The record-union., 1898-03-07
LIFE IN NATAL.
OF THE FIVE
THOUSAND COLONISTS.
Durham as a Model Municipality
Delightful Climate-Society
Without Poverty.

sorts of views about Natal. Cecil
Rhodes described its people as "a for
Warding agency in the midst OF a ioca-
ton of Kafiirs,' alluding to the fact
that there are only $1,000 white men
in the presence of ten times as many
blacks. / doubt whether in the whole
British Empire there is happier COM
munity. not excepting our light-hearted
| friends of the Channel Islands, than
these Natalians. Three months l break
! tasted with Harry Escombe, then the
! Premier of Natal. Describing its soci-
ETY. he said I'VE have nobody very
/ rich, and We have no, poverty The
| words escaped him as a commonplace;
| they struck NE as a revelation. No
! poverty" What would one not give 10
have only 100000 people, though thinly
scattered in towns and villages, like
these, in this smiling land, and no poor
among them? Yes, give us no poor
and we will jog along without soli-
| tary millionaire. From that moment
l have inquired of every man likely to
know about this social fact. The pres
ent Prime Minister, Mr.. Binns; the Min
/ lister for Native Affairs, Mr.. Huiett,
/ himself a large employer in connection
with his tea and sugar plantation, the
| genial Attorney General, Mr.. Bale all
gave substantially the same answer to
the query, rs it really true that you
have no poor?" Well" said the May
! or of Durham, eve have. of course.
| some drunken folk, ne'er- -do-weels, and
few that won't or can't work but
| for all practical purposes it is about
true. Nobody need be badly off,
| And now | have come TO understand
the remark of an old colonist, which
| grated on the ear harshly at the time.
lie had just returned from your JUDI
| lee festivities, and remarked: Il could
never go back to England to live, to
! face again that fearful poverty os the
East End and your manufacturing
towns. My God, it is too awful" How
many South Africans have in substance
| said the same thing? In bidding good
/ by to Mr. Escombe at Durham I OBJ
| served: There is only one fault to
| find with the country-it ought TO have
/ ten times as many white inhabitants
| "All very well, but then we should be-
gin to have the struggle for existence"
! Oh, that we at home were only begin
/ ming to have it! l have seen something
| of the homes of the rich and the not
| rich, but have met no signs of the care
and striving of our homelife.
The wife of a merchant assured me
| that all was not gold that glittered.
English ladies don't know what it is
to have their housework done by kafir
| boys" No" chmed in the husband,
nor to be obliged to pay lazy niggers
shillings a day, and not be able al
| that to get your work done. while thou
! sands of them hang about their kraals
and do nothing. 1 would make them
work" Quite unsympathetically 7 an
swered: Il am pleased to hear the Kaf
| fir is so well off; and as to you. mad
am, would that a few hundred thou
sand Of my fellow -countrywomen might
! share your wretchedness in these sur
roundings"
AMBITION IN NATAL
Which reminds meof young English
man in business at Pretoria vino WAS
bewailing his non-success. How long
have you been hee?" he was asked.
About eight or nine years. And
you are worth?" Perhaps f100O O,
| $4,000" And how much do you think
you would have made in England in
| that timer" Quoth he. evasively: yes,
! but that is not much compared with
| other people who have been out as
! long" 1t is a thousand years too soon
/ TO come to Africa to find the Earthly
| Paradise, but these good people know,
! or ought to know, how far they are re-
! moved from the stress and strain Of
| European and American life The COM
| petition of capital and its dwindling re-
turns, the ill-requited labor and daarth
of employment, the long hours of busi-
ness and of toll, the keen application.
! the fierce rivalry, the block of every
professional avenue are things nearly
unknown; skill and talent rarely go I'M
rewarded. Everywhere it seemed to me
| the predominant feature was the even
current of existence; compared with our
fevered, anxious being, it was the belt
OF calms to the Bay of Biscay
| Pietermaritzburg,. the Capital of Ma
tai, they say is Sleepy Hollow. l con-
fess 1t seemed to resemble a school with
five days week holiday. All the same,
it is charming place, in an environ
ment of hill and dale, field and forest
that would reconcile one to a perennial
holiday: place where people pay al
most no rates, do no hard work and
live long lives. In it's hotels, dwellings.
public buildings and parks you shall
find more signs of elegance, refinement.
| drama. of social activity and enjoy
ment. of everything that makes life
worth living, than in the whole of the
| Transvaal if you except the Uitland-
ers of johannesburg and Pretoria. The
Transvaal Capital is forcing ground
for typhoid fever; Maritzburg is
health resort-though, to begin with,
| the natural advantages are all on the
side of the Roar
SHOW CITY OF SOUTH AFRICA.
/ But the show city of South Africa
is, beyond all question, Durham. For
| beauty of situation it recalls Naples;
for good government it has no superior
in sanitation it has no equal. The port
stands on sandy and marshy plain,
in parts not above sea-level; vet SO
eHectually have the leveling and GRAIN
Ing been done that malaria is almost
unknown. pure water supply has
been provided and refuse destruc cor
of the latest pattern erected;s sewage
is disposed of so as to pollute neither
air nor water; house drains are all
ventilated, the best style of apparatus
being provided by the town and en-
forced; and. finally, every measure that
modern science has suggested to safe
guard public health is adopted The
| roadways are kept nearly as even as
ships deck and almost as clean AS
a result the death rate of sub-tropical
city, nearer the torrid zone than Cairo.
Alexandria. Memphis or New Orleans.
is sixteen per thousand per annum.
| There is nothing like it in a similar lat
1tude In the wide world. In Pretoria
that unco' guild man, Dom Paul. and