This dissertation is an historical examination of the crimes of infanticide and the concealment of birth in Natal between 1860 and 1935, where more than thirty such cases were tried before the Supreme, Magistrate, and District Circuit Courts. This study does not look at the crime of infanticide and concealment of birth in isolation, however, but also considers the crime in relation to cases of „child murder,‟ still-births, and abortion, since the term infanticide itself was highly contested and only fully defined in legal terms in South Africa by 1910. Some of the key themes this study covers include the ways in which legislation changed over time (for instance, the concept of “concealment of birth” altered to “infanticide” and the naming of the potential perpetrator from “woman” to “person.”); the problems posed for medical jurisprudence in trying to prove a separate existence of an infant from its mother; and whether a „live birth‟ had occurred before a charge could be proffered. In Natal, it is clear that legislation shaped interpretation and practice, but practice and interpretation, across many social and institutional settings, also shaped legal definitions. Other arguments raised in this study relate to the “instability of the womb” and how puerperal insanity and emotional or psychological mental evidence began to outweigh the physical, bodily evidence in the courtroom. Furthermore, such issues as illegitimacy, baby-farming, infant life protection, mothercraft, miscegenation, incest, respectability, and local cultural practices are integral to understandings of the possible underlying motives for the acts of infanticide and concealment of birth. By tracing the meaning and incidences of infanticide and the concealment of birth across the social spectrum, this study offers insights into a range of issues in social, legal and medical history. These include: the study of the domain of the family; of labour and political economy; of medico-jurisprudence and clinical medicine; of changing gender power and hierarchies; and of gendered discourses of criminality / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2011.

The formation of a settler elite and its role in colonial Durban's urban development between 1854 and 1910 have been studied. In this instance of early colonial capitalism, local business leaders readily established an intimate connection between economic and political power. Many of them used their position on the Durban Town Council, formed in 1854, to wield preponderant civic influence and become the driving force in the development of the town. The nature of this settler elite has been investigated in terms of the theories of social stratification, formulated along Weberian lines. Following the institutionalization of power arrangements these leading settlers were legally acknowledged as a governing elite. Durban provided the setting in which metropolitan institutions, activity patterns and environments could be introduced and maintained, as dictated by the underlying value-system of the British settlers. The colonial city of Durban hereby not only demonstrated the appearance of a civilization, but also the mutual interaction between man's behaviour and his culturally modified environment. The ruling elite regarded the beautification of the urban environment as part of their civic responsibilities in this city-building process. Such a civic pride was especially applied in Durban to the building of impressive Town Halls and public buildings. These leaders also played a decisive role with regard to harbour improvements, railways, tramways, electricity supply, telephone services and sanitary improvements. Following a historical pattern of colonial urban development, Durban became another British city in Africa. Yet it possessed local features which made it atypical, if not unique, in a South African context. The driving force and way of life of the town during the colonial period was clearly British. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1994.

This account of Native Education in Natal has been written to make available for the first time a mass of valuable information, which will, it is hoped, prove useful to Government Officials and leading Missionaries. For this purpose, details have been entered into where they would otherwise have been unnecessary, and schemes which have borne no fruit have often been discussed as thoroughly as those which have been adopted. Especially is this so in the first four chapters. The earliest reports, at present terra incognita to the Natal Education officials, are in manuscript, are bound with Miscellaneous Reports of the Secretary for Native Affairs, and are now filed for preservation in the Natal Archives. Concerning even the Zwaart Kop Government Native Industrial School (1886 - 1891) very little information has been found available in the records kept by the Natal Education Department. The writer's chief object has been to give the history of "formal" education. For those interested in "informal" education, many excellent books on the customs and kraal-life of the Natives of South Africa are available. Questions of policy have been dealt with from the stand-point of the historian, rather than from that of a political or an educational administrator. Consequently no attempt has been made to advocate any one method of solving the problems of Native Education. Information concerning Zululand before its annexation to Natal in 1897 is unobtainable, because the documents collected in the Office of the Governor of Zululand are of too recent a date to be consulted by the public. Such material as is available points to the presence of only a few missionaries in Zululand before l898, owing to the attitude of the Zulu Kings towards them. The absence of accurate records has made it impossible to deal with such interesting subjects as The largest Mission Societies and The oldest Mission Stations. The inclusion of any account of unaided missionary effort has also been impossible; but it is quite safe to assume that all missionary effort which has produced good educational results has received either Government comment or Government grant. When the spelling of any Zulu name differs from the normal modern form of such a name, the variation is due to the fact that the documents consulted make various spellings possible. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-Natal University College, Pietermaritzburg, 1927.

Colonial Natal has become an increasingly popular field of investigation for historians of Southern Africa over the last decade or so. This trend is not premature or " irrelevant for, although not demonstrating" the economic impact of the diamond-mining industry of the Cape, or the gold-mining industry of the Transvaal, the political " economy of nineteenth century Natal played a significant role in forming patterns of South African social and economic development, as well as attitudes towards this, not least of all in terms of labour exploitation. The history of Natal during this period has been lacking by and large in what I consider to be two important aspects. Firstly, the colony, on the whole, has been neglected by Marxist and radical historians; and secondly, the history of women in South Africa, as yet a nascent area of research in itself, has not included an attempt to date, understand the lives of those women who lived along the south-east coastal belt of Southern Africa, between the Drakensberg and the Indian Ocean. This study strives to be a preliminary step in the direction of redressing this imbalance, by offering an introductory exposition on the political economy of women in colonial Natal. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1982.

This dissertation aims to explore aspects of topographical drawing in nineteenth century Natal. It has as its centrepiece the drawings of John Dobie (1819-1903). It is argued that topographical drawing is enmeshed in the landscape and its attendant cultural discourse. On this basis an analogy is drawn between topographical drawing and navigation. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1997.