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71-583: In 1846 the Book Society of Pietermaritzburg was established, supported by David Dale Buchanan, editor of the Natal Witness . It had a reading room and a small library and opened as Pietermaritzburg's first public library in 1849. It initially struggled, but was later supported by the Natal Society (launched in 1851) which, by 1865, had absorbed the Book Society and started to raise funds for

142-623: A better system" than that which had characterised the previous regime. Shepstone had been summoned home to advise the Colonial Office on South African affairs and he reached England in May 1879; on his return to Natal he retired (1880) from the public service. In 1883, however, he was commissioned to replace Cetshwayo as king in Zululand. He was active in church matters in Natal, and was, prior to

213-495: A biography of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel that was turned into a feature film. While liberal in his views on questions of race, Young did not share Rose's passion for all things British and the paper used its influence to try to bring about greater unity between English- and Afrikaans-speakers, characterised by support for a new national flag and a much more accepting attitude towards Hertzog and Afrikaner aspirations. Young remained with

284-588: A building in Commercial Road was leased from 1963. In 1967, after the municipality agreed to finance the library, it became a free lending library. During the apartheid years, the library remained open to all residents, irrespective of race, and expanded with 11 branches across the city. The Longmarket Street library buildings were eventually replaced in 1975 by a new modern library built in Church Street, which opened on 17 June 1975. This remained

355-574: A forerunner of apartheid, this has led some commentators to regard Buchanan as something of a reactionary. However, this fails to take into account that for liberals like the editor the locations policy was seen as the only way to ensure that the land rights of tribal people, as well as their customary lifestyle, were protected. Certainly, until the Langalibalele Rebellion of 1873, a committed liberal like Bishop John William Colenso had no problem in supporting Shepstone and his policy. It

426-549: A heated attack on the legal establishment in Natal under John Cloete led to Buchanan's brief, but much-publicised, imprisonment for contempt of court. Buchanan claims to have been imprisoned on two other occasions, but the records are silent on this contention. Buchanan's combative nature came very much to the fore during the period from 1850 to 1856 when Benjamin Pine was Lieutenant-Governor of Natal. Buchanan despised Pine personally, regarding him as both corrupt and immoral, and kept up

497-610: A meeting in Eshowe , led to Statham facing a libel suit brought against him by Shepstone. The matter had still not been fully resolved by the time Statham left The Witness in 1887. From 1888 to 1903, the paper tended to be less radical, although, in terms of South African events, the period was anything but calm – especially as it ended with the South African War , unquestionably the most protracted, expensive and divisive war fought on South African soil. Two editors dominated

568-418: A need for great financial prudence and the paper in particular remained in the doldrums. Another factor was Craib's tendency to quarrel with the editors he appointed. As a result of this, the period was marked by a succession of editors who served for comparatively short periods with protracted gaps in between when the paper tended to operate under the leadership of acting editors. During this period, therefore,

639-445: A past editor of the paper Desmond Young. Burly and imposing, Eldridge was a newspaperman to his fingertips and his energetic and, at times, idiosyncratic editorship saw the paper's circulation grow to a point where it was no longer under threat of having to surrender to its competitors. Politically, The Witness became firmly established as the most liberal of all the province's mainstream papers, going so far as to give overt support to

710-667: A permanent location. For 2,000 guineas, the Society bought 20 Longmarket Street in 1876; it opened as a public library and museum in February 1878. In 1916, the Natal Society Library was granted legal deposit status. With every book published in South Africa now held in the library for copyright and archival purposes, it had to be repeatedly expanded. New Longmarket Street buildings were added in 1929 and 1957, and

781-514: A public recognition of Cetshwayo as his successor. Twelve years later Shepstone attended the proclamation of Cetshwayo as king, the Zulu chief promising Shepstone to live at peace with his neighbours. In 1874 and again in 1876 Shepstone travelled to London on colonial affairs. When in London in 1876 Shepstone was entrusted by the 4th earl of Carnarvon , then secretary of state for the colonies, with

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852-552: A result of the unsanitary conditions and died most likely of Tuberculosis in September 1874 at his brother's home in Cape Town . Besides his role as the founder of The Natal Witness , he had played a very active role in the political, civic, educational and religious affairs of Natal and is particularly remembered for having introduced the first postal service between Pietermaritzburg and Durban. Buchanan's successor as editor

