The Establishment of the Zululand Administration in 1887: A Study of the Criteria Behind the Selection of British Colonial Officials

Abstract

Zululand became a British possession as from 19 May 1887.' By 21 June the new Governor, Sir Henry Havelock (who was in addition already Governor of Natal), had made his final choice concerning the appointment of officials. The infant Colony's administration In line with the British government's penny-pmching approach to imperial expense, Zululand's official establishment was created on a 'small and economical sc a l e ' .While consequently allowing for only a very limited number of posts, this restriction had at least the advantage of increasing Havelock's chances of exercising some discrimination when filling them. A rush of applications for so remote and untamed a colony as Zululand had obviously never been anticipated, but even a slight surplus allowed the Governor to insist on a basic minimum of desirable criteria when making his selection. Such had indeed proved the case, and it is ties phenomenon of a severely limited establishment, formed only after a process of application and followed by the careful scrutiny of credentials, that allows for a manageable study of the attributes considered necessary in an official of a minor colony on the fringes of the Empire. Such an investigation serves also to throw considerable light on official attitudes and expectations in the neighbouring, but well-established Colony of Natal, for it was mainly from the circles of the Natal civil service