Special mention of the _isibalo_ has been made here because, being unpopular, its systematic enforcement, especially in later days, when many Natives had become educated and capable of earning higher wages than those allowed, may be said to have contributed in some degree to the dissatisfaction with European administration that prevailed prior to the Rebellion. However, it is but fair to remark that, in practice, only one in thirty of those liable and able to work was ever called on in any year, and then for never more than six months at a time. The duty of seeing that individuals were not too frequently enrolled, that they were not physically unfit, and that each of the 238 tribes in Natal proper furnished its right proportion of labourers, devolved on the Native Affairs Department and the Magistrates. These duties were generally discharged in a careful manner, irregularities being checked as soon as they were brought to notice. Owing, however, to changes in conditions of living, the system, originally adapted to a state of pure tribalism, could not be carried out in all respects with the desired fairness. It called not so much for abolition or discontinuance as for modification, at any rate at that particular time (1910). The practice of exacting labour, within the restricted limits referred to, proved to be a valuable stimulus, especially in earlier days, when the people knew practically nothing about manual work. Boys living in far-off, secluded locations, who would otherwise have devoted their lives to courting girls, drinking beer, and faction fighting, were compelled to go out and work--not on the public roads unless specially ordered to do so, but wherever they chose--and, in so doing, were soon in the position of being able to benefit themselves as well as their parents and relations in ways they had not dreamt of.