923-740: A special commission to confer with the Transvaal executive on the question of the federation of the South African states, and given power, should he deem it necessary, to annex the country, subject to the confirmation of the British government. Shepstone went to Pretoria in January 1877, and on 12 April issued a proclamation announcing the establishment of British authority over the Transvaal. Shepstone's force consisted of twenty-five men of

994-481: A strong feature of the years of Aylward's editorship. Horace Rose was to leave an indelible mark on the paper during his long editorship. He had been born in 1874 in Port Alfred , where his father was a Methodist minister. From his pre-teen years he had developed a love for the sort of African adventure novels that made Sir Rider Haggard famous and over the course of his lifetime wrote a large number of novels in

1065-463: A time when banning orders, imprisonment without trial and other draconian measures silenced most forms of opposition. Theophilus Shepstone Sir Theophilus Shepstone KCMG (8 January 1817 – 23 June 1893) was a British South African statesman who was responsible for the annexation of the Transvaal to Britain in 1877. Shepstone is the great great grandfather of international artist Conor Mccreedy . Theophilus Shepstone

1136-405: A vitriolic attack on the governor, his policies and his supporters. During Buchanan's editorship the paper was distinguished by its relatively liberal, if paternalistic, attitude towards the black and Indian populations of the colony. He remained a committed supporter of the policies of Theophilus Shepstone , the colony's secretary of native affairs. As Shepstone's locations policy is often seen as

1207-571: Is therefore not surprising to find that the Witness also supported Colenso during the upheavals caused by the bishop's advanced religious views. Buchanan fell on hard times during the extremely depressed years of the late 1860s. Around the time he spent more than a year petitioning in France and England on behalf of Cetshwayo and the Basotho people for more equitable terms on the treaty entered by

1278-761: The Battle of Majuba . To the disgust of his detractors, he arrived on the battlefield after the humiliating British defeat as an advisor to the Boer Commander Piet Joubert . After a short break, Statham took up the reins of the paper once again (the Cape Post having foundered). His return coincided with a political brouhaha over the breakdown of the Wolseley settlement in Zululand – which had seen that territory divided up among 13 chieftains – and

1349-515: The Julia in Durban and from there proceeded inland to Pietermaritzburg, which had only three years previously been the capital of a Boer republic. He seems to have functioned throughout his many years in the colony of Natal as both a lawyer, advocate and the most enduring of the colony's newspapermen. It was this connection with the law which led to the choice of “witness” in the name of the paper. This

1420-549: The Natal Mounted Police only, but no overt opposition was made to the annexation; the republic at the time was in a condition bordering on anarchy. "Nothing but annexation," wrote Sir Theophilus to the Colonial Office , "will or can save the state, and nothing else can save South Africa from the direst consequences. All the thinking and intelligent people know this, and will be thankful to be delivered from

1491-517: The Second World War raging, very much on everyone's minds. Indians too received strong support at a time when discriminatory laws were being passed against them. Calpin's term as editor coincided with a period of extreme financial difficulty for the company that owned The Witness , and after various offers had been considered by the board the majority shareholding was bought by the company's accountant, James Craib, in late 1941. This marked

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1562-547: The Witness , Potter's interests in matters relating to economics fitted well with the dire economic climate of the Great Depression , which marked much of his time with the paper. He showed considerable prescience in an October 1931 editorial in urging South Africa to abandon the gold standard – a move that was carried out more than a year later and served to stabilise the South African economy . Editorially

1633-491: The Basotho. He ended up not being paid for his efforts when Cetshwayo died during the trip and he was punished with non payment by Government officials who he had lambasted for corruption, who blocked payment and got their retribution. This along with failed investments in the economic downturn left him financially weak and he left Pietermaritzburg for the diamond diggings (later Kimberley ) in 1872. Here he became very ill as

1704-714: The British annexation, before re-emerging in Pietermaritzburg as the editor of The Witness. It was during Aylward's term as editor that The Witness became a daily paper, and the railway line reached Pietermaritzburg, both in 1880. The outbreak of the First Anglo-Boer War in December 1880 saw Aylward uncompromisingly on the side of the Boers, and his vocal support of the "enemy" eventually led to his hasty withdrawal from Pietermaritzburg, shortly before

