THEWHITEINVADERS
Their customary vent for population increase by expansion was blocked by
Africans in the east and by the aridity of the land in.the north. In 18I 3,
moreover, the government stopped letting people occupy land in the old
easy way, by paying a nominal fee for the use of six thousand acres. Instead,
a quitrent system, intended to promote more intensive farming practices,
made land ownership more legally secure but more expensive.?"
Under the British regime, the autonomy that the farmers had enjoyed
under the Dutch East India Company was ending. Whereas the company's
colonial state had been extremely weak beyond the vicinity of Cape Town
and Stellenbosch, the British gradually asserted control over the entire
colony, and in so doing emphasized British culture and institutions. From
181 Ion,
judges of the colonial court went annually on circuit to the
various district headquarters
to hear criminal as well as civil cases. The
pace of administrative change quickened after the arrival of the 1820 Set-
tlers, who pressed for anglicization. Previously, the British had preserved
the Dutch system of district administration, under landdrosts appointed by
the central government and heemraden and veldkornets drawn from the
farming population.