THE NATAL SOCIETY OFFICE BEARERS, 1981 - 1982 President Cr Miss P.A Reid Vice-Presidents M.J.C.Daly AC. Mitchdl Or J. Clark S.N. Roberts Trustees A.C. Mitchell Or R.E. Stevenson M.J.C.Daly Treasurers Messrs Dix, Boyes & Co. Auditors Messrs Thornton-Dibb, van der Leeuw & Partners Chief Librarian Mrs S.S. Wallis Secretary P.c.G. McKenzie COUNCIL Elected Members 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 City Council Representatives 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 2010 Cover 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Mettler, C.M.M. SA ISSN 0085 3674 Printed by Kendall & Strachan (Ply) Ltd., Pielermarilzburg Contents Page EDITORIAL 5 UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPT Roadside Memories: the Reminiscences of A.E. Smith of ThornviJIe ........................................ 7 ARTICLE Colonial Coalopolis: The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.