1775-731: The Haggard genre, in addition to publishing two books about his travels in East Africa and Europe. He also wrote the screenplays for two of South Africa's earliest feature films – The Symbol of Sacrifice , about the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879 , and The Voice of the Waters . He began his editorship in somewhat dramatic fashion as a passenger on an Orient Buckboard motorcar, which made the first motor journey between Pietermaritzburg and Durban, an adventure that he described with much relish in

1846-483: The Langalibalele "rebellion", a close friend of Bishop Colenso . The two men, though, became estranged following Colenso's gradual realisation that Shepstone exerted a malign influence on Zulu affairs. Shepstone opposed the grant of self-government to Natal. He died at Pietermaritzburg on 23 June 1893. Although Shepstone's life and work have at times been celebrated by Britons and South Africans, experts on

1917-613: The Natal Witness Printing and Publishing company in July 2010. The founding editor and first proprietor of the newspaper was David Dale Buchanan, who was born in New Lanark , Scotland on 17 December 1817. In 1829 at age 12 he arrived in Cape Town in the company of his elder brother, William. In Cape Town, he came into contact with men like Thomas Pringle and John Fairbairn who played a prominent role in establishing

1988-493: The Natal legislature and a passionate proponent of responsible government, Ridley became the main opponent of the political reforms introduced by Sir Garnet Woleseley to downgrade the Natal legislature in order to pave the way for the implementation of Lord Carnarvon's plan for a confederation of the South African states. Despite suffering from a terminal heart condition, he fought the scheme with all his considerable talents, dying shortly before Wolseley had achieved his ends. Ridley

2059-497: The Progressive Party, which consisted of disillusioned liberal members of the opposition United Party who had broken away in 1959, during the campaign preceding the 1961 elections. The paper's liberal credentials were to be fiercely challenged by the apartheid government, which acted ruthlessly to crush all extra-parliamentary opposition during what is sometimes referred to in liberation circles as "the silent sixties" –

2130-572: The Transvaal. Moreover, had the policy of self-government for the Boers which he outlined in his annexation proclamation been carried out, the revolt of 1880–81 might not have occurred. Shepstone remained in Pretoria as administrator of the Transvaal until January 1879; his rule was marked, according to Sir Bartle Frere , who described him as "a singular type of an Africander Talleyrand ," by an "apparent absence of all effort to devise or substitute

2201-478: The beginning of the Craib family control which continues to the present day, as Craib's grandson, Stuart Craib, is currently chairman of the Natal Witness Printing and Publishing Company. Craib was a much more hands-on manager than his predecessor, Philip Davis, and he developed a particular dislike for Calpin. This was reinforced when he discovered that Calpin had been guilty of releasing confidential information about

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2272-472: The casualty rate among locals was lower than for the First World War , the conflict brought other strains as a significant number of South Africans became prisoners of war after the fall of Tobruk . Few families were not directly affected by the world conflict, including that of James Craib, whose sons, Desmond and Alistair, were both combatants. Alistair's fate was particularly poignant as he survived

2343-576: The city's main library building for more than 30 years. In 2004, the Natal Society transferred the library and its staff to the Msunduzi Local Municipality . Soon after, a new building funded by the city, with furnishings and stock funded by the Carnegie Corporation , was officially opened on 12 July 2007 and named after Bessie Head , a South African writer and anti-apartheid activist born in Pietermaritzburg. Today

2414-517: The civilisation. The result of his policy remained traceable for some time in the condition and status of the Natal peoples. While he remained in charge there was but one serious revolt—that of Langalibalele in 1873 against a demand that guns be registered. Shepstone's influence with the Zulus was made use of by the Natal government; in 1861 he visited the Zulu Kingdom and obtained from Mpande

2485-484: The company was increasingly being taken over by his son Desmond. An important consequence of this was that with the appointment of Stan Eldridge as editor, the younger Craib was able to bring some stability to the editorial department. The new editor was a veteran of the Second World War, during which he had escaped from an Italian prisoner of war camp and worked on a camp newspaper, called Marking Time , with

