The First Act.

The Natives Land Act of 1913 makes it illegal for any native to occupy land except as a farm labourer. Any European farmer permitting a black to graze cattle on his land is liable to a fine of £100 or six months imprisonment. Legislation additional to this makes it a criminal offense for any native to rent land outside the Reserves. The first was passed because Africans, unable to find room in crowded native areas, wore able to buy or rent allotments under individual tenure from white farmers of the Cape. Transvaal and Natal. By this means they established themselves as independent peasant proprietors. But this system deprived employers of a valuable cheap labour market. Hence big landlords and mine owners pressed the Government into the passing of the above Act. The second was passed to prevent the squatting of natives, without land in the Reserves, on the farms of poor whites who were glad to rent a portion of the land in return for share-cropping. By this means the native could raise his tax money. Again, large agrarians and mining companies were denied a source of cheap labour and again the retaliation.