Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Colony of Natal became a British colony on the 8th of August 1843 when the Natal volksraad unanimously agreed to terms proposed by Lord Stanley. This followed a despatch dated the 13th of December received in Cape Town on the 23rd of April 1843 that consented to the establishment.
Allen Francis Gardiner founded a mission station on the hill overlooking the bay in 1835. He was given authority by the British government to exercise jurisdiction over traders in 1837 but Traders refused to acknowledge his authority.
Indian labourers were imported into the Colony of Natal because Natives did not volunteer in sufficient numbers to work on sugar plantations. The first indentured labourers arrived in 1860 and Indians rapidly increased becoming market gardeners farmers hawkers and traders.
The Witwatersrand Gold Rush caused considerable rush of colonists from the Colony of Natal to Transvaal in 1884. Railways were still far from the Transvaal border and Natal offered the nearest route for prospectors from Cape Colony or Europe.
The Siege of Ladysmith ended on the 28th of February 1900 when the town was relieved by forces under Redvers Buller. During six weeks previous to relief two hundred deaths occurred from disease alone while altogether as many as 8424 reported passed through hospitals.