2556-525: The definite establishment of British rule in Natal and its organisation as an administrative entity, when Shepstone was made (1845) agent for the native tribes. In 1848 he became captain-general of the native levies; in 1855 judicial assessor in native causes; and, in 1856, on the remodelling of the Natal government, secretary for native affairs and a member of the executive and legislative councils. This position he held until 1877. Thus for over thirty years, he

2627-555: The fiction that this would be a short and glorious war was long over and the paper's report on the Somme offensive was headlined “Natal's share of the price being paid for freedom”. Casualty list number 56, published in early August, gives 157 deaths, 58 wounded and five missing, in itself a formidable attrition rate if the size of the local population is considered, although it is also necessary to bear in mind that 55 casualty lists had proceeded this one and many more were to follow. In view of

2698-588: The freedom of the press during the autocratic governorship of Lord Charles Somerset . Another influence was the missionary Dr John Philip, whose liberal ideas concerning the indigenous people of the Cape Colony had a profound influence on the youthful Buchanan. While still in the Cape he went into partnership with his brother to set up the Cape Town Mail. In January 1846, he disembarked with his family from

2769-441: The independence of the Boers at the time of the annexation of the Transvaal by the British in 1877, and for the Zulus during the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879, demonstrated these characteristics. Statham left the Witness in late 1879 for Cape Town, to edit the new radically liberal newspaper, the Cape Post . He was succeeded by Alfred Aylward, a colourful Irishman who openly boasted that as a staunch Fenian he had been implicated in

2840-517: The inland areas of KwaZulu-Natal , South Africa. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper in South Africa, having first been published on 27 February 1846. Until 2000, when it became 50 percent owned by the Naspers subsidiary Media24 group, it was the last independently owned mainstream daily newspaper in South Africa . Media24 signed an agreement to buy the remaining 50% shares in

2911-480: The killing of a Manchester policeman – a claim which, like many others made by the larger-than-life Aylward, has not withstood historical scrutiny. Arriving in Kimberley in the early days of the diamond rush , Aylward initially posed as a medical doctor despite having no training in that field. Thereafter he edited one of the papers on the diamond fields in between serving a jail sentence for attempted murder. He

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2982-618: The library is one of South Africa's five legal deposit libraries. It is the only KwaZulu-Natal institution holding all books written by the Indian political activist Mahatma Gandhi . 29°36′03″S 30°22′50″E  /  29.60096°S 30.38046°E  / -29.60096; 30.38046 The Witness (newspaper) The Witness (previously The Natal Witness ) is a daily newspaper published in Pietermaritzburg . It mainly serves readers in Pietermaritzburg, Durban and

3053-453: The management of the Witness were the events leading up to the Second World War (1939–45), as well as the sturm und drang of the war itself. Not surprisingly for someone with a Quaker background, Calpin greeted Chamberlain's diplomatic intervention at Munich with enthusiasm, noting in an October 1938 editorial that “the agreement signed in Munich lifts a burden almost too great to be borne by

3124-611: The midst of this struggle on behalf of the embattled chief, the fact that Statham had served a jail term in England for embezzlement came to light and was used by his opponents to discredit him. On top of this a report in The Witness, based on Usuthu sources describing an alleged attack launched by John Shepstone of the Natal Native Affairs Department on the "defenceless" supporters of Cetshwayo at

3195-486: The pages of the paper. The imaginative side of Rose's nature expressed itself early on in The Natal Witness . In 1907, the newspaper started publishing photographs for the first time, and in January 1909 it broke with the other South African papers of that time by abandoning the publication of advertisements on the front page in favour of publishing news and photographs in this prominent position, thereby giving

3266-480: The paper a much more modern appearance than its contemporaries. If Aylward and Statham had been characterised by their anti-imperialist stance, Rose was something of a British patriot. It is therefore not surprising to find that the paper under Rose took a strong stance against the union of the two British colonies and the two ex-Boer republics, which resulted in the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910. Rose

3337-478: The paper and the Davis family, of whom the most enduring was Peter Davis Jnr, who took over from his father as chairman in 1873 and continued in this position until his retirement in 1916. As Buchanan saw himself as a fearless crusader for the truth, the paper's strong views often put it and its editor in opposition to the governing authorities of the nascent colony of Natal and to sections of colonial opinion. In fact,

