 An act authorizing the annexation was passed during 1902 and the territories were formally transferred to Natal in January 1903.On 31 May 1910, the Colony of Natal became Natal Province, one of the founding provinces of the Union of South Africa.The British settlers quickly realized that the coastlands were suited to the cultivation of tropical or semi-tropical products, and from 1852 onward sugar, coffee, cotton and arrowroot were introduced, tea being afterwards substituted for coffee.