in Baverstock's handsome spiders and covered the few bold spirits on Shimwell's bicycles in dust or mud according to the season. Village children, barefoot, bobbed a curtsey as Mr. A.A. Smith, the prominent lawyer, tossed them sweets and pennies. Herds of cows being driven to the commonage and flocks of ostriches to the saleyards impeded the traffic. The creme de la creme built double storey mansions. Some houses, like "Symonsdale" the home of Edward Ryley the Minister of Agriculture, or the mansion of Thomas Dewar of Dewar's Anthracite, faced the Talana Hill as though it were Mecca. The building boom, at its height in 1905, adorned Dundee with five residences. Harry Tatham's "Sunnyside", set in three acres, had four large reception rooms, six vast bedrooms, a bathroom, a kitchen, a larder, a butler's pantry, a washhouse, extensive stables, a carriage house and a cowshed, all fitted with electricity and piped water. Some had libraries, smoking rooms and conservatories. All had servants. Superior families like the Brokenshas had white housekeepers, nursemaids and governesses as well as a horde of young Indians in turbans. The finish of the homes and the furnishings were good. Quality imports were the rule. Indeed the well-to-do bride like Bessie Carbutt, marrying from the Oldacre home "Stonehenge", would import her wedding trousseau from London and the home furnishings from Maples of Regent Street, complete with matching carpets, wallpaper and curtains, and the bric-a-brac of the day. Sidesaddles and ladies' riding habits with stocks and bowler hats were also imported along with the fine bloodstock which sired the hacks and thoroughbreds that raced at the Dundee Turf Club meetings. Excitement was rare and the sound of the Town Office bell and of the Electricity Co. hooter brought the brigade out in their brass helmets and crowds would rush in pursuit. On one occasion "one lady in exceeding fantastic attire and with her hair not exactly a la Grecque was most voluble in her denunciations of the wicked who raised a false alarm when people were just getting into bed." But the sinking of the "Waratah" and Halley's Comet brightened life up. There were crudities to life. The sanitary arrangements were deplorable and the night-soil removal cart doing its early morning rounds with clanking buckets was dubbed "Mrs Baasch's Light Artillery"! Presbyterians complained that visiting clergy went away with a "stinking impression" of Dundee - the manse was uncomfortably close to the sanitary dump. Mr and Mrs Harry Pybus Handley and family taken in the garden of their home in Victoria Street. He was a merchant who traded in Dundee throughout the Victorian era. (Photograph: Dundee Museum) Future Assured As the era drew to a close Dundee's future was assured. Coal figures were re-assuring and the industry had galvanised itself in the Natal Coal Owners' Society. East Coast fever was abating, agriculture was organising itself, trade was brisk and the town was all bustle. Stores were proudly promoting "COLONIAL INDUSTRY" and a new patriotism and healing of the old political wounds in the remote frontier territory was evident, as Dundee accepted Union and the mood of the National Convention. Enviously the Grey town delegate to the N.M.A. Conference of 1910 reported: "Dundee possesses three or four times more stores and generally speaking there was much more life and activity. The streets too are well-kept and the channelling for carrying off storm water is extensively gone in for. The red flowering gum is much employed and as different varieties of trees are planted in each street the general effect is pretty." Dundee remains pretty, set in its historic vale. Its story is slowly unfolding and the relics of "Coalopolis" are gradually being rescued. Much research is being done on this multi-faceted society and much remains to be done. Much is unique - the Amakholwa communities, the Indian mining group, the pioneer missions. The human story in time will prove as enthralling as the pageantry of the great battles of the Biggarsberg and Buffalo. 26 Colonial Coalopolis SOURCES Bird, J. Annals of Natal. Vols I & 11. Struik, Cape Town, 1965. Delegorgue, A. Voyage en Afrique Australe. Paris, 1842. Deleage, E. Trois Mois Chez Les Zoulous. Paris, 1879. Dundee Museum Records. Smith, Handley, Oldacre, du Bois, Gregory, Dekker. Pascoe Papers by courtesy Mrs Melanie Martin. Moreland's Biggarsberg Diary by courtesy Dr. John Clark. The Diary of Capt. Garden by courtesy Natal Society Library. Dundee and District Courier. Northern Natal News. The Norenius Papers by courtesy Mrs E. Perrett. The Fay Goldie letters. The Hector Baxter papers. Natal Archives Diary of Humphrey Evans Knight. Magisterial Reports 1890---1891. Natal Almanacs and Directories 1901-1910. Natal Witness. Natal Advertiser. Natal Mercury. SHEILA HENDERSON 27 In Search of Mr Botha An investigation into a Natal place-name Standing as it does on the edge of the Valley of a Thousand Hills and some 150 metres above the surrounding countrysidc, Botha's Hill has always been a major obstacle to travellers along the old main road between Pietermaritzburg and Durban. Several of those who made the journey in the second half of the nineteenth century have left accounts of its steepness and its roughness and the slippery nature of thc track in the wet season. In spite of this early notoriety, however, there exists no satisfactory explanation