3408-544: The paper until August 1928. His successor Robert Skelton 's tenure ended with his being fired for idleness and financial profligacy in September 1930. Sidney Barnett Potter followed in 1931. The son of working-class parents in Britain, Potter had become thoroughly immersed in socialist politics in Britain and had in the immediate period before his emigration to South Africa been the editor of The Miner . Although he seems to have tempered his socialist leanings as editor of

3479-468: The paper was edited by R. W. Talbot, the academic Alan Lennox-Short, later well known to South African radio listeners for his book reviews and expertise in the English language, Raymond O’Shea and Prestwich himself. A long-time Witness staff member, Ronnie Moon, seems to have been called on repeatedly to fill the position of acting editor. By 1961, James Craib was elderly and infirm and the management of

3550-417: The peoples of the world”. Although the war seemed to hold out hope of an increased demand for hard news on the part of the local population, this was not immediately apparent as the paper experienced a sharp drop in advertising revenue which led to a decision by the board to cut the salaries of 14 members of the business and editorial staff by 12 percent. Even though this financial shock proved to be temporary,

3621-503: The period such as South African historian Jeff Guy implicate him in building a conspiracy to promote the invasion of the Zulu kingdom and its dismemberment by forces from Natal and the Transvaal. His motive seems to have been both to fill the increasing demand for labour in Natal colony and to win back the friendship of the Transvaal government. In 1833 Shepstone married Maria, daughter of Charles Palmer, commissary-general at Cape Town ; they had six sons and three daughters. One of his sons

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3692-553: The period up to 1945 was to be dominated by two men, both of whom had studied at Cambridge University , George Calpin and Mark Prestwich, the former as editor and the latter mainly as a leader writer. Together, the two took a decidedly liberal line on matters of race, even going so far as to compare the conditions of migrant labourers working for certain Witwatersrand gold mines with those in Nazi concentration camps , an issue, with

3763-449: The period. The first was Herbert Penderel Longlands, who as the editor of a Kimberley paper had known the flamboyant Aylward. In contrast to the latter, Longlands seems to have been an intensely private man about whom not a great deal is known despite his long association with The Witness , which continued even after he had relinquished control of the paper to the much younger Ernest Thompson . Thompson, who had been born in Pietermaritzburg,

3834-425: The printing department. Mary Davis ran the company for a while, followed by her son, Philip Davis. There are various indications that by 1925 the proprietors were no longer happy with Horace Rose and in that year his position as editor was terminated with the payment of a year's salary as severance pay. Rose's successor as editor was Desmond Young , later to gain a measure of fame as the author of The Desert Fox ,

3905-607: The restoration of Cetshwayo as a result of the active lobbying of Bishop Colenso and his family. Colenso soon decided – probably correctly – that the colonial officials were doing all in their power to undermine Cetshwayo and his Usuthu supporters. The bishop soon found a passionate supporter in Statham , who used The Witness and his position as the special correspondent for the London Daily News to attack what he referred to as "the official clique". Unfortunately, in

3976-399: The running of the company and its financial problems to parties who were making bids to buy the ailing enterprise. The discovery of this incriminating material led to Calpin's summary dismissal in September 1943. Calpin's subsequent career seems to have been characterised by misfortune as he ended up serving a term of imprisonment for financial crimes. Overshadowing the changes taking place in

4047-399: The slaughter it is not surprising to find that an Armistice Day Witness editorial (11 November 1918), headlined "Make them Pay", was anything but forgiving. The retirement in 1916 of Peter Davis and his death in 1919 seem to have signalled the beginning of financial troubles for the Davis family, marked by the selling off of all the family's commercial outlets, leaving only the newspaper and

4118-511: The staff of the governor, Sir Benjamin d'Urban , and at the end of the campaign remained on the frontier as clerk to the agent for the local tribes. In 1838 he was one of the party sent from Cape Colony to occupy Port Natal on behalf of Britain. This force was recalled in 1839 when Shepstone was appointed British resident among the Fengu and other tribes in Kaffraria . Here he remained until

4189-407: The thraldom of petty factions by which they are perpetually kept in a state of excitement and unrest because the government and everything connected with it is a thorough sham" ( Martineau 's Life of Sir Bartle Frere , ch. 18). Shepstone's action has been condemned as premature. He had, however, reason to believe that if Britain remained inactive, Germany would be induced to undertake the protection of

