Sugar and Natal: the Pioneers - A Sinclair Smith

'GARIBALDI' SMITH

The story goes that that Marshall Campbell handed 'Garibaldi' Smith (of Smith & Batten) half-a-crown, thus closing the deal which made over the Blackburn Central Sugar Mill (founded 1874) to Natal Estates Ltd for 20 000 pounds.

Five years before that, Smith had missed a chance of selling the property for 70 000 pounds. Smith & Batten had been offered, in the early 1890s, this large sum for the Blackburn Estate, but nothing came of the offer. In 1895 Garibaldi Smith became convinced that the district's sugar prospects had been ruined by drought and locusts, and offered the estate to Marshall Campbell for 20 000 pounds.

As was the practice in those times, Campbell handed Smith a half crown to clinch the deal and then proposed that Natal Estates buy the property. But the London Board turned down the idea. Nevertheless Campbell was able to make local arrangements suitable to all parties and Blackburn became part of Natal Estates ca 1898. Some of the mill machinery and buildings were moved to Mt. Edgecombe.

Smith & Batten had acquired the Blackburn Estate in 1880 (from the Glasgow and Natal Sugar Co. Ltd. which went into liquidation in October of that year), paying 12 000 pounds for it - so made a considerable profit selling at 20 000.

Why was A. Sinclair Smith called 'Garibaldi'? Apparently he 'boasted service as an officer in the red-shirted legions of the Risorgimento' (the political and social movement for the unification of Italy in the 19th century) and because of this intriguing history Smith was nicknamed after the Italian rebel leader Giuseppe Garibaldi.

Giuseppe Garibaldi, Italian rebel leader, in 1861

Our local Garibaldi, i.e. A Sinclair Smith, also played a role in local Natal politics: after the General Election of September 1892 when Marshall Campbell had forfeited a seat in the Victoria County constituency, Campbell was the following year appointed to fill one of the vacant coastal seats vacated by Smith.

There was another link between Smith and Marshall Campbell: Campbell had bought two cane farms, Hill Head and Meadowbank, both situated on the Great Umhlanga. Meadowbank extended to the mouth of the river. Originally owned by Charles Povall (one of the Wesleyan settlers who arrived in Durban in March 1850) the property was purchased from Povall in 1874 by Garibaldi Smith for Ł6 000. Later, Smith sold it to Campbell and the latter subsequently excised 17 acres on the eastern boundary of this land where he built a holiday bungalow named Peace Cottage near the Umhlanga Lagoon.

For more on the Campbell family, including the Blameys, see http://lisawilsonfamilyhistory.wordpress.com/category/blamey-campbell-manning/

Sugar and Natal: the Pioneers - Sinclair, Povall, Feilden

ARCHIBALD SINCLAIR

EF Rathbone mentions that in 1881 he saw Sinclair's 'small American mill' powered by two oxen. Sinclair probably planted his first cane about 1872 - the Natal Blue Book for 1874 notes that the Ambleside Plantation mill was an 8-horse cattle power American mill and American evaporator. Sinclair farmed at Lower Umzimkulu in 1878, naming the property Ambleside after a British ship of that name which was wrecked in August 1868 on the coast between the mouths of the Umtentweni and Umzimkulu Rivers. He introduced the first sugar mill, crushed the first cane and made the first sugar at Umzimkulu.

CHARLES POVALL

Meadowbank Sugar Estate was started by Povall in 1850, and he began crushing cane at his own mill in 1863. By late 1874, he sold the estate for £6 000. Eventually Meadowbank became part of Natal Estates Ltd.

Povall, a Wesleyan who arrived with his wife Mary and three children on the Edward in March 1850, worked with George Cato on breaking up ships wrecked on Natal's coast, and assisted in the building of the William Shaw at Durban.

JOHN LEYLAND FEILDEN

Feilden was one of the earliest sugar planters in Natal. A fellow passenger of Povall's on the Edward, Feilden's home in Durban was Feniscowles, at Umbilo. It's not often remembered that Feilden planted his first cane at Umbilo as early as 1850. From Henry Milner, he leased 130 acres on the Springfield Estate where he planted cane. It showed considerable vision on Feilden's part as it was some time prior to Morewood showing the feasibility of this crop in Natal. The sugar sold at the first public auction in Durban in June 1855 was produced by Feilden, who was Milner's largest lessee.

In 1856, the Umgeni River came down in spate and the resulting floods destroyed a portion of Feilden's crop. Though the remainder was saved, this disaster led to the Feildens returning to England in July 1857.

The Feilden farm, Feniscowles

Feilden's contribution to the sugar industry was important though of comparatively short duration. He acquired immortality through his wife, Eliza Whigham Feilden, who kept a diary of their experiences in Natal, illustrated by her own sketches. This, as well as some of her correspondence with her relatives in England, was the basis for her book My African Home published in London in 1887.

She writes: 'Alas for our hopes! The river Umgeni rose so rapidly, and so high, that the whole country in its neighbourhood became a lake. Twenty or thirty feet of water covered many of the plantations ... The effects of this sad flood were greater and worse than we at all anticipated, and finally drove us out of Natal.'