in the condition of the Native, was not realized by him
until about the end of June. As a rule many farm tenancies expire
at the end of the half-year, so that in June, 1913, not knowing
that it was impracticable to make fresh contracts, some Natives
unwittingly went to search for new places of abode, which some farmers,
ignorant of the law, quite as unwittingly accorded them.
It was only when they went to register the new tenancies
that the law officers of the Crown laid bare the cruel fact
that to provide a landless Native with accommodation was forbidden
under a penalty of 100 Pounds, or six months' imprisonment.
Then only was the situation realized.

Other Natives who had taken up fresh places on European farms
under verbal contracts, which needed no registration, actually founded
new homes in spite of the law, neither the white farmer nor the native tenant
being aware of the serious penalties they were exposed to
by their verbal contracts.

In justice to the Government, it must be stated that no police officers
scoured the country in search of lawbreakers, to prosecute them
under this law. Had this been done, many 100 Pound cheques
would have passed into the Government coffers during that black July,
the first month after Lord Gladstone affixed his signature
to the Natives' Land Act, No. 27 of 1913.

The complication of this cruel law is made manifest by the fact
that it was found necessary for a high officer of the Government
to tour the Provinces soon after the Act came into force,
with the object of "teaching" Magistrates how to administer it.
A Congress of Magistrates -- a most unusual thing -- was also called