4260-480: The war brought other challenges for the paper, not least of these being the effects of the U-boat blockade which curtailed the supply of newsprint so that the editions that appeared during the war years were in most cases closely printed in minuscule type on only four pages. Another result of the war was the relatively advanced age of those working for the paper, as most of the younger men had gone off to fight. Although

4331-469: The war only to be killed in an aircraft crash on his way home to South Africa. Robert Johnston, who had previously worked for the Durban paper, the Natal Mercury , followed him briefly, with Prestwich continuing to play a substantial role as leader writer and part-time editor. Although Craib's careful management had rescued The Natal Witness from closure, the period under discussion was marked by

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4402-574: The widely held position that this was "the war to end all wars" in its August 1914 headline, which proclaimed “Nations in Arms Together – Great Britain and France face the crisis side by side”. At first it was possible for the paper to carry a photograph of each of the local boys who had signed up and it was only in October 1914 that it carried tidings of the first death of a local in the war – namely that of Lieutenant J. R. Shippey. By August 1916

4473-503: Was Ralph Ridley, who edited the paper until his death in June 1875. Unlike Buchanan, Ridley's views on matters relating to the black people of the colony were far less enlightened, and consequently during the Langalibalele Rebellion the paper approved of the strong line taken against the Hlubi , their unfortunate chief Langalibalele and the neighbouring clans. As an extremely active member of

4544-597: Was a leading figure in the so-called Black Flag Rebellion – an abortive attempt to challenge British authority in Kimberley. This was followed by a military career of sorts fighting against the BaPedi, under their leader Sekukuni , on behalf of the unpopular president of the South African Republic (ZAR), Thomas Francois Burgers . Despite his supposed Irish hostility towards the English, he stayed on after

4615-438: Was born at Westbury-on-Trym near Bristol , England. When he was three years old his father, the Rev. William Theophilus, emigrated to Cape Colony . Young Shepstone was educated at the native mission stations at which his father worked, and the boy acquired great proficiency in the indigenous languages of South Africa, a circumstance which determined his career. In the Xhosa War of 1835 he served as headquarters interpreter on

4686-448: Was followed by a Dr Smith, about whom not much is known. Smith's successor was Francis Reginald Statham , who had been specially recruited in 1877, by Peter Davis from England. Statham was to serve two terms at the helm of the Witness , his second being marked by major controversy. The main characteristics of the new editor were his fierce independence and his tendency to side with the underdog. Already in his first term, his support for

4757-424: Was further underlined by the paper's masthead which read: “The Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth”. At first Buchanan was both editor and proprietor of the paper, but in 1852 the printing was taken over by a company named May and Davis. May seems to have dropped out of the picture and by 1860 the paper was owned by the firm of P. Davis and Son. This marked the beginning of a long period of close association between

4828-421: Was killed at the Battle of Isandlwana ; of the other sons H. C. Shepstone (born 1840) was secretary for native affairs in Natal from 1884 to 1893; Theophilus was adviser to the Swazis (1887–1891); and A. J. Shepstone (born 1852) served in various native expeditions, as assistant-commissioner in Zululand, in the South African War , 1899–1902, and became in 1909 secretary for native affairs (Natal) and secretary of

4899-455: Was particularly concerned that Natal's, and particularly Pietermaritzburg's, interests would be overlooked by the new state. He was also extremely hostile towards General J. B. M. Hertzog, the leader of the political opposition, for what he saw as his anti-British and pro-Afrikaner sentiments. A pivotal event during Rose's term as editor was the First World War (1914–1918). The Witness reflected both its editor's strongly pro-British stance and

4970-465: Was the director of native policy in Natal. A man of strong will and pronounced views he gained a great influence over the indigenous people, by whom he was called "father old man," and given the nickname "Somtseu" (a famed black hunter) by the Zulus , allegedly when he fled before an elephant, but more likely in childhood. The main line of his policy was to maintain tribal customs as far as consistent with principles of humanity, and not to attempt to force

5041-419: Was the first editor to have been born in South Africa. The paper's views under these two editors could be described on the whole as being those held by the bulk of colonial society, particularly when it came to the growing crisis with the Boer Republics, which resulted in the South African War (1899–1902). Certainly there does not seem to have been any of the overt sympathy for the Boer cause that had been such

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