of the origin of the namc. Who was Mr Botha and how did he come to leave his name on the map of Natal'? Local tradition asserts with some vehemence that the name comes from Philip Rudolph Botha, grandfather of Louis Botha, who (it is said) settled in the vicinity of the hill at some time after Blood River. This is the explanation given, too, in the Standard Encyclopaedia of Southern Africa, J in Robertson's Travellers' Guide' and by T.V. Bulpin.' The journalist Don Stayt4 goes further and asserts that P.R. Botha was granted a farm at Botha's Hill in 1839. One lone dissenter, however, is Janie Malherbe/ who says that the spot is named after Captain Cornc1is Botha, the first harbour master of Durban. Captain Botha, she avers, opened an accommodation house at Botha's HiIl after the British occupation. The existence of an accommodation house at Botha's Hill is, in fact, another strong local tradition, although a separate one from the name of the original Botha. Often the inn is referred to simply as "the old halfway house" and two sites arc commonly identified for it, both of them on the north-western or Pietermaritzburg side of the hill. One of these sites is said to have had, until fairly recently, a clearly demarcated boundary of gum trees and some ruined buildings on it. The other is near the railway siding at Alverstone. But local tradition is silent as to the name of either proprietor. When approached to quote a source for his claim, T.V. Bulpin cited a folder in the Killie CampbeIl library. Janie Malherbe's reply to the same request was a simple assertion that what she had written was true. Don Stayt referred to all the secondary sources mentioned above. A visit to the Killie Campbell library turned up one other piece of information: a hand-written addendum to the text of a radio talk delivered in 1926.6 It gave substantiaIly the same details as those given by Janie Malherbe.' The next step was to attempt the verification of the land grant to P. R. Botha. The Natal Archives could throw no light on the matter. There was no record to be found of P.R. Botha's having been granted land by the republican authorities between Pietermaritzburg and Durban. Similarly, no record could be traced of his having registered a farm there under the British administration. None of this is, of course, conclusive evidence because it is not always possible to trace republican land grants, if indeed a 28 In Search of Mr Botha claim was ever registered. In addition to this, many Boers left Natal in the "Second Trek" of 1848 because of the delay in carrying out the promised survey of farms' and P. R. Botha may have been among their number, although his descendants farmed in the Greytown district a generation later. There is, however, one piece of positive evidence which weighs against the claim that P.R. Botha lived at Botha's Hill. The hill lies on the farm Assegay Kraal, which was registered in the name of 1.1. Potgieter in 1848.' By 1850 Potgieter's farm was so well established9 as to suggest that he had been there for some time and was probably therefore the first white settler there. A study of contemporary accounts proved more fruitful than official records. In 1849 or 1850 the Rev. James Green, on his way to Pietermaritzburg, "put up at an accommodation house kept by a Mr Botha, at the foot of Botha's Hill."'" The English merchant, Joseph Churchill, on a journey from Durban in January, 1851, to drum up business in the capital, recorded in his diary that he "slept the first night at Botha's Accommodation House, very fatigued with the jolting."11 Thomas Phipson, travelling down to the coast a few months later, wrote that after climbing "a high mountain or hill" he had gone "down on the other side by a steep declivity to Botha's Halfway House, about thirty-four miles from Pietermaritzburg. ,," The most valuable account, however, is that given by G.H. Mason after a journey to Pietermaritzburg in 1850. After spending the night at the German House, near Cowie's Hill, Mason and his brother walked through what was to become Pinetown, up Field's Hill (which he called "Murray's Hill") and along the road to a deserted farm by midday. The record continues: "Resuming our journey, we at length reached Botha's half-way house, where we intended to get dinner." L1 Considered together, these accounts show clearly that in the early 1850s the name "Botha's" was applied rather to the inn than to the hill. But Phipson and Mason take the matter a stage further. They both make it plain that the accommodation house was at the foot of the hill on the southeastern or Durban side. Phipson approached it from Pietermaritzburg "by a steep declivity", whereas the Masons, fortified by cold sucking pig and congenial company, discovered that "leaving Botha's, our first business was to climb the formidable barrier before us. "14 Manifestly then the halfway house of tradition, on the north-western side, was not the Halfway House of the 1850s visited by Green, Churchill, Phipson and Mason. Is it possible, a hundred and thirty years later, in an area which is becoming increasingly built up, to locate the approximate site of the inn and, perhaps, to identify more closely its proprietor? Alexander Mair's Map of the Colony of Natal, 15 published in 1875, provided the first clue. Based on the records of the Surveyor-General's office, this map shows the boundaries of farms registered at that time. It is easy, even on a photographic reproduction, to identify the farm Albinia, on which present-day Hillcrest is situated, and Assegay Kraal (present-day Botha's Hill). And, sandwiched between them, without any form of identification, is a small property, very much in the shape of a paper dart and lying across the old main road. An earlier map, Watt's Map of Natal, which appeared in 1855, shows the same boundaries. 