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The Northern Territories of Natal
Vryheid, Utrecht, and part of Wakkerstroom district were added to Natal on the 27th January, 1903. by proclamation. Wakkerstroom district originally formed one the boundaries of the Transvaal, Utrecht being then part of Zululand. As that part of Zululand which now is known as Utrecht afforded good winter grazing, the Boers during the cold season used to bring down their flocks from the high veldt, having obtained permission for grazing their cattle from the native chiefs, with the concurrence of king Mpande and later of Cetshwayo. This complaisance on the part of the Zulu kings eventually led to complications as the Boers, finding the country good, encroached upon the land which thus became disputed territory. The relations between the Boers and the Zulus became so strained that their disputes led to bloodshed, and the complications which arose formed one of the chief reasons for the British occupation of the Transvaal in 1877.
As soon as the British were in occupation of the Transvaal the position, politically, of Utrecht district was found to be so acute that more than one commission was appointed to enquire into the state of affairs : but this action had no effect as a means of settling matters, and more stringent measures resulted, which culminated in the Zulu War of 1879.
After the close of the war, Lord Wolseley, as H ighCommissioner, subdivided Zululand into thirteen districts, each under a chief or kinglet, but this arrangement did not answer, and in 1883 Cetshwayo was allowed to return to Zululand with limited powers and area of jurisdiction. The death of the latter in 1884, and the accession of Dinuzulu were followed by the intertribal strife between Dinuzulu and Usibepu, who was the only one of the thirteen kinglets who was allowed to retain his chieftainship. This trouble again brought the Boers on the scene, several of them approaching Dinuzulu and offering to assist him against Usibepu, provided they were paid in land. Dinuzulu, however, and all his people in Northern Zululand, now Vryheid, contended that this assistance was to be purchased by the payment of a number of cattle, and that no land was ever promised. However, a document had been signed, whether or not the Zulus understood its purport : it proved to be a deed granting certain areas of land for the service agreed upon. Usibepu having been defeated, the Boers at once proceeded to appropriate their land, including part of Zululand now known as Proviso B. The cession of this latter portion was ultimately refused by the British Government, who, however, allowed all the land known as Vryheid district to be given to the Boers. The state so formed was named the " New Republic," the late General Lucas Meyer being chosen President. It became incorporated with the South African Republic in 1888. The men composing the commando which assisted Dinuzulu were nearly all adventurers -men who had no capital. When the land was apportioned into farms and allotted to new comers, most of them had to mortgage the land to Government to enable them to obtain stock. At the time of the outbreak of the Boer War in 1899 most of these men were doing well, for this land is exceedingly fertile ;