2-969-864 - /Heritage Images

First Sale of Sugar in the Market Square of D'Urban, Port Natal, 1856. Durban, South Africa: 'The waggons contain the sugar in bags; and one of the proprietors, Mr. H. Milner, J.P ., of Springfield, with helmet hat; as well as the auctioneer, Mr. Acutt, who patriotically rendered his services gratuitously on the occasion, are...standing on one of the waggons...the prices realised for the whole averaged more than 30s. per cwt. The natives...are not as yet well adapted for this kind of labour, and their peculiar habits and customs render them unwilling to engage in protracted service. This difficulty...is in course of removal, by the improving processes to which the coloured population are now subjected...the planters are taking measures for meeting the...exigency, by means of a limited immigration of suitable labourers from the East - such as those by whom...the sugar estates of Mauritius are worked. From "Illustrated London News", 1856.