POPULATION.
623
About one-fourth of the revenue is derived from customs, and the rest from miscellaneous sources of income, among them a ' hut- tax on natives.' The customs produced 30,629/. in the year 1868. The chief item of expenditure is for police and the administration of justice. The public debt, which was 50,000/. in 1860, had risen to 263,000/. at the end of 1868.
Natal is a solitary instance of a colony having been established by Great Britain without cost to imperial funds. In its early days it had a loan of ten thousand pounds, which has long since been repaid. Its military expenditure is, however, still paid by Great Britain, with the exception of a sum of 4,000/. given as a contribution by the colony. — (Communication of the Lieutenant-Governor to the Statesman s Year-book.~)
Population.
The colony has an estimated area of about 18,000 square miles, with a seaboard of 150 miles. But the extent of some of the districts is all but unknown. The following table gives the area of the best explored counties and divisions, and the population of each, according to Government returns of June 1869 : —
Area in
Counties and divisions
square miles
Population
County of Pietermaritzburg .....
—
38,831
Borough of „
—
6,192
County of Durban
3,774
23,179
Borough of „
—
5,708
County of Klip River
—
3,578
Ladysmith Division
—
46,379
Newcastle „
2,232
9,600
County of Victoria
—
870
Inanda Division
482
24,451
Tugela „
1,000
25,837
County of Umvoti
2,000
37,542
County of Weenen
—
34,379
Division of the Upper Umkomanzi
1,440
12,661
„ Lower „
1,600
18,905
County of Alfred .
—
1,562
Coast district
—
6,572
Midland „ ...
—
6,446
Northern „ ...
—
4,540
Tota
I
•
—
315,250
About one-seventh of the population enumerated in the above table are of European origin. In the two towns of Pietermaritz- burg and Durban, the European and native population are about equal in numbers. Comparatively few emigrants arrived in recent
