that General Botha endeavoured to allay British apprehensions and concern
for the welfare of the Native population. In pursuance of this policy
General Botha won the approbation of all Natives by appointing Hon. H. Burton,
a Cape Minister, to the portfolio of Native Affairs. That the appointment
was a happy one, from the native point of view, became manifest
when Mr. Burton signalized the ushering in of Union, by releasing
Chief Dinizulu-ka-Cetywayo, who at that time was undergoing
a sentence of imprisonment imposed by the Natal Supreme Court,
and by the restoration to Dinizulu of his pension of 500 Pounds a year.
Also, in deference to the wishes of the Native Congress,
Mr. Burton abrogated two particularly obnoxious Natal measures,
one legalizing the "Sibalo" system of forced labour, the other prohibiting
public meetings by Natives without the consent of the Government.
These abrogations placed the Natives of Natal in almost the same position
as the Cape Natives though without giving them the franchise.
So, too, when a drastic Squatters' Bill was gazetted early in 1912,
and the recently formed Native National Congress sent a deputation
to interview Mr. Burton in Capetown; after hearing the deputation,
he graciously consented to withdraw the proposed measure,
pending the allotment of new Locations in which Natives evicted
by such a measure could find an asylum. In further deference
to the representations of the Native Congress, in which they were supported
by Senators the Hon. W. P. Schreiner, Colonel Stanford, and Mr. Krogh,
the Union Government gazetted another Bill in January, 1911,
to amend an anomaly which, at that time, was peculiar to the "Free" State:
an anomaly under which a Native can neither purchase nor lease land,
and native landowners in the "Free" State could only sell their land
to the white people.

The gazetted Bill proposed to legalize only in one district