16 The search shifted to the records of the Surveyor-General. There, sure enough, between Albinia on the east and Assagay (sic) Kraalon the west, 29 In Search of Mr Botha and straddling the old main road, was the familiar paper dart shape of the property officially described as Botha's Halfway House, No. 921, 320 acres in extent, which had heen surveyed by Thomas Okes in 1849. All that remained then was to attempt the identification of the original owner of the land. In due course. from the Registrar of Deeds in Pietermaritzburg, came the notification that the first registered owner of Botha's Halfway House, No. 921 was none other than Cornelis Botha, the name of the man written of by Janie Malherbe. Although, therefore, it is not possible to state categorically that Philip Rudolph Botha never lived near Botha's Hill, the weight of the evidence as presented above seems to be in favour of Cornelis Botha, the erstwhile harhour master (unless, of course, hc had a namesake of whom nothing else is known), as the man who gave his name to the hill and to the twentieth century village. The halfway house at the foot of Botha's Hill turns out to have been, for the best part of thirty-five years, a landmark on the road from the Port to the capital. The earliest reference so far discovered is to f.'l/iou's accommodation house, which he named Albenia (sic) in honour of Martin West's wife.'- At the beginning of 1847 the establishment bore the name The Travellers' Home and was run by Louis Smith." By the middle of that year, however, there appeared an announcement by Cornelis Botha that he was rc-opening what he called the Albany Hotel, formerly kept by Elliott. 1Y Even though within eight months Botha advertised his intention of selling the inn,clI he was still there in January, 1850." When Charles Barter travelled inland later that year he stopped for the night at Botha's, "the halfway house hetween D'Urban and Maritzburg", but finding a noisy party already in occupation he and his companion preferred to sleep in their wagon.22 Eventually, however, Botha must have found at least a tenant, because by the early part of 1852 .I.F. Smith had taken over the premises "on long lease". n In August of that year Barter stopped at the inn on at least two occasions and noted that Smith was the proprietor. 24 In spite of his original intention Smith's long lease appears to have been relatively short, hecause by August, 1854, Frederick Ashford was recorded in the jury lists as the "occupier" of Botha's. c' Two and a half years later, at the time of his wife's death, Ashford was descrihed as "formerly of Botha's Halfway House"." At this point the record appears to fall silent for several years. When, in May 1860, John Dare's 'Perseverance' overturned while going down Botha's Hill, the shaken passengers were taken to McNicol's at Pinetown, "where things were made comfortable". 27 To have done this would have been to pass an obvious source of succour at Botha's Halfway House. Does this mean that the inn was no longer in business or that it had degenerated into one of the low-class estahlishments which decent folk avoided? There is no way of telling but the answer probably lies in the prosaic demands of a transport operator's schedule. The coach had three main stops, at Camperdown, Clough's and McNicol's/8 and Dare would have lost time as a result of the accident. No doubt his aim was to reach the next stop with all expedition. The fact that the omnihus arrived "safely and satisfactorily in Durban, a little late for dinner"'" suggests that this is the reasonable interpretation of this incident. 30 In Search of Mr Botha The reference above to "Clough's" adds another dimension to the emerging picture. Botha's Halfway House had aquired a competitor a few miles away on the other side of the hill and the noiseless tenor of life in those cool sequestered vales had been rudely disturbed by some hot commercial rivalry. When this contest began is not certain but by 1855 E.B. Clough had become proprietor of another Halfway House on the farm Assegay Kraal, in the shadow of the hill later known as Alverstone. Dr Bleek spent a night there in 1856 and described it subsequently as "one of the best along the road" .'" Sometimes, to the confusion of the investigator. the house was called Clough's Sterk Spruit Hotel. 31 Sterkspruit is the name of the next farm along the road, on which the present village of Drummond is situated, and on the bank of the stream which provided its name was yet another small inn, called at various times Sportsman's Lodge,'" Cheeseborough's'3 and Edwards's." Colenso thought it was Stirk's Spruit," an impression perhaps reinforced by the herd of Zulu cattle through which he rode not far from there,''' among which there was doubtless a number of yearlings. In 1860, after the visit of Prince Alfred," the name of Clough's is said to have been amended by the then proprietor, one Thomas Arnold, to Clough's Royal Halfway House. How Botha's fared during this period it has not been possible to establish but eventually that inn was taken over by John Padley, who pointedly advertised it in 1866 as "the original (my italics) halfway house between the City and the Port. "'R He advised that the establishment had undergone "extensive alterations and additions" for the third time, "to meet the increasing demand for comfortable accommodation on the road."'R Padley, however, ("he paddles his own canoe",R) must soon after this have embarked temporarily upon some other venture, because in April, 1868, Thomas Martin, formerly of the Natal Mounted Police, respectfully announced that he had obtained a lease of "the abovementioned well known and long established premises" which he named The Black Horse.' Prof. Hattersley identifies the premises as "the Halfway House at Botha's".-I(' By this time the transport struggle between J. W . Welch and George Jessup was in progress and in the course of the war Welch acquired both Clough's and Botha's, where he provided hot lunches for his passengers as an added inducement to support his line.4! This prandial persuasion proved the final straw for Jessup, who eventually retired from the field. At this point the picture becomes obscure. Prof. Hattersley states that Welch bought the Botha's building from Martin.42 A reader of the Daily News recalled in 1964 that the original Botha homestead (which he associated with P.R. Botha) was used as a staging post for Welch omnibuses.43 Yet by 1869, scarcely a year after Martin's initial announcement, John Padley was back at Botha's44 and when, in 1872, he married the daughter of J.C. Field, he was described as "of Padley's Hotel, Botha's Hill. "45 Even though it is not clear who actually owned the inn at this time, the association with Padley makes it possible to attempt an approximate identification of the site of Botha's Halfway House. At the foot of Botha's Hill, giving access to that part of modern Hillcrest known as West Riding, a road intersects the railway line at a point known as Padley's Crossing. Not far away is the old Padley's Halt. And within metres of the crossing stands a 31 In Search of Mr Botha venerable oak tree which is associated in local tradition with an outspan, a staging post and a nameless inn, in what is very approximately the middle of Cornelis Botha's farm and in close proximity to the old main road. Almost certainly Botha's Halfway House was not far from this spot, although today there is no trace of an old building to be seen. Clough's, on the other hand, is said to have survived into the present era and to have been rebuilt as a cottage by a local farmer in the late 1960s. John Padley died in 187646 and in the same year the farm was transferred from the name of Corm-lis Botha to that of Elizabeth Cato.47 Both Halfway Houses must have remained in business for some years after that, however, because in January, 1879, Lt. Commeline, conducting his wagons from Pinetown to Pietermaritzburg, negotiated "a terrible hill known as Bowker's Hill", camped for the night at "the Halfway House" and then returned with other wagons and spent the next night at "a little inn at the bottom of the hill".4X But for the innkeepers and the coachmen the writing was on the wall. In March, 1879, the railway (which had forced Welch out of business in Britain) reached Botha's Hi1l4" and by 1880 it had been taken through to Pietermaritzburg. , Almost certainly, although there was a suggestion that the trains should stop at Welch's Halfway House for fifteen minutes for refreshments," neither Padley's nor Clough's long survived this onset of civilization. The fact that a photograph of Botha's Hill station taken about 1884 shows both a refreshment room and an hotel immediately behind the station suggests that by then the older inns had closed." They had admirably served their purpose but they belonged to an age which had passed beyond recall. What, in the meantime, of the man whose name began this investigation? Assuming that there was only one man of this name in Natal at that time, it is possible to piece together a little about Cornelis Botha, although much of it is at present unverified. It is said that he ran away to sea as a teenager, joining a ship at Durban" and serving for a time in the British merchant navy.54 Soon aftcrwards, while he was in his early twenties, he became the master (and perhaps the owner) of a small sailing vessel, the Eleanor which traded out of Durban up and down the east coast. In August, 1839, the Eleanor was wrecked at thc Durban harbour mouth." The name of Cornelis Botha appears on a list of men to whom land grants were made by the Volksraad in the first half of 1839. 5b Subsequently he was appointed to the rank of heemraad " and, early in 1840, was installed as harbour master of Port Natal. 58 According to an account among the Bird papers he was occupying some "Kaffir huts" at the Point at that time.s9 In April 1840 the Volksraad granted him certain additional powers regarding the control of shipping in the harbour (or, perhaps, defined his authority more preciscly)."" By August of that year, however, certain charges had been laid against him and he was suspended, pending an investigation, while his assistant Edmund Morewood acted in his place.bl Shortly after this, however, at his own request he was released from service.'" In November, 1840, he purchased an erf in Port Natal from P. Raats.bl In April, 1844, he announc